Drew Ruana has made the first ascent of Bookkeeping, an 8C+ boulder in Nomad Cave, Colorado.

The cave is situated at the bottom of a sport crag, meaning that boulders are typically finished by dropping off rather than topping out. In the case of Bookkeeping, the boulder travels almost the entire way through the sixty-foot roof before dropping off onto a boulder at the very end of the cave.

Due to the length of the cave, there is ample potential for longer link-ups of shorter boulders. Bookkeeping comprises three pre-existing problems, starting with Off the Books 8A, before joining Spidey 8B+, and finally finishing on No Way Home 8A/+.

Sharing the news of his ascent on instagram, Ruana said:

'I know it gets hate but the Nomad Cave is honestly one of my favorite hidden gems in Colorado. All the climbs are drop offs since it climbs in a cave under a sport wall but the entire 60 foot long roof has some of the the most impressive projects I've ever seen, with the possibility to connect three different unique V14 or V15 climbs from start to finish'.

'Last year I fell at the end of a shorter section of this climb maybe fifteen times, over the span of a few weeks of effort. It felt like the hardest power endurance climb I'd tried of the [V]16 range, and I just couldn't piece it together. Today I tried the very end of the cave, a link done by Griff [Griffin Whiteside] that's probably a V15 compression sequence on its own'.

'After giving up on Griff's rig I moved down lower to relearn the moves on Spidey and Off the Books. I decided to get on for a "let's see what happens lol" try and somehow just kept sticking the moves. These moments are what I climb for, being in the zone and in full control of the moment. The entire line is far from done but I'm stoked on this stepping stone. Not the best line every for aesthetics but it's so much fun to climb on'.

Ruana has said that heading back into the cave instead of dropping off would make the boulder 'solid V17', whilst another option to bump up the grade would be to switch out the 8A start for On the Books, 8B+. 

Check out the video of the FA below: