American climber Austin Purdy has made the fifth ascent of Drew Ruana's Insomniac, 8C+, at Lincoln Lake, Colorado.

The boulder, which links two pre-exisiting 8B+ boulders - The Wheel of Volvo, and We Can Build You - across more than thirty hand moves, starts low in a cave on what look like decent edges, before moving out through two roofs on slopier holds.

A good rest after the first roof leads into a series of marginal heel hooks, which allow the climber to reach sloping crimps on the lip of the boulder. Thereafter, high heels support a short traverse along more sloping crimps on the lip, before a final few crimps lead upwards to the top out.

First climbed in 2021, Insomniac has since seen ascents from the very best boulderers in the US, namely Shawn Raboutou, Jimmy Webb, and Daniel Woods, with Woods confirming the grade at the 'soft' end of 8C+.

The boulder is Purdy's first at the grade, having climbed four 8C boulders previously. The 25 year old climbed the first 8B+ half of the boulder in January this year, before completing the upper 8B+ just two weeks ago, at the end of May.

Sharing his thoughts on social media, Purdy had this to say:

'I'm still in disbelief that this happened! After climbing Delirium and We Can Build You Earlier this year I began preparing to try Insomniac. This line seemed like a significant step up from anything I'd done before, but it seemed possible so I was prepared to siege the boulder and train for it all summer if necessary to send it'.

'However, this past weekend, after several poor attempts falling on the opening boulder, I pulled on and was able to finally climb through it for the first time that day to get to the jug at the halfway point of this climb. I was able to recover fairly well in the rest and, in what is likely one of the best executed pieces of climbing I have ever done, I was able to flawlessly execute the second crux and fight my way to the end of the boulder without any mistakes'.

'V16 is a grade that didn't even exist when I started climbing and is something I never thought I would achieve. Because of this I am a bit reluctant to believe I actually climbed something that hard. Regardless of the grade though, this is certainly the hardest thing I have ever climbed and I'm excited to see what else I can achieve!'

Purdy first made headlines back in September of 2021, when he jumped seven grades to climb his first 9a, Moonshine, in Lander Area, Wyoming, having previously climbed to 7c+.