This week's Friday Night Video follows Katie Lamb across the course of an incredible year of bouldering, within which she became the first woman to climb a V16/8C+ boulder, with her ascent of Box Therapy.
Produced and directed by Eric Bissell, and edited by David Fitzgerald, 'In Sequence' documents both the time that came before this ascent, as well as the aftermath, and how the subsequent grade debates tainted what had initially felt like the crowning achievement of Katie's climbing career to date.
Featuring interviews with Beth Rodden, Keenan Takahashi, and - most crucially - Katie's Mum, the film explores the reasons why we boulder, how those reasons can get lost, and where they can be found again.
You can read our interview with Katie following her ascent of Box Therapy here:
Comments
So sad to hear of the downgrading and the negativity that came with it.
it seems that only the Rabatous have done it since Katie, anyone know where the downgrade came from?
From what I can gather, the Raboutous had been on it before, hadn't done it but felt it was hard V15. Drew Ruana repeated it pretty quickly too (for a V16). Subsequent to Katie Lamb's ascent, the Raboutou's then made short work of it and suggested the downgrade. I think the controversy comes because previous ascensionists (all male) had been happy to take the V16 grade at the time and get the kudos but then when the downgrade suggestion came in there wasn't much opposition, so it kind of looked like the goalposts shifted when a woman did it. Ultimately, grades are subjective and I doubt there was any ill intention, it's just the way it played out and then probably got magnified out by social media and people having a pop at Katie Lamb (I would guess).
From what I read around the time, Brooke had been there with Shaun, had a session on it and come very close to doing it in a session (maybe dropped the last move, my memory fails me). Katie then did the boulder. Once Brooke and Shaun did it and suggested the downgrade, I believe Daniel Woods retrospectively agreed with it and I think I read that maybe Drew Ruana agreed also (not sure on this, once again, memory could be playing up).
thanks for the info, both of you.
I recall watching a video before Katie had done the boulder (or at least before it was public knowledge) where Shaun R said that he and Brooke had been on it and they both thought it was V15 rather than V16, although they hadn't quite managed to do it in the one session. So I think the downgrade was publicly mooted before Katie did the boulder, rather than afterwards.