Sean Bailey and Yuta Imaizumi have both repeated Ryuichi Murai's dynamic masterpiece, Floatin, 8C+, in Mizugaki, Japan.
The boulder - initially known as 'The Launch Pad Project' - was first climbed in 2021, and was Murai's third boulder at 8C+. The short and powerful boulder went unrepeated until late 2023, when Florian Wientjes and Ryohei Kameyama made ascents in quick succession.
© Xaver Quintus
Bailey's ascent in October was the boulder's fourth, with Imaizumi making the boulder's fifth ascent earlier this month.
So far, Bailey is the only climber to have used Murai's original campus beta for the crux first move, with all other climbers opting to start using a low foot from which they can push upwards into the high left hand pocket.
© Mellow
© Mellow
Speaking after his ascent, Imaizumi - according to a slightly adapted Google translation - said:
'I was able to climb Floatin. I tried it for six days, so it wasn't easy. When I stuck the first move on the first day, I honestly thought I would be able to climb it right away, but it took a long time from there. I guess I'm actually not good at the third move, the downwards campus, which I've been failing for six days. I was never able to do this move even once in practice, so I was hoping for a serious grip on the connecting try'.
'On the attempt I climbed it, my foot slipped out while I was shifting my weight to the second move, and honestly I thought it was no good. Before I knew it, I had done the third move, and I felt like this was a try I had to make, so I was so nervous that I almost fell when I tried to move to the final lip'.
'As for the grade, I think it's at least V15. I've climbed a few V15s in the past, but it felt worse than any of them. It was the most difficult thing in my life for short hard bouldering. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Murai-kun, who made the first ascent, the legends who saw the potential in this line, and everyone who sent messages of support'.
Contrastingly, Bailey - who became made the first ascent of a new 9A boulder earlier this year - had little to say about the ascent, beyond mentioning that it took place on a 'Mizugaki day trip'. Whilst it is unclear whether Bailey had spent time on the boulder previously, if his ascent was in fact an 'in a day' ascent, it may well be the first ever of an 8C+ boulder.
Will Bosi is also currently attempting the boulder. Having climbed the boulder from one move in on his first day on it, Bosi split three tips before he was able to stick the first move. Now three sessions in, Will has stuck the first move, but has split another tip in the process.
Comments
If this is news why not find out if it's the first ever one day ascent of a V16 instead of speculating that it is based on a public Instagram caption from a week ago. It would take one phonecall. Don't become like Gripped.
Rather than being negative and critical, did you instead consider being positive and sharing with us all the benefit of your knowledge, whether that be the answer to the question or even just the person you think would be able to provide an answer?
Fair point John, but columnk1 does not profess to be a journalist or news site whereas UKC News does. It is incumbent upon any professional journalist to cross check facts before publishing. I think this maybe the point columnk1 was attempting to make, admittedly a bit bluntly.
I understand where you’re coming from with this, and in an ideal world I’d have Sean - or someone that knows him - on speed dial, and would be able to get all the details immediately after the ascent, but unfortunately I don’t! We frequently contact climbers to find out additional details about ascents they’ve done, but we don’t always hear back from them, and sometimes the balance of work we have to do means that we need to make a decision to prioritise other reporting instead. For example, in this case, I decided that my time would be better placed getting in touch with Babsi to interview her about her flash ascent of Freerider.
UKC are a small team, and we try hard to find the right balance between frequency of news and depth of detail. Sometimes it might feel like we’ve made the wrong decision, but rest assured that the decisions we make are always due to reasons slightly more complex than being too lazy to make a phone call!
I think it's reasonable question to ask, though I do have a lot of sympathy for UKC having to prioritise which items to focus on, and in this case an interview with Babsi on her Free rider ascent is way cooler!
If a newspaper just regurgitates wire stories then what value are they adding? And likewise if UKC were to just repost stuff from instagram then what makes them different from any of the other sites that do exactly the same? If I think about the news and articles I really value it's always the ones that go a bit further and add depth and colour to a story.