Will Bosi has made the first ascent of El Dorado Sit, a new 8C boulder in Sintra, Portugal.

The ascent comes just three sessions after he made the first ascent of the standing start, El Dorado 8A+, a two-move testpiece of crimp strength and body tension that was one of Sintra's oldest projects. 

At just six moves total, the sit-start only adds four moves to the 8A+ stand, but, according to Will, the crux move of the stand start felt like it 'almost went up a grade each extra move I added'.

Speaking to UKC earlier today, Will said: 

'Although the trip had a lot of rain which meant I couldn't try my main project, this wasn't such a bad thing as it meant I got to check out a new area. This area was awesome with many good established lines and with a lot of projects'. 

'I got four sessions out in total, which wasn't a lot but meant my skin could be good for each one - which helps a lot in Sintra! I tried El Dorado on the first day and managed to send the stand start. I started working the sit but didn't make much progress'.

'Second session the moves were starting to come together but I still felt quite far away. Somehow on the third session it all clicked together and I found myself falling from the stand start really early into the session. A couple tries later and I managed to pull it out the bag'.

'The line felt really hard and definitely harder than Mito 8B+ which was Sintra's hardest line until now. So I think 8C is fair but it's really hard to know. I hope it gets more attention soon though, as it's really good!'

With so much time dedicated to hard repeats - four 9A repeats in the space of just twenty-four months, and 9b+ repeat last month - it's been a while since we've seen Will put up a first ascent of this difficulty, with his most recent First Ascent at 8C or harder coming in April 2023, when he climbed The Wild South (f8C) at Raven Tor.