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Nalle on The Globalist 8B+ / Photo: Heikki Toivanen  © UKC News
Nalle on The Globalist 8B+ / Photo: Heikki Toivanen
It appears that Japan is the place to be, with multiple hard problems being climbed in the last few weeks.

Finnish bouldering specialist Nalle Hukkataival has made a hard first ascent in the form of The Globalist (Font 8B+), on home turf near Helsinki, Finland, however he is recently returned from a trip to Japan, where he repeated Bansousha, a slab problem that is graded 5. dan in the Japanese grading system, equating to around Font 8B+/C and was thought by some to be 'the hardest slab in the World'.

Nalle repeated the problem in a single session and thought the difficulties to be Font 8B.

Video: Nalle Hukkataival climbing Bansousha:

Missing video!

Chris Sharma trying the new Font 8C Karumu / Photo: Dai Koyamada  © UKC News
Chris Sharma trying the new Font 8C Karumu / Photo: Dai Koyamada
Still in Japan, Dai Koyamada has climbed Karumu, a 21 move Font 8C roof problem. The photo is of Chris Sharma trying the problem on his recent trip to Japan.

Over at Konoto in Japan, female climber Tomoko Ogawa has succeeded on Mutante, (Font 8A+).

Video: Tomoko Ogawa climbing Mutante (Font 8A+):

Missing video!

Moving swiflty on the the US, Tyler Landman made a first ascent with his beautifully named Chelsea Smile (Font 8B/+), a razor sharp sit down start at Rhode Island. Phillip Schaal repeated the problem soon after.

Video: Chelsea Smile:

Missing video!

Not all of the news has been from far flung destinations, Europe has seen its fair share of hard bouldering too: La Danse de Balrog (Font 8B), has been flashed by Keita Mogaki.

La Danse de Balrog, the World's first Font 8B, was climbed back in 1992 by bouldering legend Fred Nicole. Even though it is considered soft for the grade, Mogaki is the first to succeed on the problem on his first try.

You can watch a video of UK climber Keith Bradbury climbing La Danse de Balrog in this video:

Missing video!

And to top it all off, Bernhard Schwaiger has climbed Dust Devil, in the Austrian Saalchtal. He has graded this problem a mighty Font 8C/+ (or V15/16).

You can read more about the ascent (in German) with photos here: Schwaiger's website

UK Bouldering:

Over on UKBouldering.com, it is reported that Nacho Sanchez has repeated both Louis Armstrong (Font 8B) at Parisella's Cave and Keen Roof (Font 8B) at Raven Tor.

Andy Earl also made a lightening fast repeat of Arc Royal at Queens Crag, using a different sequence and proposing a down grade from the original Font 8A+ (see UKC news item on Arc Royal).


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8 May, 2009
Bit strange the way Balrogs is handled in that article? Mighty fine flash but you have a video saying 8a+ and comment its soft for the grade but yet have it down as the first 8b?
8 May, 2009
Indeed, Japan is awesome for all types of climbing! Just to mention that Bansousha is in Ogawayama I believe, as you don't have that in your article.
8 May, 2009
that bradbury vid, what's that all about? did they send the wrong one in by mistake or somethin?
8 May, 2009
It shows the problem that had been flashed as presumably there wasn't a video sent in of the actual flash - it happens sometimes - they probably forgot to take the lens cap off - I expect a full apology will be made in due course.
8 May, 2009
haha
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