9a boulder: the beauty of a challenge

Terranova, 8c+, 12 days

Gioia, 8c+, 11 days (F.A. in 2008)

Charon, 8c, 3 days and 30 minutes

Etlinge, 8b+ flash

(Esperanza, 8b, flash)

(Crown of Aragon, 8b flash)

Bouldering is ... climbing up !

No doubt "it's difficult, painful, not fun to get much further, unless the problems simply get longer".

(The wheel of life, F.A. 2004)

How many climbers in the world know how much is so incredibly difficult ?

Something that the others are not able even to imagine.

As it was for 9b.

"Why not climb a route then instead?”

Sometimes the beginning of a route is without clipping bolts, as it is for Akira,  Ali hulk sit start extension and L'isola che non c'è.

On the other side, actually the most bouldery 9b could eventually be compared to a long 8c boulder, where the main difficulty is concentrated in just around 4 bolts.

(Masoniamoci, an 8b "roped boulder")

To get further in bouldering is and has always been useful to reach "the next level", explore new limits and grades in sport climbing.

(Hubble, 1990)

According to Daniel Woods, " The future in bouldering is hard to tell.

It will probably be in power-resistance boulder problems, connecting two V14s or V15s to reach the next level. It’s going to be very hard to find something that is just one or two pure hard power moves to create something that is V16."

So, even if is hard to predict, reasonably, the next level will be a long, maybe "roped" boulder.

If you can now imagine to start clipping after a long 8c+ boulder, to do some more moves and climb a "roped" 9a boulder,

at the same time, You could think something so crazy and now not rational like a long, not "roped" ... 9a "boulder" (or something in between a route and a boulder).

Even Adam, some days ago, before repeating Gioia, wrote to me "9a is out of bounds for now".

In the future ?

After many other 8c, 8c/+ and not still confirmed 8c+, with a long time effort, much more than 12 days, close to home, maybe ... ?

Maybe Daniel Woods, or Nalle Hukkataival ?

Or Paul Robinson:

" I feel it is my time to set a standard in bouldering and push this sport like others have before me and are doing at the moment ".

Or Adam Ondra, as it is and was for the routes:

"For me the most important things in climbing are challenge and beauty, but there is beauty in challenge itself ".

Suerte !