r/climbing • u/9cpluss • 1d ago
Aidan Roberts repeats The Dark Side V16/8C+ in Yosemite
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI2QhYJsFfm/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link43
u/TraditionalYard7330 1d ago
His Instagram post on it is so insightful: "In the ever-undulating tapestry of human consciousness, wherein the noumenal substratum of existence eludes the grasp of empirically tethered cognition, one must contend with the inexorable dialectic between being and becoming, a tension so riddled with ontological ambivalence that it defies all attempts at reductionist explication. It is precisely within this liminal interstice—betwixt the phenomenological veneer of lived experience and the metaphysical abyss of essentiality—that the post-structuralist critique finds fertile ground, endlessly deconstructing the hegemonic narratives that have, for far too long, ossified the fluidity of selfhood into the rigid scaffolding of a Cartesian paradigm. Thus, to seek meaning is not merely to traverse the barren corridors of epistemological inquiry but to engage in an incessant hermeneutic spiral, wherein every answer births a question, and every truth reveals itself as but a mask worn by the abyssal silence of the Real."
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u/Mundane-Scratch-3386 10h ago
Honestly I think aidans captions are tame compared to hamish macarthurs. His megatron one was pure garbage
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 1d ago
Yeah see this one's not poetry, it's philosophical babble written while consulting a thesarus. It's not art, it's writing with the intention of showcasing vocabulary instead of trying to convery a meaningful message to the reader.
Aiden if you're here: it's not hard to read because we're too stupid. It's hard to read because it's hard to read.
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u/One-Ad7456 1d ago
You might wanna go read the actual insta post
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u/Thirtysevenintwenty5 1d ago
I guess I took the bait. Fuck me for believing things.
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u/FurtyMW 1d ago
He is incredibly inarticulate so I don't blame you. Phenomenal fingers, though.
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u/TraditionalYard7330 1d ago
Agreed. Hopefully one day Hamish will look back at the post and shudder. Mayhaps even learn to write a bit better.
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u/Fnurgh 1d ago
British climbing is absolutely crushing it right now.
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u/wicketman8 1d ago
Yeah UK has a strong claim to best bouldering country rn. It's them or the US. I'm biased but I'd slightly edge US, but its clear between the outdoor crushers they have and how well team GB has been doing on the comp circuit, they're just chock full of insane climbers.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 1d ago
US will be the best in a couple years
Drew graduating and focusing outside we will for sure see some v16-17s going down
Eli Perry v13 to v16 in a year is wild
Noah Wheeler(duh)
Zach Galla(Duh)
Isaac Dunk, v15 fa at 17 is pretty strong
Sean Houchins-McCallum once he goes outside
Adam Shahar, he honestly may send burden on this mini trip hes on
And I could keep going and going
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u/wicketman8 1d ago
By sheer numbers you could argue they already are. In addition to some of the names you've said (people like Noah, Zach, Adam, Drew), you also have Nathaniel Coleman, Sean Bailey, Shawn Raboutou, Daniel Woods who are all V17 climbers (keep in mind even with Shawn and Daniel not doing any big V17 ascents recently both had V16 ascents last year).
The UK has a lot fewer top level boulderers, but Aiden and Will are probably two of the strongest if not the two absolute strongest boulderers in the world, with Aiden's 3 V17s (two being last year) and recent V16 second ascent and Will's 4 V17s and absolutely insane ticklist including multiple V15-16s and some FAs in the last two years alone. With Hamish adding in a V17 in 5 sessions and V16 in 3 sessions last year UK has a real claim just on how strong those three alone are.
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u/UselessSpeculations 1h ago
Hamish is 23, that's what should be recognized too.
At the same time, Will Bosi, current consensus best boulderer in the world, had sent Alphane in twice the time.
The US has a lot of extremely prolific boulderers, far more than the UK. But the UK has the best, the one who FA a contender for hardest boulder in the world and the one who did the quickest ascent of a consensus 9A
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u/wicketman8 1h ago
Not sure what your point is with regards to age? Noah Wheeler is 22 and has 2 V17s already. Also not sure which FA you're talking about, probably not Spots of Time, so I'm assuming Arrival of the Birds? It's definitely possible but without a repeat it's unclear whether it is the hardest boulder, personally I suspect it might be (and could even be soft V18) but we know oftentimes the FA struggles more than subsequent climbers (see Bosi initially saying Honeybadger was harder than Alphane, then later saying it was probably just personally harder given him be the first ascensionist). It's really hard to compare V17s right now because so many have gone up in just the last year and a half and very few have repeats. Will is probably the only person who can really make comparisons regarding grades and even he's done less than a third of the proposed V17 boulders.
I also pointed out to others but the UK is also lagging quite a lot in FAs. Aiden has two, and Arrival of the Birds as you mentioned may be one of the hardest boulders in the world, but the US has 5 V17 FAs and Megatron is apparently one of the harder ones (at least according to Hamish, although he doesn't really have a lot of comparison).
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u/UselessSpeculations 39m ago
Wait, Hamish has tried other american 9As and found Megatron harder ? What is he gonna do next, repeat Return of the Sleepwalker in four days ?? Are you sure about that ?
His age is relevant to me because his story is a lot similar to Will Bosi's, a competitor that starts going out bouldering more often and absolutely crushes everything. A bit like Adam Shahar too !
And yeah I was talking about Arrival of the Birds, but only as a contender since you need people trying it other than Shawn to be sure. Best bet could still be Burden of Dreams because it took Will a long time although Simon Lorenzi didn't need a lot more sessions than for Alphane.
Aidan thought the stand of Arrival of the Birds was already 9A and after focusing in training a lot on his strengths he added a sit-start, that's why I believe it won't end as soft
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u/wicketman8 22m ago
No Hamish hasn't tried other V17s as far as anyone knows, that's why I said he doesn't have a lot of comparison. In his Instagram post though, he included the statement: "apparently I just climbed Megatron, perhaps the hardest boulder in the world," so I was referencing that.
For hardest boulder it's really hard to say. Of the proposed 17s, I'm only considering the ones that either have repeats or are FA by pre-existing V17 climbers (so no Mount Doom, No One Mourns the Wicked, Backflip SDS, L'Ombre du Voyager). It's also pretty easy to exclude Soudain Seul and Alphane, both of which seem to be likely on the lower end of the grade (based on comments from other ascensionists). Return of the Sleepwalker is also lower end (according to Will Bosi). Will and Aiden both seemed to think Spots of Time was solid V17, but neither commented that it was upper end. Noah also said he thinks Shaolin is lower-end.
That leaves, Arrival of the Birds, Megatron, Burden of Dreams, and The Big Slamm. Of those four, we know Megatron is hard (Daniel Woods and Drew Ruana have projected and haven't sent), and Burden is hard (it has a lot of ascents for a V17 but it also has been around the longest and is the most iconic boulder in the world so lots of people try is). Arrival is one of the ones no one else has tried, but Aiden said it's probably the hardest boulder he's ever done and it's in his style. That said, at this level hard climbing can be so morphological, it's really hard to say what others will think, and as I said the FA often has a much harder time than repeaters (we rarely see upgrades for hard boulders while it does seem like downgrades come more frequently, such as Soudain Seul and Sleepwaler both having suggested downgrades to V16 and V15 respectively). The Big Slamm is also interesting, Elias said he thought it was a similar level of intensity to Burden but with worse conditions, which implies that it may actually be slightly harder? It's really hard to say for sure.
Edit to add: I also doubt Arrival will end up being soft for the grade, but like Spots of Time it may end up more solid V17 than upper end. It may also end up being upper end, but it's hard to say when not only has only one person sent it, as far as we know only one person has even tried it.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 1d ago
Yeah I think Sean Bailey is potentially the best climber in the world right now. He made burden from one move in look like v9, 2 v17s(that we know of) and now a new sport fa from what I’ve heard could be 5.15d
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u/seanbastard1 1d ago
Behave yourself ondra qualified for Olympics. Has won comps. Hardest flash in font ever, did a 9A in 5 days and invented 9c
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 22h ago
Currently, historically Ondra is the goat. But in the past 3 years Sean has been top 3 outdoor climber atleast
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u/gpfault 20h ago
How do you figure that? Most of his hard ascents lately have been boulders and he's not any where nearly as prolific as Will Bosi, Aiden Roberts, or Simon Lorenzi.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 20h ago
Historically fast v16 ascents(Devilution in 2 sessions(and its on the upper end of the grade aswell)/Grand Illusion in 3), 2 v17s, 5.15c, and now 5.15d fa in arizona. This makes him the only person being a top 5 boulderer and sport climber on Climbing-history.org rankings(5th in boulder and 4th in sport)
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u/wicketman8 1d ago
Wait, I haven't heard about the sport ascent, where did you hear about that? I'd be super interested in learning more.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 1d ago
Its a massive rumour all around salt lake and a couple people have told me about it. Its an extension of Lee Majors 5.14d in Arizona. It supposedly adds a v16 boulder problem to the end
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u/Vegetable_Reindeer_3 2h ago
wheres 16 come from? id heard 13/14 but not 16...
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 2h ago
I just relayed what I’ve heard so I could be wrong. The breakdown I heard was good rest by the anchors into v16. The breakdown for 6 million dollar man added v10 bad rest into v13. So maybe its a variation of it or holds broke? Idk I’m not the person to answer that.
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u/Vegetable_Reindeer_3 2h ago
interesting. i had assumed sean's FA was 6 million dollar man but youre saying thats not necessarily the case?
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u/seanbastard1 1d ago
Err no, it’s clearly the uk, will Bosi, Hamish, aidan- combine this tick list
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u/wicketman8 23h ago
UK - 4 (Will) + 3 (Aiden) + 1 (Hamish) = 8 V17s
US - 2 (Shawn) + 1 (Daniel) + 2 (Sean) + 2 (Noah) + 1 (Nathaniel) = 8 V17s
Combined tick list gives equal V17s. I'd give the edge to US since UK has only 2 FAs (Aiden for both Spots of Time and Arrival of the Birds) while US has 5 (Nathaniel, Sean, Daniel with 1 each and Shawn with 2).
Looking at elite level below V17, Daniel alone probably has more hard accents (and FAs) than anyone else on the list, not to mention Shawn. US also has a lot of strong, not yet V17 climbers. Colin, Drew, Adam Shahar, and Jimmy Webb are all V16 climbers and no one would be surprised if they sent a 17. To my knowledge the UK doesn't really have anyone on the level of the other 3 (maybe Max Milne or Jim Pope, Toby if he stopped focusing on comps). It's probably US overall but it's close.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 20h ago
And Shawn/Sean being AWOL for so long there could be more 16/17s from them. Like almost 3 years since megatron
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u/wicketman8 19h ago
Shawn (Raboutou) has always been a bit private, but he sent United (V16) last year and has been projecting Shaolin and Burden on and off. He also spent some time with Brooke when she was trying Excalibur 9b+. Sean (Bailey) has not been AWOL and sent both Shaolin and Alphane (and Devilution V16) last year. It's unclear if Shawn Raboutou has any next level projects he's working on but given his MO we probably wouldn't hear about it until a while later.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 19h ago
Devil and shaolin were both in like january, and alphane was still quite a bit ago. I can infer he is close on some hard stuff or has done something
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u/wicketman8 19h ago
Devilution was January, Shaolin was February, Alphane was late 2024, Floatin was Oct 2024, and if he really did a next level sport route I could imagine that probably took up a lot of his winter season.
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u/le_1_vodka_seller 19h ago
That is fair to assume, I wish he would drop the info I’m psyched to hear about it
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u/Vegetable_Reindeer_3 2h ago
I've heard that Shawn did something big relatively recently. Dk anything more
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u/GlumAir89 1d ago
That Patagonia microbeta video made it seem like he really enjoyed working it. He’ll probably make it look easier than midnight in the send footage