8a.nu<\/a>, Shahar labelled ROTSW as \u2018soft\u2019. When Galla made his recent ascent, he opened up a discussion on boulders at the upper grades, saying the following through Instagram:<\/p>\n\u201cBouldering grades at the top end are at a weird spot right now. In my mind there is a pretty clear soft, solid, and stiff of every grade until V16. From my experience the V16 grade doesn\u2019t feel very deep because there are seemingly so few climbs in the upper end of it. V16 stiff and V17 soft are very minutely different, and small things like finger size or wingspan can change so much about how a climb feels. If I compare Return [of the Sleepwalker] and Shaolin [V17] to the V16s I\u2019ve done, they are both an obvious step up but with my current experience at that level it\u2019s hard to say for certain where they lay exactly. It will be interesting to me to see how they stack up with the other proposed [V17s] when I have the opportunity to try them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For context, there are over a dozen V17 problems that have been established. V17 was the most difficult bouldering grade in the world until very recently. It was only last month, on November 10, that Elias Iagnemma established Exodia in Italy and proposed the first-ever V18.<\/p>\n
\u201cPretty surreal to have gotten it done,\u201d said Shahar on Instagram. \u201cMy first time taking a look at this boulder was during my first trip to [Red Rock] in 2021. I remember trying \u2018Wet Dream\u2019 and watching [Daniel Woods] working his magic on the mega line that eventually came to be ROTSW.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter completing \u2018Sleepwalker\u2019 last year soon after moving to [Salt Lake City], I knew that the full line would be great to test my limits on. I spent two days sussing out the bottom and giving my best shot at it, but no luck. This year after a large break from the boulder I felt a lot stronger and more prepared. I had some close tries in some sessions in the fall, and then finally on Tuesday, I stuck the sloper move from the bottom and took it all the way to the top. Couldn\u2019t be happier to have executed and make the most of the attempt.\u201d<\/p>\n
ROTSW marks Shahar\u2019s most difficult climb. It was his first of the grade. He ascended Sleepwalker back in December 2024. He ticked his first V16\u2014The Process\u2014in the Buttermilks in February 2024. He has climbed at least six V15s, including a few classics like Nalle Hukkataival\u2019s The Understanding in Magic Wood, Woods\u2019 Defying Gravity in Thunder Ridge, Colorado, and Paul Robinson\u2019s Lucid Dreaming in the Buttermilks.<\/p>\n
Daniel Woods\u2019 First Ascent of Return of the Sleepwalker V17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On December 16, Adam Shahar made the seventh ascent of Return of the Sleepwalker V17 in Red Rock,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,48,44,61],"class_list":["post-357286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}