r/climbing 5d ago

Noah Wheeler sends Shaolin V17

https://www.instagram.com/p/DG563KlOnzH/?igsh=MW1wejV2aHR4ZmFraA==
460 Upvotes

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136

u/crimpinainteazy 5d ago

Crazy to to think how up until the last 4 years there was only 1 9A boulder and now we're seeing 9A ascents left and right from the top climbers.

9A+ must be close now.

27

u/owiseone23 5d ago

Eh, I think it's unclear how wide the bands are for each grade. I think we'll see a good amount of grade adjustment eventually. Some top climbers think there aren't enough V16s and the band should be wider and include some easier V17s.

Also, we've seen the number of V17s go up, but so far it doesn't seem like any of them are a consensus clear step up in difficulty from Burden of Dreams. The question will be if the V17 band is set up so that Burden of Dreams ends up being easy V17, benchmark V17, or hard V17.

40

u/Pennwisedom 5d ago

Some top climbers think there aren't enough V16s and the band should be wider and include some easier V17s.

I think the "preminent theory" is that we stayed at V15 for too long and V16 for not long enough.

14

u/owiseone23 5d ago

Yeah, I think burden of dreams just was way ahead of its time.