Simon Lorenzi

Second try after some attempts 4 years ago.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CV0veE5jd9r/

26 years after his father Claude Lorenzi made the first ascent.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CCWdnP0jWKc/

After ticking the stand start quickly the low start was a much more protracted affair, stretching out to 25 days of effort.

To make a crucial knee on the sit work better Simon borrowed a book from his girlfriend and placed it underneath his kneepad to make his shin a little longer. The name of the problem comes from the title of the book. Simon also extensively modified his shoes to get the most out of them: starting with a pair of Scarpa Instinct VSRs, he added extra rubber to the top of the shoe for better toe hooking on the big slopers and transplanted the heel from the Drago LV as he found it stuck better on a crucial left heel.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CLCxgJ2jDB1/

[2] https://www.instagram.com/p/CLFXX58DbGN/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNqq-K0HK18

The boulder for me is an addition of an 8C and an 8B without rest, followed by an end in 7B+ traverse. The grade of 9A therefore seems very coherent to me. And indeed it seems to me a good step above all the 8C+ that I have done or tried. We all know that the grades have a subjective side and it’s part of the game so let’s just let the time and the repetitions do the work before jumping into fast conclusions on this or that boulder. [2]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CmM4XYUj2AW/

[2] Interview with fanatic-climbing.com, December 2022 https://fanatic-climbing.com/simon-lorenzi-coche-alphane-simon-lorenzi-ticks-alphane-interview/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rDZAm60qzw

With this ascent Simon became the first climber to climb three problems graded 9A after his subsequent ascents of Soudain Seul and Alphane. Interestingly Simon used a slightly different sequence to previous ascentionits:

Instead of matching on the left hand crimp after the first move, I use a high left foot to put a drop knee. From there I cross directly to the gaston left hand and then I match on the pinch. [4]

On the difficulty of the problem compared to Soudain Seul and Alphane:

I think that Burden of Dreams is hard for different reasons but not harder. The fact is that the first move is low percentage and you have just a few tries before your skin is dead. That means that the opportunities to send are quite limited before you have to rest again at least one day for your skin. Alphane and Soudain Seul are completely different; they are physically more demanding, and it feels harder to put all the moves together, but for the same length of trip you’ll have more opportunities to send once you’ve got everything dialed [sic]. [4]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C1Zu5gONwDT/

[2] https://karpollaon8a.com/burden-of-dreams-third-ascent-by-simon-sisu-lorenzi/

[3] Training process for BoD youtube part 1 of 3 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7R-aIeZ7yS8

[4] https://www.climbing.com/news/simon-lorenzi-burden-of-dreams/

In total the ascent only took 5 sessions, though this is largely because Simon knew the upper part (i.e. The Big Island) extremely well from the many sessions he spent refining it while working Soudain Seul.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CZFLbkvon44/

[2] https://fanatic-climbing.com/bleau-simon-lorenzi-ouvre-big-conviction-8c-font-simon-lorenzi-frees-big-conviction-8c-interview/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=260NRRSq4d8

It's important to notice that the crux hold was already not the same as before. A small christal has gone and the left side of the hold is now a bit deeper. [3]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CWtThn3tdZo/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5X4ZR5MO6w

[3] https://www.instagram.com/p/CbVdSBvAF8b/

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ40nbqtHfS/

[2] https://fanatic-climbing.com/simon-lorenzi-repete-la-revolutionnaire-simon-lorenzi-repeats-la-revolutionnaire/

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VdgtiriKec

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CRPFTRZD-ck/

[2] https://youtu.be/SZV2c8SBDBM?t=275

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/BsgT5gXh4Pc/

References

[1] https://youtu.be/SZV2c8SBDBM?t=55

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CcdcRQtD_U5/

[2] https://youtu.be/O6fKsmJXkqc?t=383

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CiDHV1ujjAT/

References

[1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/5POR4YKrt1aDaENvgJvZJv?

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CX1V4sltCpT/

Simon was close to the flash on this problem.

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/CiQDkMjjEDB/

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4xjNAQhZI0

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/C5nziXBuI12/