Climbs

Ted Kingsnorth on hold deterioration:

Regarding holds changing, there are 2 key holds that have altered a bit since the FA in 95. Firstly the crux sidepull/ pod between the second and third bolt for your left hand has got smaller due to it crumbling. Apparently it used to be significantly bigger. Secondly the slopey pod for your right hand used to have more of a lip on it in the 90's and this broke off making this bit harder. Its the redpoint crux now - this broke agin majorly last summer but was repaired back to its former state as the piece that broke was retained and put back exactly how it used to be.

Thirdly, there were some holds between the 6th and 7th bolt that broke about 8 or 9 years ago [2015/16] but a repair was done to a key crimp so this section is about the same as what it used to be (the old holds can be seen in the Chris Savage video or the Malc pics).

I understand that this year [2024] the jug by the kneebar rest higher up has crumbled plus some other sika has decayed (not sure where) but I don't have any knowledge of this as haven't been up there to look. [1]

On balance it is not possible to know whether the route has gotten noticeably harder since the first ascent because no one has tried the route in it's previous state vs. it's current state to know if the difficulty has changed.

References

[1] https://ukbouldering.com/board/index.php/topic,33869.msg697741.html#msg697741

Sleepwalker is a boulder problem in Red Rocks in the USA. Nalle Hukkataival first cleaned and tried the line, and was then joined by Jimmy Webb and Daniel Woods in trying it. Jimmy Webb made the first ascent, shortly followed by Daniel Woods. After a prolonged battle with skin and conditions Nalle was able to make the third ascent.

It has become one of the most popular hard boulders in the world, in part due to relatively reliable conditions and ease of access, with 15 ascents at the time of writing.

Ravioli Biceps:

I was at Wet Dream and Dave Graham was there, and he was walking around trying some stuff and I'd walked by Sleepwalker hundreds of times. He walks by, he looks at it a bit, some chalk real quick...e looks at it and he's like "This is the next 8C in America."...It's great that it came to fruition in a big way. [1]

References

[1] https://www.instagram.com/p/DNJG0LNOKZb/

First climbed by Mark Leach after one of the most legendary sieges on Yorkshire limestone.

Originally 8b+, the route has been upgraded in recent guides, despite no holds having broken since the FA and an easier sequence than the original nails method on the top crux being found.

Named after Yosemite climbing pioneer John Salathé. 5.13c/8b if the headwall is climbed in a single pitch.

References

[1] https://www.climbing.com/culture/climbing-style-el-capitan/

Details of the incremental freeing of the route:

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20170213064201/http://www.stanford.edu/~clint/yos/longhf.htm#salathe

Previously a Dave Graham project before Daniel Woods made the first ascent in 2007.

References

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHveI852h0M

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rambla_(climb)