The Finnish Line

The Finnish Line (V16)—Rocklands' Hardest Boulder

“A gem rarer than diamonds.” That’s how BD Athlete Nalle Hukkataival describes The Finnish Line (V16). Sitting untouched for years within a mecca for bouldering, Nalle’s latest testpiece has it all—aesthetics, difficulty and a beautiful setting. Plus, it’s now a contender for Rocklands’ hardest boulder problem. Check out Nalle’s ascent in this new BD exclusive film.

"Wheel of Life" 8C for Alex Barrows

by Natalie Berry - UKC 06/Jun/2016
Foto: © Ella Russell

Alex Barrows has climbed his first 8C, ticking "The Wheel of Life" at Hollow Mountain Area bouldering in the Grampians, Australia. The problem is world-famous for its length of ~70 moves and was first climbed by Dai Koyamada in 2004 and originally graded 8C+.


The Wheel links Extreme Cool (7B+) into Sleepy Hollow (8A) into Cave Man (7C) into Dead Can't Dance (8A). 

Describing the problem, Alex told UKC:

"It's ~70 moves all told, so a long way removed from normal bouldering, but not quite route climbing either. It's long enough to make Pilgrimage at Parisella's look almost like a boulder problem though!"

Last April, Alex climbed his first 9a - Era Vella - at Margalef in Spain. As a climber with preferences for long, endurance-heavy routes with knee-bars, how did he think Era Vella compared to Wheel of Life?

"In terms of grade I think the concensus nowadays is 9a as a route grade, or 8B+ as a boulder grade; a bit harder if you don't use kneepads, but I sure as hell did! I thought it was probably lower end 9a, not that I'm particularly qualified to give an opinion compared to some of the previous ascentionists. The climbing is probably harder than that on Era Vella, but then it's a million times easier to work so it should be physically harder to earn a similar grade for the overall challenge. Anyway, it's not really about the grade with this thing, it's about it being The Wheel of Life and about it being awesome fun!"


Writing in his blog, Alex summed up his achievement as follows:

"The deep down contentment of doing a problem which I'd heard of for a decade but never dreamed I could ever climb until the last few years, and never expected to climb until the last few days, seems likely to stay around a little while... at least until I find the next project anyway!"

Ammagamma

Jorg Verhoeven and Katha Saurwein visit the Grampian Mountains of Australia to sample the best bouldering and sport climbs in the world. As part of the Grampians "BIG 4", Jorg climbs the classic bouldering test piece "Ammagamma" (V13) and ticks one more #lifelist box.

For more clips and information see Marmot/Australia.
Produced by Louder Than Eleven (www.lt11.com)

"The Wheel of Life"

Jake Bresnehan in "The Wheel of Life"

The Wheel of Life is an epic line found in Hollow Mountain Cave, Grampians - Victoria. First climbed by Dai Koyamada in 2004, Dai linked the four main problems of the cave together to form one King Line. The Wheel of Life is often considered closer to a route than a boulder problem and so given the grade V15 / 9a / 35. In this film, Jake explores the highs and lows of his journey to complete The Wheel of Life and the importance of commitment and dedication when chasing your goals. Jake’s commitment to climbing this line was inspirational. Living 1200kms away he viewed it as a project that allowed him no excuses. He didn’t need to rely on belayers, conditions or weather, he just needed to drive there, walk up to the cave and give it a go.

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Jorg Verhoeven on „The Wheel of Life“

Die Marmot PRO Athleten Jorg Verhoeven und Katharina Saurwein legen auf ihrer Australien Reise einen Stopp in den Grampian Mountains, einem der besten Boulder- und Sportklettergebiete der Welt, ein. Als Teil der Grampians „BIG 4“ klettert Jorg den Boulder-Klassiker „Wheel of Life“ (V15) und kann einen Haken mehr in seiner Kletter-„Lifelist“ setzen.

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Daniel Woods on „Wheel of Life“

Daniel Woods sends The Wheel of Life from Big Paw Productions on Vimeo.

"Quitline"

"Madmax"

"Grampians project"

Grampians project from ZeroSkillz on Vimeo.

"Wheel Of Life" 8c

"Wheel Of Life" Repeated By Ethan Pringle

Source: Climbingnarc.com
Originalartikel auf "climbingnarc.com"

According to his 8a scorecard Ethan Pringle has, after 3 days of work, done the 3rd ascent of Dai Koyamada’s Wheel Of Life at the Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians, Australia. Given V16 after the FA, Pringle registered it as a 5.14d route climb which makes sense since the problem is a massively long 60+ move linkup of several problems in the V9-V12 range. This ascent is especially notable in that Pringle has been recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during 2009 ABS Nationals and is just getting back into form. Looks like he is on the right track.

Here’s some video of Chris Webb Parsons on the 2nd ascent of "Wheel Of Life" to give you an idea the length of this climb: