Bosi gets coveted first repeat of world’s hardest boulder Burden of Dreams
- Friday 14th April 2023
Will Bosi has made history in Lappnor, Finland making the first repeat of Burden of Dreams (Font 9A), considered by many to be the world’s hardest boulder problem.
On April 12th, seven years since Nalle Hukkataival made the first ascent of Burden of Dream in 2016, 24-year-old Will Bosi made the first-ever repeat. That Will has succeeded ahead of a stacked field of other top boulderers, all of whom have been vying for the coveted tick, is remarkable; British bouldering is on a massive roll right now which is very exciting!
In front of the world’s cognoscenti and transmitted via Instagram Live, Will first pulled onto the famous boulder – for a “flash go” – on March 16th. Sadly – although to no-one's great surprise – that wasn’t successful. Having spent some ten days working the now almost equally famous Burden replica on a Lattice HQ board in Chesterfield, Will already ‘knew’ the intricacies of Burden very well. On his first session on the actual problem however, Will quickly pieced the moves together. To say it was super impressive is stating the obvious; at the end of his session, Will had done all the moves.
It’s worth just summarising Will's progress on this “first” session. Will did the first move on his third attempt, and the second move on his second attempt; he “flashed” the third and fourth moves and then finally did the fifth move on his third go. The whole session took less than 30 minutes of climbing!
To set Will’s amazing session into context, it’s important to remember that Nalle Hukkataival spent three years working on the problem prior to sending it. Toru Nakajima and Shawn Raboutou are perhaps the front runners of the chasing pack; both seem committed to repeat Burden as well. Toru has travelled to Finland on no less than four separate occasions already and plans to return yet again. Shawn Raboutou and Aidan Roberts both spent time in Finland on Burden last year whilst both Stefano Ghisolifi and fellow Italian, Elias Lagnemma, have been there this year whilst Bosi was working on the problem. In summary, it’s fair to say that Burden has repelled some of the top boulderers in the world.
Will describes his actual send go April 12th saying, “It feels unbelievable right now! I came to the boulder today thinking it would be too hot to climb but the warm-up felt incredible and on the send I flew through the bottom section and after dropping the top hold previously, this time it all came together!”
As everyone is interested Will said this about the grade, “From the overall experience on this boulder from working the replica to finally sending it, I think it’s a step up from everything else I have done and it is a huge step up from any 8C/+ I’ve done. Therefore I think it definitely deserves 9A!”
Will now joins Shawn Raboutou as the only two climbers in the world to have climbed two Font 9A boulders. Bosi previously climbed Raboutou’s Alphane (Font 9A/V17) in Chironico Switzerland in November 2022. Shawn established Alphane in April 2022 and also made the first ascent of Megatron (Font 9A/V17) in Autumn 2022.
Climber have been in touch with Will about his ascent of Burden of Dreams and are pleased to bring you this exclusive Q&A with him about his thoughts…
An amazing effort on an amazing boulder! Man, you must be psyched out of your mind?!
Thank you and yes I’m definitely psyched out of my mind right now!!!
Aside from getting the coveted first repeat, has your experience and time on Burden been as satisfying as you had hoped for?
For sure, my time out here both on the boulder and in Finland has been incredible. I’ve really enjoyed pretty much every moment, well maybe other than splitting tips.
Burden was the first ever claimed Font 9A boulder in the world and you say it’s a step up from everything else you’ve and a huge step up from any Font 8C/+. Given it took Nalle – one of the world’s best boulderers – three years of effort do you think he was right to give it Font 9A?
I do, I think looking at the time he invested and his level 9A seems right. From my experience, I also think it is the next step and deserves 9A. I’m very excited to try some of the other hard lines to compare in the future though.
It’s obviously completely different style of problem to Alphane which in turn brings different demands. However, if it is at all possible for you to compare apples with bananas can you say how the two problems compare at Font 9A?
So it is hard to compare but I do think BODs is harder. Alphane took me just 10 days whereas Burden took 24 (including the replica sessions), so over double the amount of time. I’ve also been mostly training on board style for the last three years and feel like I’ve improved massively and it still felt desperate. Both climbs are actually very technical but Burden’s moves don’t get easier with just technique. Whereas I found every session on Alphane the moves would get considerably easier as you learnt them better. The way I see grades, each grade has three steps. Easy, solid and hard, so I’ve BODs is solid 9A I would say Alphane would be soft 9A. However, I’m not 100 sure if BODs is solid yet.
How accurate was the replica and in retrospect how valuable was your time on the replica before you arrived to try the real thing?
The replica was maybe 90-95% accurate so not perfect. However, it was incredibly useful and made a huge difference on arriving here! So I am actually counting the ten replica days as days on the real climb. Also without the replica I don’t think I would have ever come to Finland just thinking it is too hard. So I owe a lot to the replica.
Do you think that replicas are the way forward on super difficult and condition-dependent boulders?
I think replica training is very important and people have rightfully been using it for a while. It definitely makes the most difference when a boulder is hard to try, either condition-dependent or hard to get to. As it allows you to spend so much more time on it.
Although it was only in 2016 when Nalle did the first ascent of BOD it seems that a lot has happened in the bouldering world since then; training regimes and protocols have improved and consolidated and there are more boulderers than ever collaborating together and pushing at a higher standard than ever before. Where do you think bouldering will go in the next decade?
Oh, that's a hard question! I think in the next ten years we will see a lot more 8C+ ascents and a good few more 9As appear. Potentially we might see the first 9A+ get proposed. However, I feel like the current level of bouldering is still pretty far away from 9A+. At least in my mind that step up from 9A would have to be big. I think there will be a lot of regarding too as 8C+/9A get more established.
Since “walking away” from the competition scene your successes outside on routes and boulders have seemingly rocketed. Is it fair to say that you are much more at ease in the “real world”, and that you find the outdoor environment much more satisfying and does that help you on the projects you’ve undertaken and succeeded on?
I’d say so, I think I’ve always been more motivated and psyched to climb on rock. Also being able to train in a specific way rather than the general comp approach has let me improve a lot more I think. It’s definitely a lot more rewarding for me sending a super hard outdoor project after putting so much work in for it. Whereas in comps I always felt like there was so much luck involved.
Given that you and Shawn Raboutou are the only boulders who have two or more Font 9A’s to your name, did you ever envisage being such a dominant force in modern bouldering?
Definitely not! I never thought I’d be able to be where I am now even just a year ago. Growing up with 8C being the hardest grade in bouldering I struggled to believe I would even climb 8C till a few years ago. So thinking I would have sent two 9As still seems unbelievable to me.
With yourself and Aidan [Roberts] cranking super hard British bouldering is riding very high on the world stage once again. Something, somewhere is “going right”; that must be very satisfying and rewarding – have you found the secret sauce and if so, would you care to share the recipe?
It’s absolutely amazing to see the level moving forward a bit and having Aidan as well is super cool. I, unfortunately, don’t know if there is a secret other than parmesan cheese and hard training.
We’ve watched the conditions change over the month you’ve been in Finland; is it game over now for this season or are others staying for a while? Are we likely to see another repeat this season?
Spring has definitely arrived now in Finland and it’s starting to get hot for sure. However, night sessions are still pretty perfect conditions so I think Shawn still has a very good chance. Keeping my fingers crossed for him!
Now Burden is sent, it’s off to Arco next then for Excalibur?
I was thinking about that but it’s getting pretty hot there already and I’ve got a few things I need to do in the UK first. So heading home for now.