Hamish McArthur repeats No One Mourns The Wicked (F9A) in a session

• Wednesday 7th May 2025

On Sunday, the 4th of May, British climber Hamish McArthur made the second ascent of No One Mourns The Wicked in Thunder Ridge, Colorado, USA. Hamish managed to climb the boulder problem in a single session.

No One Mourns The Wicked, which was first climbed by Nathaniel Coleman in 2024, is graded V17 (Font 9A).

Here’s a short timeline of Hamish’s Sunday session:

11.15AM: Started hiking

12.00PM: Arrived at boulder

12.30PM: Tried Defying Gravity

1.15PM: Stuck crux move

1.30PM: Sent Defying Gravity

1.45PM: Tried No One Mourns The Wicked

2.15PM: Stuck low crux

2.47PM: Sent No One Mourns The Wicked

3:45PM: Started hiking

This marks Hamish’s second Font 9A boulder repeat – following his ascent of Megatron in Eldorado Canyon, Colorado, a problem first climbed by Shawn Raboutou in 2022, just two weeks ago. Hamish took just five sessions to send Megatron, and he wrote on Instagram about it:

‘Spirit scratches at the walls during small talk, taxes and self-checkout lines. Spirit cries to the silence of the clouds, to the wind, to the mind that moves the world. That’s why I came to Colorado, for rest and for freedom.

First I become invisible, letting the world move through me like I’m made of glass. It sounds difficult, but it’s the ease of it I struggle with. The question now is not how much can you give but how much can you bear to be given.

This is the spark, this invisibility trick, but you can’t motivate pure presence so let’s not disappear completely. All you need is an outline, so feel the presence of your world held perfectly within the presence of the unknowable. Congratulations, you are now the border between the collapsing and unfolding of the universe.

Your intention will be clear as you sit below the boulder. You will be nursing that same spark with great care. For the ninth time that day you may reach for the start holds and for the ninth time that day you may make it through the crux, only this time still bearing the lightness of your invisibility.

No climb, no climber, just climbing.

That thing called “I” returns 17 moves off the deck and looks around for a while trying to figure out how he got there. I’m a bit confused, but apparently I just climbed Megatron, perhaps the hardest boulder in the world - and it’s nice to have my body back.’

After his repeat of No One Mourns The Wicked Hamish commented: "I know that the metrics of ‘climbing V17 in a single session’ is what gets chosen for the headline, but I want to draw closer attention to the immeasurable preparation that gives this metric colour – most of which is a kind of letting go. I just want to keep surprising myself forever."