Lee Sungsu sends Burden of Dreams (Font 9A) – twice
- Monday 26th May 2025
Korean climber Lee Sungsu recently made an ascent of Burden of Dreams (Font 9A) at Lappnor in Finland.
He had 'climbed' the problem two days earlier but felt it wasn’t a genuine ascent after his t-shirt brushed a pad when pulling on for the starting move. He wasn’t sure if his bottom had also touched the pad, thus giving him an unfair advantage. Judging by the video footage, he was incredibly harsh on himself, as it was clear it was just his t-shirt briefly touching, and hence, no advantage was gained. This was also the thought of many climbers, as he was still in the starting position
Wanting to put matters right, he returned for one more session and did the problem again, this time without any issues by choosing to go shirtless! Writing on Instagram, he commented, 'If I left with only the dab it would haunt me forever… Well, went full shirtless this time.'
This was the fifth (and arguably the sixth) ascent of Burden of Dreams, a problem first climbed by Finnish climber Nalle Hukkataival in 2016. It has since been repeated by Will Bosi, who made the second ascent in April 2023 (read that here), the Belgian Simon Lorenzi in December 2023, and Elias Iagnemma with an ascent in March 2024, with the Italian climbing it with a different beta than others. Sungsu used the same beta as Iagnemma.
Despite being only five moves long, it’s considered to be the hardest problem in the world and is the first time Sungsu has climbed a problem at this grade. He had previously climbed Daniel Woods’ The Process (Font 8C+) in the Buttermilks, USA, last December.