Nathan Williams, who have just done two 8B+' has done Sleepwalker in Red Rocks. Jimmy Webb FA video. Later also Daniel Woods, Nalle Hukkataival and Drew Ruana have repeated it making it the second most repeated 8C+ in the world, after Creature of the black lagoon with seven ascents. (c) Alton Richardsson

"This boulder just suited me very well, and with every session, I felt stronger and stronger on the underclings. 10 sessions this season and around 5 or 6 last season. I think I fell going to the sloper from the bottom almost 30 times before I stuck it on point."

Dave Graham put up The Story of 2 Worlds in Cresciano in 2005 as, "The new 8C standard" in order to stop grade inflation. It actually did, although UKC called it 8C+, when Dai Koyamada did the first repeat in 2010. Then in 2011, UKC said Dai's "wasn't legitimate" and in 2012, he flew in again from Japan and did it from a lower start calling that variation 8C+. (Later Graham said Dai had originally started correctly.)

By the use of knee pads and shoes with better toe-hooking possibilities as well as going to the left instead of the right finishing the roof, some started to say it was a "soft" 8C. Then in 2018, Sebastian Cotting did it from the Koyamada's 8C+ lower start suggesting that it is closer to 8B+, video.

Chatting with Dave he says he also thinks that in a world with rubber on the knees and the toes, it is like this creates the third story that could make it possibly 8B+. "This is a normal evolution for an old problem with features like this. People say it is much easier obviously but I'm not sure as I haven't done it with the kneepads or with new shoes." The picture is from back in 2005 where we can see Dave shoes had poor toe-hooking possibilities.

Now it seems like there also exist a potential Story of 4 Worlds 9A? " There is a very long section starting on the left that adds probably 8B+ or 8C to join with The story of two worlds!! Surprised no one tries this more!"

In general, he thinks furthermore, "You can see many hard problems with lots of fast repetitions are done because of beta changes and knee pads etc, but seldom the grades are commented. We don't see much downgrading anymore, only confirmations, in boulders at least. It will change again with another generation I assume."

Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman, both born in 2001, had an amzing 2020 doing 72 boulders 8A to 8B+. In the 8a ranking game, only Alex Puccio was ahead of them in the Top-50 boulders.

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Ella Adamovska, who was third in the Combined Euro Championship in December, reports on Insta that she has done a quick ascent of Pal Norte 8c+ in Margalef. (c) Jakub Konecny

"I chose this route mainly because I really liked it visually, it’s an amazing line! Moreover, last winter I sent Pal este which shares the first 3/4 of the route, then at the end of the trip, I tried the moves in Pal Norte once but it felt too hard. Together with Pal este last year it took me about 15 tries (9 in Pal Este and 6 this year). I must admit these kinds of routes (overhanging, based on endurance with small sharp pockets) really suit me.

Even though the conditions are much better than the last winter, there’s definitely not so many people in Margalef, probably due to the covid situation. As the situation is getting worse in Czech, it’s possible I will stay till the half of January since I’m currently studying at the University remotely."

"HOW" you start a boulder can be a tricky game. The best example of this is The Story of 2 Worlds 8C. Dave Draham put it up in 2005 and described it as a "pure sit start" to The Dagger. Dai Koyamada did the first repeat but later UKC said his ascent "wasn't legitimate", as they said he started 40 cm to the right of the original Graham start. Koyamada came back and did it again laying from the ground with his feet on the starting hold, calling his Low start variation 8C+. Later, it was found out that UKC was wrong and Graham did come forward saying Koyamada had started on the right holds, in the first place.

Today, The Story of 2 Worlds is with close to 20 ascents one of the most repeated 8C's in the world and actually due to new sequences and knee pad, some have actually suggested 8B+ for it. At the same time, several of the guys repeating it they have not done it from a sitting position but instead from a crouched position, i.e. using one foot to establish a heel hook before taking off.

In general, Americans are more in favour of defined starting holds from a crouched position in comparison to the Euros mainly opting by starting from the butt. In the defined start, you are supposed to establish your position before start moving just like in comps, meanwhile, on the sit start you are not supposed to do any butt bouncing in order to facilitate the first move. The advantage of the American crouched start is that size does not matter meanwhile the advantage of the sit start is that it is often more obvious. On the other hand, what now seems to be an obvious sit start on The Story... created a lot of controversies.

So what is the best solution in regards to sit starts and defined starting ethics? Basically the ethics that have been used is that it is up to the FA to decide and in order to repeat that boulder and grade, you should start as the FA did. Personally, I do think the FA should opt for a start that does not add a hard move and which is fair for everyone but also that stacking pads is not a problem as long as this "How" is described.

Back to The Story... As Graham (179 cm) did define it as a sit start I think we should follow the FA starting ethics. If this means that shorter guys like Koyamada (165 cm) need to use two pads I am fine with that as long as it is described. Checking different videos, besides several guys do not start sitting, there exist different beta from the sit start which could also be used as an argument for advocating sit starts instead of crouched starts.

It should be mentioned that sometimes like for No kpote only, the second proposed 9A but later downgraded to 8C, the sit start needs to be defined as it traverses in the beginning and you could also start sitting from 2-3 moves in. Please forward your comments and questions?