Adam Shahar and Ben Hanna send Sosa (8C+)

Adam Shahar, who last year sent his first 9A, and Ben Hanna have repeated Zach Galla’s Sosa (8C+) in Little Cottonwood.

Shahar: ”We are so back!! First day of the year, first try getting through the bottom. Really thought I wouldn't get the chance to hop back on this one due to a wrist injury a couple months back. Ecstatic, I pulled this one off. Truly such an awesome power testpiece. Props to Zach for the FA.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent and what went into completing it?
Hanna: I started trying Sosa stand back when it was a project and was able to do it pretty fast after Zach did the FA, but it wasn’t until last summer that the low start felt like something I could do, I remember having this moment where I thought “Holly shit! I can climb v16” it was the dead of summer though and so I waited for the fall to keep trying.

When I started going back up and putting together links I found myself fighting a pretty hard mental battle and decided to rotate to Grand Illusion. I ended up doing that the last week of the season and wanted to go back to Sosa with a fresh mind and more confidence but the season was over.

Despite that I found myself saying “the season isn’t over until I say it is” and hiking up through feet of snow to dig it out with my friend Justin. The boulder stays totally dry during the winter since it’s in a cave, you just have to dig out a lot of snow to get to it, and so that’s how I found myself spending weeks hiking up after work to dig it out every day after it snowed haha definitely one of the crazier things I’ve done for a climb. I got really close a few times but competitions season started and I had to focus on that. Finally I found myself with a break from comps and a window of good enough temps to try again. I went up twice last week to remember the moves and than last night after a few days off was able to fire it first try from the ground.

As far as grade, I’ve never climbed 8c and the only other 8c+ I’ve tried is grand Illusion so I’ll leave that to those smarter than me to decide.

What is next?
Back to competition training. I am pretty focused on world cups this next coming 2 years, but climbing outside it what really fuels my soul and so I try and make time to go outside for a few weeks every season to rejuvenate myself.

How come you did not participated in Bern today?
Sadly I bombed the team trials and so I am 5 on team but we only have 4 quota spots. Which means I only get world cups starts if someone else drops out. With that being said I’ll get Salt Lake and I am determined to make the final there.