8 October 2025

Austin Purdy ticks Distortion (8C+)

Austin Purdy, with three 8C+โ€™ to his name, has repeated Drew Ruanaโ€™s Distortion (8C+) in Mt Blue Sky. โ€I'm glad to finally be done with this cave. I thought this would go quickly after I did Insomniac, but it ended up taking 2 more years, more session than I spent trying everything else in the cave combined, and several falls at the end before I got it done. Even though Spatial Awareness isn't much different in difficulty than We Can Build You, the physical and resistant nature of the climbing on the end of this climb ended up being much harder for me to execute tired after climbing through the intro boulder than the technical 2nd half of Insomniac.โ€

How many sessions in total an what made the trick in the end?
I think it was around 4 sessions 2 years ago after I did Insomniac (8C+) and then another 8 or so this year. I think the biggest difference in the end was trying it in good conditions. Most of the days I spent on the boulder were in the heat of summer.
0 comments
Most commented
Jorge Diaz-Rullo FAโ€™s Cafรฉ Colombia (?) after 240 sessions
Jorge Diaz-Rullo reports on Instagram that he has made the first ascent of Cafe Colombia in Margalef. At 27, heโ€™s already stacked four 9b+ sends and now heโ€™s adโ€ฆ
Sean Bailey FAโ€™s Duality of Man (9c)
Sean Bailey reports on Instagram that he has done the first ascent of Duality of Man (9c) in Dry Canyon. โ€ After four total years and three seasons of climbing,โ€ฆ
Jorge Diaz-Rullo proposes 9c for Cafรฉ Colombia
Jorge Diaz-Rullo elaborates on the reasons for him to suggest 9c for Cafรฉ Colombia on Instagram, which he took down last week after projecting it for 240 sessioโ€ฆ
Related
Insomniac (8C+) by Austin Purdy
Austin Purdy, who previously has done five 8C's, reports on Insta that he has repeated Drew Ruana's Insomniac (8C+) at Lake Lincoln. In the 8a ranking game, theโ€ฆ
Daniel Woods and James Webb sent Insomniac (8C+) last year. Here is the Webb interview and the Woods article
Noah Wheeler does Insomniac (8C+)
Noah Wheeler has completed Drew Ruanaโ€™s Insomniac (8C+) at Lincoln Lake. It starts doing eight moves of The wheel of wolvo (8B+) followed by a good rest and theโ€ฆ