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, the 25-year-old is #4. (c) Maddie Sturm

"After I sent Delirium (8C) and We Can Build You (8B) earlier this year I began to think that sending Insomniac, which is the combination of the two, could be possible for me. However, given the difficulty of the line, I assumed that this would be a long process, so instead of immediately trying to do the boulder I spent a lot of time trying to refine the individual pieces as much as possible so that I could hopefully execute them perfectly when the time came. This made the process very enjoyable for me, because it did not feel like there was any immediate pressure or expectations to do the boulder and I was able to focus on the small improvements I was making instead. Eventually, a day with perfect weather came and I felt like it was finally time to give the boulder real send attempts. All the time I spent refining my beta on the boulder felt like it paid off and I was able to have one magical go where I executed everything absolutely perfectly and found myself on top in disbelief! Doing this boulder was very rewarding for me, not only because it is the most difficult thing I have ever done but because it also showed me that I am still improving and growing as a climber, even while essentially being a weekend warrior and working a full-time job [software engineer] the last couple of years."

What are your summer plans?
If the weather stays good I will likely try to do more hard boulders at Lincoln Lake, like Drew Ruan's Distortion (8C+) or try to do some other classics I haven't finished outside of the Wolvo cave like Let the Right One In (8B+) or Warrior Up (8B+). Once it starts to get warm though I will likely be more focused on training for fall objectives.

What does a normal climbing week look like for you?
Most weeks I climb 5 days. I typically spend 3-4 of those days training in the gym and the remaining time climbing outside depending on weather, work, and how motivated I am on climbing specific things outside over in the gym.