Jakob Schubert does Shaolin (9A) - UPDATED

Jakob Schubert, who already has two 9A ascents to his name, has repeated Sean Bailey’s Shaolin (9A) in Red Rocks. The send came on the penultimate day of a multi-week trip to Red Rocks, following a physically and mentally demanding process that included split-heavy movement, a small hold break, and a forced reset of already dialed sequences. © Michael Piccolruaz

The Austrian has previously established an 8c+ DWS and B.I.G. (9c). Combined with his exceptional competition résumé, the 35-year-old stands as a serious challenger to Adam Ondra for the title of greatest male climber in history.

How many sessions did it take to send the boulder?
All in all it was 10 sessions that I needed to send Shaolin. I have to say at the beginning I thought it could go down very very fast because already on my second day on it I did it in two parts and basically did some send goals already on my third day and felt like I could do it really quickly but then the process took longer than expected for various reasons. I mean one of the main reasons was that I had probably the biggest issues with splits and skin on a trip ever. I would just have like one really big split and would always try to heal it for two days. So, rest two days, climb again but then re-split again, rest two days. So, I think in my first 10 days of the trip I only did like four climbing days and that made it pretty tough to really do some good tries because I would always have tape on and also just bleed through the tape and have to quit the session earlier than I want to.

Then just before we left to Arizona, Matt Fultz broke a tiny part of one of the holds at the beginning of the boulder which also didn't help the process I would say. It definitely made the boulder a tiny bit harder, and, in the end, I was pretty lucky to even do it this trip because I got pretty stressed and only did it at the second to last day of this trip, so I was really happy to finish it in the end.

How was the process of the send?
It was six sessions I had before I left Arizona for a couple of days to check out Duality of Men. And that very last day before we left, I already had some good tries of sending it. When I came back from Arizona, I had one session, which basically I lost all my confidence because it was so bad. In the end, I found out it was just because I got so pumped in Arizona. That obviously didn't help my bouldering shape for a couple of days.

So, I had to rest a bit longer and then I had my first try where I finally stuck the crux move in the middle, which was on my eighth day then. I did it twice that session, but both times fell at the last move. And then on my ninth day, again, I only made it two times through the crux move and fell again, two times at the last move, always being really, really close. So, I knew I can send the boulder. But at the same time, yeah, I got pretty stressed because I knew I don't have like a lot of days left.

On my 10th day, again, the whole session, I couldn't stick the crux move all of a sudden anymore, although I did it so easily as a single move. I couldn't really focus or get my nerves under control. Only at my eighth try of the day, I finally stuck the crux move and then didn't let go on the last move and like barely sent the boulder. Finally.