Nathan Phillips does Beautiful Mind (8C)

Nathan Phillips, who the last year has sent his two first 8C’s, has completed Beautiful Mind (8C) in Peak District.

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Really psyched to climb this one as it’s probably the hardest boulder I’ve finished. It climbs the start section of Trance Trance (8C) which I climbed back in June. This section is maybe hard 8A/V11 then 2 or 3 new moves of around 7C/V9 to link into all the hard climbing of Dandelion Mind 8B+/V14 which I climbed about 8 years ago.

It took me 14 sessions since climbing Trance to complete it. About twice as many as Trance took. I started off re-learning the moves on Dandelion Mind as it had been years since I’d climbed it, then as the sessions went on it was just about making bigger and bigger links until eventually getting it done before the end of the limestone season.

What is coming up next?
I’m heading back to Switzerland in November to try to finish a 6 year project.

Which project is it and how many sessions have you put in?
The sit project to Fake Pamplemousse (8A) in Brione. I honestly have no idea… in the hundreds.

How will you prepare for your next trip and how close have you come?
I have a replica to train on and I’m doing very specific conditioning exercises. I’ve climbed it in 2 overlapping halves but haven’t got into the stand. I’ve done the stand 100’s of times so I’m reasonably confident I’ll do it when I get into it. All the difficulty is getting to the stand. 2 hard hand moves and a hard foot move.