Noah Wheeler does Burden of Dreams (9A)

Noah Wheeler, who four months ago fully ruptured his left ring A2 pulley, has repeated Nalle Hukkataival’s Burden of Dreams (9A) in Lappnor. Technically, he actually had to send it twice as he touched the pad with his left toe on the first cut loose move. In 2025, the 23-year-old sent his first two 9A’s as well as flashed his first 8B+.

”7 sessions over two trips. Got to the last move from start every session. I think every move has to be over 75% success rate in iso to send. Extremely in-style such that I would guess this is objectively harder than Shaolin, but easier for me.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent and what went into completing it?
There is a lot of optimization that goes into climbing, obviously. You have to optimize your beta, weather alignment, skin tactics, diet, and much more to climb at your limit or close to it. Burden demanded something different than optimization for me to unlock it - it demanded reorientation. Reorientation towards the boulder, towards climbing, and towards myself. Not trying to be pretentious - this was genuinely the path towards sending for me. I had all the links and moves fairly high percentage within the first session, but every time I got to the last move, I just couldn’t execute properly. I had a lot of difficulty sleeping the night before I sent, and I spent most of this time navigating my mental game, attempting to find a mental space in which I would be comfortable doing the last move. I found it, envisioned it, and when the session came, acted on it.

I had 3 sessions in my first trip and 4 in my second, so 7 total. None of my sessions except for the first and last felt ideal with regard to conditions. First trip the boulder was wet for 2 weeks straight. Second trip the weather hovered around 55-65° the entire time (for such a crimpy boulder, colder temps are ideal). I think thats just the nature of Burden though. Last session was 80% humidity but no wetness, which is ideal for my dry skin.
What about the new drop knee sequence?
New sequence is the same that Simon and all subsequent climbers have used except for Elias. I would guess its half to a grade easier than Nalle’s beta? I think what makes it easier is less the moves themselves and more the fact that you are doing less moves and so have more space for failure which snowballs into a fall. Interestingly, nalle had beta he used before the beta he is known for, where you get a left foot after the first move and reach straight up left to the 3 finger crimp, similar to the dropknee but with a foot squeeze. Ryuchi uses this beta despite being aware of the dropknee beta.

To address the discourse about Nalle’s pull on: I have done the move both ways and it doesn’t make much of a difference. Nalle is a few inches shorter than me so it may be more difficult for him to place both feet when sitting down. We also have different pads, although we do not double stack. Regardless, the beta difference here is fairly small and unimpactful.