Revisiting the Stats and History Behind 8C+ and 9A

The first suggested 8C+ in the world was Mauri Calibani's Tonino '78 in 2004. Mauro, who was the world champion in bouldering, in 2001, had worked it for a year and thought it was harder than Dreamtime which was 8C at the time. Later on, both Tonino '78 and Dreamtime were downgraded. The next contender for the first 8C+ in the world was, The Wheel of Life, put up by Dai Koyamada, but it was also later downgraded and most climbers liken it to a 9a route. Christian Core's line, Gioia, from 2008, was graded 8C. Adam Ondra thought it was 8C+ but later on, Elias Iagnemma used a kneepad and said 8C/8C+ could be accurate. In 2009 Nalle Hukkataival put up, Livin' Large. Nalle proposed 8C and James Webb confirmed the grade, but more recently, Shawn Raboutou repeated it and suggested 8C+.

As it stands, Daniel Woods' Hyptonized minds from 2010, in the picture, is regarded as the first 8C+ in the world. A few years after climbing it Daniel upgraded it to 8C+, but the first repeat, by Rustan Gelmanov, came after just three days of work, and created some grade uncertainty. However, further repeats by Matt Fultz and David Graham have confirmed the 8C+ grade.

As of today, there exist more than two dozen 8C+ boulders, however, most of them have never been repeated. Daniel Woods has put up four, including the most repeated one, Creature From the Black Lagoon, which has eight ascents. All known repeaters have called it 8C+, although Woods graded it 8C.

When it comes to the first 9A, that title goes to Burden of Dreams by Nalle Hukkataival in 2016. The second 9A proposal was made by Charles Albert who made the barefoot FA of No Kpote in 2018. This line was later repeated by Nico Pelorson and Ryohei Kameyama who both downgraded it. This means that it's possible that the second 9A in the world was put up by Simon Lorenzi, in 2021, with his Soudain Seul (using a book under his kneepad). One repeater, Nico Pelorson, suggested 8C+, whereas another repeater, Camille Coudert, thought the 9A grade was accurate. Later in 2021, Daniel Woods added a sit start to a well established 8c+, thus creating, Return of the Sleepwalker and proposing 9A.

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