Woods "Into the Wild" 9A epic story

Daniel Woods, who has the best bouldering tick list in the world, with close to 40 8C and harder shares his story doing the FA of Return of the Sleepwalker 9A. The 31-year-old sent it after 70+ days projecting, out of which the last 16 days he was alone camping in the canyon. (c) Jon Glassberg / Louder Than 11

"The first 8 of the 16 days I was climbing on it 2 on 1 off. In the final 8, I was 1 on 1 off. Haha, rest days were boring. I’d either chill at camp and stretch a bit or go walk around to kill time before the next session. Was hard to motivate to do anything else. I was consumed by the line and distracted by it. I listened to a ton of music actually. I have a lot of DJ sets saved to my SoundCloud, so would just zone out and listen."

Amazingly, his friend Jon Glassberg did spontaneously show up at the scene as Woods was going for the 10 meters slabby top out."We rushed over when we heard him screaming and assisted him with chalk on the 30ft slabby top out that looks scary and slick. You definitely don't want to blow it after climbing V17 (9A) on the v2 exit slab! Daniel was in shock I think. I would imagine after 70+ days of effort on the worlds hardest boulder, sending feels pretty strange, like an out of body experience. We all celebrated at the base when he came down, chatted about the hardest climbs in the world and went climbing. There was something special in the air. I had climbed the Nest (8C) the day before and Daniel sent with no one around just his personal battle with what is likely the hardest 30 ft of stone on earth right now."

Daniel, could you please share your "Into the Wild" 9a experience. What was your daily routine being by yourself in the canyon?
I was going to bed at night at around 10 and would wake up at 3 30 every morning... try to fall back asleep but then would just be wide awake haha. Some days I would get to the Boulder, start sessioning, then just pass out on my pad or fall asleep sitting up for a bit haha. But anyway I wake up in the morning and make oats with PhysiVantage whey protein powder, peanut butter, blueberries, and bananas, make a matcha latte and then review some footy. Drive to the store and pick up supplies for the day then drive the 20 min slow ass dirt road to the parking. Do the 20 min hike in and start warming up. A session for about 5 hours sometimes more than bail. The beauty about this climb is that it is very skin-friendly... never split. Your muscles get fucked before anything else. It also sits in the shade all day.

At the end of the day I’d get sushi or a salmon, veggie, rice bowl for dinner then drive back to camp. After would watch footy and listen to music then try to sleep. Honestly, my days outside of projecting were super uneventful. I could have tried to do something else but nothing inspired me. I felt like I was possessed. I wasn’t drinking any alcohol, no weed, no tobacco, no coffee in the morning (just matcha). I got myself super clean which I hadn’t done in 10 years haha. This climb really woke me up to the importance of self-care. I wanted to turn myself into a machine. I take supplements such as turmeric, fish oil, vitamin D, B12 with methyl, lions mane mushrooms, reishi mushrooms, and collagen. This combined with a ton of water and no “harmful” substances allowed me to recover super fast and develop clarity in myself that I had not felt in years. Now I’m addicted to this feeling and honestly don’t want to go back to my previous lifestyle. I even tried drinking a small sake bottle after the send and got two shots in and couldn’t finish it haha. I like felt my body start to swell up from it. I got fuckin in TUNE with my body during this process.

Here his comments to 8a after his send one month ago talking about the insanity.