6 May 2026
Yannick Flohรฉ does No One Mourns The Wicked 9A (8C+)
Yannick Flohรฉ has repeated Nathaniel Colemanโs No One Mourns the Wicked (9A) in Thunder Ridge, giving it a personal 8C+ grade. The first repeater, Hamish McArthur comments on Yannickโs Instagram post. โThe downgrade seems to make sense.โ Last year, Yannick became the first boulderer to flash 8C. (c) Griffin Appel
โI came to the US for a Red Rocks trip but had to change my plans due to an unexpected heat wave. My specific goal was to get my hands on Shaolin (9A) as it looks very much my style and I was also looking forward to climbing somewhere different than Switzerland where I spent most of my bouldering trips the past years. I found out that March was supposed to be the best season not too warm but not too cold. I donโt like climbing in the cold as Iโve got very dry skin and canโt try hard with too many layers on.
The weather in Vegas turned out to be the opposite though. Unlike last season, March sucked. 35 degrees Celsius in the city and sandstone that never cooled down already ended my plans on the first day. I decided this was not the time to get into a long term project and I spent a week on vacation, before heading to Colorado โ without any specific projects in mind.
On my first day I checked out Defying Gravity (8C) with Daniel and Collin. Defying is in the middle of nowhere, about two hours driving on small and dirt roads from Denver followed by another 45 min hike. After a pretty good first try I tried a couple of grip types for the campus start move and sent shortly after. After the send I started playing around on the low start โNo One Mourns The Wickedโ. NOMTW adds around 8A into Defying Gravity and I immediately got psyched. Thereโs no really hard single move but the main crux for me was getting into the stand start position and keeping my feet on the wall to execute the Defying move.
Hamish and Nathaniel used a high right heel for the move into the stand and the big crux move. The heel felt too reachy for me so it took me a couple of sessions switching between different betas to find the way that suited me best. I ended up using a micro foot to give me a little push for the campus move. The main challenge was dry conditions, crazy wind and my dry skin which made climbing on this glassy polished rock very challenging. Iโve had days with 15% humidity and crazy wind where I couldnโt even do the stand moves and other days with clouds and rain that felt so sticky that I was able to do the Defying move multiple times in a row for warm up.
The day I sent I walked to the crag in the rain with low wind and very high humidity which made the holds much stickier than in the sessions before. From the first day I was sure that I could send NOMTW, but in the end it took me 7 sessions. Anyway I donโt think that this climb is 9A considering this was more a battle against conditions and dry skin than the boulder. Iโve not sent 9A yet but I know what other 9As feel like and therefore I would suggest 8C+. For sure a magical place and one of the best boulders in the world."
โI came to the US for a Red Rocks trip but had to change my plans due to an unexpected heat wave. My specific goal was to get my hands on Shaolin (9A) as it looks very much my style and I was also looking forward to climbing somewhere different than Switzerland where I spent most of my bouldering trips the past years. I found out that March was supposed to be the best season not too warm but not too cold. I donโt like climbing in the cold as Iโve got very dry skin and canโt try hard with too many layers on.
The weather in Vegas turned out to be the opposite though. Unlike last season, March sucked. 35 degrees Celsius in the city and sandstone that never cooled down already ended my plans on the first day. I decided this was not the time to get into a long term project and I spent a week on vacation, before heading to Colorado โ without any specific projects in mind.
On my first day I checked out Defying Gravity (8C) with Daniel and Collin. Defying is in the middle of nowhere, about two hours driving on small and dirt roads from Denver followed by another 45 min hike. After a pretty good first try I tried a couple of grip types for the campus start move and sent shortly after. After the send I started playing around on the low start โNo One Mourns The Wickedโ. NOMTW adds around 8A into Defying Gravity and I immediately got psyched. Thereโs no really hard single move but the main crux for me was getting into the stand start position and keeping my feet on the wall to execute the Defying move.
Hamish and Nathaniel used a high right heel for the move into the stand and the big crux move. The heel felt too reachy for me so it took me a couple of sessions switching between different betas to find the way that suited me best. I ended up using a micro foot to give me a little push for the campus move. The main challenge was dry conditions, crazy wind and my dry skin which made climbing on this glassy polished rock very challenging. Iโve had days with 15% humidity and crazy wind where I couldnโt even do the stand moves and other days with clouds and rain that felt so sticky that I was able to do the Defying move multiple times in a row for warm up.
The day I sent I walked to the crag in the rain with low wind and very high humidity which made the holds much stickier than in the sessions before. From the first day I was sure that I could send NOMTW, but in the end it took me 7 sessions. Anyway I donโt think that this climb is 9A considering this was more a battle against conditions and dry skin than the boulder. Iโve not sent 9A yet but I know what other 9As feel like and therefore I would suggest 8C+. For sure a magical place and one of the best boulders in the world."
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Jorge Diaz-Rullo reports on Instagram that he has made the first ascent of Cafe Colombia in Margalef. At 27, heโs already stacked four 9b+ sends and now heโs adโฆ
26 January 2026
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Sean Bailey reports on Instagram that he has done the first ascent of Duality of Man (9c) in Dry Canyon. โ After four total years and three seasons of climbing,โฆ
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โWoah. This climb fits my style better than anything I've ever tried. Feels incredible to take down one of my dream boulders!โCan you tell us more about the ascent?Iโve wanted to try DG for a long time, and to finally stโฆ
20 December 2023
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Noah Wheeler sent Defying Gravity (8C) at the South Platte last month. This was the 21st 8B+ and beyond for the 21-year-old. โWith campus-board beta because my span is slightly too short to keep good tension on the low feet. Amazing how there's so many different ways to do the boulder dependant on oโฆ
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โWoah. This climb fits my style better than anything I've ever tried. Feels incredible to take down one of my dream boulders!โCan you tell us more about the ascent?Iโve wanted to try DG for a long time, and to finally stโฆ
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Noah Wheeler sent Defying Gravity (8C) at the South Platte last month. This was the 21st 8B+ and beyond for the 21-year-old. โWith campus-board beta because my span is slightly too short to keep good tension on the low feet. Amazing how there's so many different ways to do the boulder dependant on oโฆ
22 October 2024
Austin Geiman, 38, completes Defying Gravity (8C)
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