BURSTBrooke Raboutou recently announced that she sent Second Life V12 (8A+) and Santoku V13 (8B) in Ticino, Switzerland. Her older brother Shawn also let the world know that he climbed Tierrany V14 (8B+) at Highway 140 in Yosemite National Park, California.
Second Life is a Ticino classic. It’s seen ascents from Adam Ondra, Jernej Kruder, Giuliani Cameroni, Michaela Kiersch, and Lucia Dorffel, among many others. Santoku isn’t as popular as Second Life, but it’s also a five-star bloc. Some of its previous ascensionists include Jimmy Webb, Gabrielle Moroni, Martin Stranik, and Stefano Carnati.
Jimmy Webb opened Tierrany in Spring 2021. At the time it was was the hardest problem in Yosemite Valley. Carlo Traversi made the second ascent a few attempts after Webb’s FA. It was Traversi who originally found the problem back in 2013. The problem has also seen an ascent from David Fitzgerald, and potentially from others as well.
“One of my favorite things to do in this world is to climb and try rad projects in Yosemite Valley,” said Webb after his first ascent of Tierrany back in 2021. “The potential is overwhelming and the project list seems to grow every season, yet unfortunately given the difficulty of these lines and the fickleness of the granite, many lines remain undone. This spring was short but sweet and [Carlo Traversi] and I managed to develop a couple rad hard lines down in the river. [Tierrany] in particular stands out among the rest and offered a rad contrast in style from your typical Yosemite bloc. This one is steep, powerful, fingery, 30 moves long, with a heartbreaker mantle finish. Kiiiinda got it all! I was amped to make the first ascent of this beast with Carlo literally running up it right after. Good times!!”
Brooke and Shawn are the world of climbing’s strongest siblings. Brooke, who was the youngest woman to climb 5.13d at 10 years old and 5.14b at 11 years old, has continued to pursue big challenges on rock while succeeding in the comp world. In April 2025, she climbed Excalibur 5.15c. With this ascent, she became the first woman in history to climb the grade. In October 2023, she made the second female ascent of Box Therapy, downgrading the problem to V15. She has multiple V14s to her name, including Iur in Ticino, The Traphouse in Cuvier Rempart, Trieste in Red Rock, Jade in Rocky Mountain National Park, Muscle Car near Boulder, and Direct North V14 in the Buttermilks – a problem she sent in a single session. Brooke won silver in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Shawn was the first climber in the world to climb two V17s. His 2022 season was particularly incredible, establishing the V16s F*ck the System and Story of 3 Worlds and the V17s Alphane and Megatron. Last year, he repeated Box Therapy V15, and earlier this year, he made the second ascent of Devilution V16 in the Buttermilks.
Jimmy Webb’s FA of Tierrany V14
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