BURSTWill Bosi has been spending time in Flathanger and working on the world’s first 5.15d (9c), Silence. Bolted in 2012 and first ascended by Adam Ondra in 2017, the title of second ascensionist remains vacant. Stefano Ghisolfi was the first serious contender and, over the course of a couple of trips, was making big links. He even found alternate beta for the famous inverted crack sequence. But he has not spent any time on the route this year.
Bosi discussed his thoughts on the grade breakdown of Silence in a recent live Q&A, which you can watch below. He said that the purpose of his recent trip to Flathanger was to thoroughly suss out Silence to see if it’s a good fit for him.
Silence begins with a 5.13d/5.14a section for the first 15 meters, followed by a good rest on a no-hands kneebar where the climber can change their rope to reduce rope drag. The next section brings the grade up to 5.14a, ending with an upside-down no-hands knee bar rest, which Bosi describes as being less relaxed. Up to this point, Ondra, Ghisolfi and Bosi agree on the grade breakdown.
A V7 boulder follows to another, more strenuous no-hands knee bar rest. It is here that Bosi’s opinion of the grade starts to differ a little. He says with his beta that involves a fist jam, he believes this section to be V5 and is not sure that it is necessary to go into the knee bar rest.
Next comes the main crux of the route, described by Ondra as V15. “There’s a lot of jams involved,” said Bosi of the crux. “There’s foot jams, turning upside down, not really small holds, it’s slopey. Not really my style of climbing. I don’t know if it’s harder than what I expected. I expected it to be really hard.”
Bosi goes on to say that after putting some work into the crux, he thinks he can already make links on his next trip. But when it comes to the grade of the crux, Bosi says, “For [V15] it just doesn’t feel right. Compared to where modern boulder grades are, I think it’s probably more like [a V16] boulder. I think it’s really hard. The route essentially comes down to that. From then on, if you stick the first crux, you’re realistically going to top the route, even though the top of the route by itself, from the end of crux one, is [5.14d].”
At the end of crux one, there is another no-hands upside-down knee bar. Bosi says this one is still core-intensive and not fully restful. After the rest, according to Ondra and Ghisolfi, there is a V13 boulder to a poor rest. Bosi believes this section to be a little easier, more like a V12. Then there is another V12 to an “amazing rest, like full recover borderline,” says Bosi. The route ends on a V4 boulder. Bosi agrees with the assessment of the final two sections, V12 and V4.
Overall, it sounds like Bosi would downgrade two sections: a V7 at the start to V5, and a V13 near the finish to V12. But he would also likely upgrade Ondra and Ghisolfi’s assessment of the crux as V15 to V16.
As for Bosi’s future on Silence, he said, “Today, last session, I managed to again get to the top half of the first crux, so essentially starting from as soon as the foot jams above your head, you jam your foot going from there. So you have arguably the two hardest, or at least most difficult-to-do moves of the crux, and you climb the top part.
“I only had one knee pad on because I wasn’t really expecting to get through, so I had a very short bad rest after the first crux, went through the second crux, made it up into the third crux, then pumped out and fell off, which you definitely don’t wanna do in the link. But it made it feel quite achievable. So that was super positive today, and I think it makes me a lot more confident in the grades. But I do think the first crux is pushing it for [V15].”
Will Bosi Live Q&A About Silence 5.15d
The post Will Bosi Suggests Silence Crux Is V16 appeared first on Gripped Magazine.