Paul Robinson Releases New Video of V14 First Ascent
A short story involving a split tip, a time-limited send, and a unique situation where making contact with a crash pad is not a dab
Paul Robinson, 35, has been sending hard boulder problems around the world for nearly two decades. In a newly released video, he adds yet another hard first ascent to his name, Cosmic Loneliness V14. The problem is located in a new bouldering zone near Nederland, Colorado, and its crux involves moving off a nasty left crimp to a desperate high right sloper. The video also includes footage of Chad Greedy’s first ascent of Young Gang Member V8 and Gordy Andersen’s second ascent of Sharma Sauce V8—two problems on the same boulder as Cosmic Loneliness. Robinson’s send footage starts at the 8:28 timestamp.
As you’ll see in the video, the story of Robinson’s send of Cosmic Loneliness is an interesting one. After badly splitting his tip attempting the problem, he waited seven days to heal up before returning. This was likely the last day he could get on the problem as he was leaving for Chile later in the day and by the time he got back, the road to reach the trailhead would be closed.
After hiking seven miles to the boulder, he finds his problem baking in full sun. Needing to send quickly because he has a plane to catch in a few hours, Robinson rigs up some pads to create shade over the problem. After blasting through the crux, he has to awkwardly throw the sun-blocking pad off the problem in order to top-out and secure the day flash.
Robinson has redpointed many V15’s and flashed up to V13. In 2020, he reached his astounding personal goal of climbing 1,000 problems graded V11 or harder. He climbed his first V11 when he was only 15 years old—the popular problem The Egg in Squamish.
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