Ryuichi Murai Climbs One of America’s Hardest Boulders
When Sleepwalker was climbed in 2018 at V16, it was one of the hardest problems in the U.S.A.
Ryuichi Murai is currently in Red Rocks where he made relatively quick work of one of American’s hardest boulders with a repeat of Sleepwalker V16. It took him eight days of projecting to send the burly boulder.
The first ascent of Sleepwalker was in 2018 by Jimmy Webb, who said, “Initially I could not do a single move. But over the course of 11 days… with many moments of frustration I found myself on top of what could be the hardest boulder in the country.” It’s also been climbed by Daniel Woods, Nalle Hukkataival, Drew Ruana, Nathan Williams, Pablo Hammack and Matt Fultz. In 2021, Woods climbs a low start, calling it Return to Sleepwalker and grading it V17.
Murai said that he didn’t try the V17 start and that his trip is over, so he’ll have to return for it.
In 2021, Murai completed a five-year project with the first ascent of Nexus V16 in Japan. Before that, he opened Floatin and graded it V16. Murai is one of the world’s top boulderers with sends of multiple V15 and V16 boulders. In 2019, he made quick work of two classic problems in Switzerland in only a few tries: Dreamtime V15 and The Story of Two Worlds V15. “I took about two hours to send Dreamtime,” he told us after his sends. “First, I practiced each moves a few times. Then on my fourth try from the start I climbed it. The first part of this line was especially hard with a crux a dyno in the middle.”
Sleepwalker V16 FA
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