Ryuichi Murai Making Fastest Progress Ever on Burden of Dreams V17
On only his fourth session, the V16 Japanese climber very nearly sent the historic problem
The world’s first V17 (9A), Burden of Dreams, has seen a lot of action over the past 18 months. Many of the world’s best climbers have travelled to Finland to try their hand at the Nalle Hukkatival problem, including Shawn Raboutou, Will Bosi, Aidan Roberts, Stefano Ghisolfi, and Simon Lorenzi, among others. Bosi picked up the coveted second ascent of the line in April last year. Lorenzi made the third ascent in late December, and Elias Iagnemma made the fourth ascent at the end of last month.
Ryuichi Murai recently travelled to Lappnor to try Burden. He has put in four sessions so far and appears to be ripping through the problem like no one else before him. On his fourth session, he very nearly stuck the final hold on a redpoint burn. If he continues with this rapid progress and the weather holds up, it looks like we’ll be seeing the fifth ascent of Burden soon.
Hukkataival spent four years of on-and-off projecting to send Burden. Bosi spent 10 sessions on a plastic replica and then 14 sessions on the actual problem to get the eventual send. Lorenzi spent around 25 sessions. Iagnemma took multiple trips to achieve his fourth ascent. Making Murai’s progress even more impressive is the fact that he didn’t train on a replica before his trip.
Interestingly, Murai appears to be using Iagnemma’s beta for the majority of the boulder. Unlike Iagnemma though, he isn’t using the paddle dyno finish, instead launching to the final hold with right hand like Hukkataival, Bosi, and Lorenzi all did. You can watch his closest attempt so far in the Instagram video below.
Murai is one of best boulderers in the world. He’s climbed many V16s, including first ascents of United, Nexus, and Floatin in Japan. He’s repeated Gakido V16 in Japan, Sleepwalker V15/16 in Red Rock, and the highball Livin’ Large V16 in Rocklands.
Elias Iagnemma’s send of Burden of Dreams V17
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