Simon Lorenzi Climbs His Fifth V17 with Shaolin
The problem was first climbed by Sean Bailey in 2024
Simon Lorenzi has repeated Sean Bailey’s Shaolin V17 (9A) in Red Rocks for his fifth of the grade. Both Lorenzi and Will Bosi have now both climbed five V17s. Lorenzi’s V17 journey began in Fontainebleau with the first ascent of Soudain Seul, before going on to repeat Alphane in Chironico and later topping Burden of Dreams in Lappnor. He then added Return of the Sleepwalker in Red Rock, sending the iconic line on the final day of a trip before flying home.
“Shaolin was my main goal of the trip,” said Lorenzi. “I had tried it a little last year and trained specifically to be ready and fit! Everything went super smoothly. It’s the first time a 9A has worked like this for me: at every session I was making progress, without rushing, just staying patient until everything clicked. It was also much easier mentally than last year, because I was with my friends, we had an Airbnb, we were comfortable, joking around outside the boulder. The whole experience was really enjoyable!”
His father, Claude Lorenzi, was one Belgium’s leading climbers in the 1990s, establishing the country’s first 5.14b in 1994, several years before Simon was born. Simon made the second ascent of the line 26 years later. Lorenzi was climbing by age 2, but he didn’t get serious until he won his first Belgian Youth Cup at age 10. Lorenizi has climbed several V16s, including the first ascent of Big Conviction, and repeats Off the Wagon Low, La Révolutionnaire, and Permanent Midnight Low. And for V15s, he’s climbed several famous ones including Foundation’s Edge, Satan I Helvete Low, Power of Now Direct, The Big Island, and Dreamtime.
Established by Bailey in February 2024, Shaolin was U.S.A.’s third V17 after Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker and Shawn Raboutou’s Megatron. The sandstone boulder links a V13/14 starting sequence into a single-move V12/13 into a final throw that clocks in around V11/12. Noah Wheeler and Zach Galla repeated it in 2025.
