Watch Ryuichi Murai Send New V16 in Japan

He sent the longstanding project just before the park closed for the winter

Gripped December 28, 2021

Ryuichi Murai recently made the first ascent Floatin, a hard new problem in Mizugakiyama Natural Park, Japan. It had been known as the “launch pad project” and he graded it V16. The granite boulder only has six moves and involves a lot of feet-off dynamic throws from crimps to gastons and into a powerful deadpoint at the top.

Murai is one of the world’s top boulderers with sends of multiple V14s and V15s, and first ascents of V16s. Earlier this year, he climbed a five-year project with Nexus V16 in Shiobara. The 27-year-old found Nexus, which combines two V14s in 2016. The long problem includes 40 moves which includes a 360 and a number of powerful sections.

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.”

Also in 2019, he made the first ascent of United V16 in Japan, watch his send below.