Burden of Dreams V17 May Get Its Second Ascent Soon
Will Bosi, Shawn Raboutou, and Stefano Ghisolfi are all working the problem. Bosi just had an attempt that was extremely close.
Back in 2016, Nalle Hukkataival made the first ascent of the “Lappnor Project” in Finland. He named the problem Burden of Dreams and assigned it a difficulty of V17 (9A), making it the first problem in the world at the grade. It took him nearly four years to send the problem and it has yet to see a repeat.
Over six years later and Burden of Dreams has still not seen a repeat. Several other top climbers have given attempts over the years but all have come up short. New V17’s have been established in the meantime, including Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker and Shawn Raboutou’s Alphane.
Burden of Dreams is a five-move crimp line on an 45-degree overhanging face that resembles board climbing. Everything about the problem is difficult. The holds are small and faced in awkward directions, requiring very specific finger and thumb positions. The moves are long, especially to the final three-finger crimp, necessitating powerful, dynamic movement. And the foot holds are lousy demanding an immense amount of body tension. Another big factor contributing to the lack of repeats is that the problem is located in an obscure location with a short climbing season and finnicky conditions.
With only a handful of moves and a grade of V17, Burden of Dreams may contain the most challenging series of moves on any established boulder problem in the world. Hukkataival said it has the hardest starting move he had ever attempted.
Several of the world’s best climbers are currently gunning for the second ascent of Burden of Dreams. Will Bosi, Shawn Raboutou, and Stefano Ghisolfi are all currently in Finland working the problem. After battling skin issues for the past few sessions, Scottish climber Will Bosi is getting extremely close. He just posted a video of him almost sticking the fifth and final hard move from the ground. He was heartbreakingly close:
Before his trip to Finland, Bosi trained on a plastic Burden of Dreams replica. Before arriving in Finland to try the real problem, he had completed all five hard moves in isolation on the replica, including a few links. Stefano Ghisolfi had an incredibly successful session on the replica with Bosi, which led him to travel to Finland to try his hand at the real thing as well.
“Last move of Burden of Dreams, all the pieces are coming together now!” said Ghisolfi via Instagram. “It feels possible, but this thing is HARD!”
Shawn Raboutou, the only climber on the planet to climb two V17’s, is also currently working Burden of Dreams. This appears to be his second trip to Finland to try the problem. Late last year he was able to complete all five moves in isolation as well as make a few links. He hasn’t been as public as Bosi about his recent sessions on the problem, so we’ll all have to wait and see how things progress.
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