Noah Wheeler Sends Sleepwalker V16, Makes Progress on V17 Sit
The Jimmy Webb classic is the young American's hardest climb to date.
On January 9, Noah Wheeler repeated Sleepwalker in Red Rock, Nevada. Established by Jimmy Webb in December 2018, Sleepwalker has since become one of the most repeated V16s in the world, seeing ascents from Daniel Woods, Nalle Hukkataival, Drew Ruana, Matt Fultz, Ryuichi Murai, and many others. Wheeler just dropped send footage of his Sleepwalker ascent, which you can watch below.
Sleepwalker has seen a surprising number of sends over the past few months. Zander Waller ticked the line in October, 17-year-old Kai Whaley topped it in November, and Zach Galla sent in December. A few days before Wheeler’s ascent, Andy Lamb completed the problem. There is some debate about the line’s grade. While most climbers have suggested V16, Zander Waller – who has quite a large wingspan – said V15 is a more appropriate grade with his beta. Wheeler has called the problem a soft V16 or a V15/16.
After sending Sleepwalker, Wheeler got to work on Return of the Sleepwalker V17, making significant progress on the problem. ROTSW is a sit start variation to Sleepwalker that was established by Daniel Woods in 2021. He spent dozens of sessions projecting the line before his eventual send, and the problem remains unrepeated. “After spending the first 3 days on Sleepwalker, I spent a remaining 4 individual days on the sit, Return of the Sleepwalker V17,” said Wheeler via Instagram. “Sufficed to say I did better than I had expected, linking into the stand pretty quickly and even sticking the sloper from the start on my last day.”
Sleepwalker is Wheeler’s first V16. The 21-year-old has four V15s to his name. He sent Defying Gravity V15 using wild campus beta in in November. In 2022, he sent three of the grade – Paint it Black in Rocky Mountain National Park, Delirium at Mt Evans, and Sound of Violence in Joe’s Valley.
Noah Walker sends Sleepwalker
