Stefano Ghisolfi Has Impressive Session on Burden of Dreams V17 Replica

Coming off his big send of the very bouldery Excalibur 5.15c, Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi recently decided to test out his bouldering skills on a plastic version of one of the hardest problems in the world. He met up with Scottish climber Will Bosi to work the moves on the now famous Burden of Dreams V17 replica. A video of their session together was just released.

Made from a 3D scan of Burden of Dreams’ hand and foot holds, the replica has been set in the exact configuration of the real problem on a wall that mimics the actual steepness of the problem.

Ghisolfi and Bosi both had a very successful session on the plastic Burden. Impressively, Ghisolfi was able to compete three of the five moves, flashing several of them. Bosi finally stuck the notoriously difficult first and last moves of the problem, meaning that he had now completed all the individual moves of the boulder.

Bosi is now in Finland projecting the real Burden of Dreams V17. He livestreamed his first session on Instagram and has since posted the video to Youtube. In his first session on the rock, he was able to successfully stick all the individuals moves as well as link moves two to four.

This is not the first time Ghisolfi has tried a V17 boulder problem. Back in October 2022, he spent a session working the moves of Alphane V17 with Shawn Raboutou.

Ghisolfi is one of the world’s best sport climbers. He has climbed four 5.15c’s: Excalibur in Arco, Perfecto Mundo in Margalef, Change in Flatanger, and Bibliographie in Céüse. In 2022, he repeated Adam Ondra’s Move 5.15b, and put up two 5.15b’s of his own in Italy, The Lonely Mountain and L’arenauta.

Burden of Dreams V17

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.

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.

Stefano Ghisolfi on Burden of Dreams V17 Replica