V17 Climbers Try Burden of Dreams – On Plastic

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.

British climber Aidan Roberts recently had a plastic replica made up of Burden of Dreams’ hand and foot holds. He set the holds in the exact configuration that they are found on the real problem on a wall mimicking the actual steepness of the problem. Scottish climber Will Bosi recently joined him to work the moves of the notoriously difficult problem.

Roberts has accumulated an impressive list of hard bouldering ticks. He was the first to repeat Shawn Raboutou’s Alphane V17, and he’s put up several V16 first ascents, including the U.K.’s first two V16’s: Superpowers and Isles of Wonder Low.

In October, Bosi also repeated Alphane V17. In December, he redpointed V15 and flashed V13/14 in a single day. Last month, he threw down three hard problems in Germany in a single session—a V14 flash, a V14 redpoint, and a V11 flash. In 2022 alone, he climbed eleven V14’s, twelve V15’s, two V16’s, and one V17.

You can watch the two top climbers work the Burden of Dreams replica below:

Aidan Roberts & Will Bosi on Burden of Dreams Replica