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Watch Story About New V16 Climber Aidan Roberts

He quickly rose to the top of the U.K. bouldering scene over the past year

Every now and then, you get to witness a run of cutting-edge performance that defines an era of the sport. Even rarer, is when you see that purple patch unfold in an area that’s not in the media spotlight and is renowned for sandbag grading.

This past summer, saw Aidan Roberts climb not just a couple of outstanding Lakeland boulder projects, but a whole slew of FAs and repeats up to V16 in just a six week period. We’re also not talking of lines ignored by the best – they’d already seen attention – they are problems that climb some of the proudest boulder faces in the Lakes and show off the best of British climbing.

This film follows Roberts repeating multiple V13s to then establishing first ascents all the way up to V15 and V16 with Superpowers and Outliers. While you all know these grades have been climbed before elsewhere, you may not know the context of Roberts and the Lakeland grading – he’s not soft and neither are the grades.

One of his FAs from Colorado established previously (Railway, V15) has been tried by some of the world’s best boulderers and yet has only had a single repeat by Matt Fultz…

“World Class” also dives into interviews to get the opinions and experiences of two of Aidan’s close allies – and also elite boulderers – Dan Varian and Jack Palmieri. Both of them explain the significance of this run of climbing form and provide the perfect contextual backdrop to some stunning climbing footage. If anyone’s opinion on British bouldering matters, it’s these guys. They’ve both established and repeated hundreds of Font V11s and above, all over the UK and have watched Aidan progress in his climbing.

First Ascents in Film

– Superpowers V16 (Ladstones)
– Outliers V15 (Trowbarrow)
– Railway V15 (Colorado)
– Flip off at the Opera V14/15 (Bowderstone)
– Tranquilitas V14/15 (Kentmere)
– Copperline V14 (Coppermines)
– Hathi Junior V13 (Swarthbeck Gill)
– Lady of the Forest V13 (Kentmere)
– Lad powers V12 (Ladstones)

Aidan Roberts

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