According to his 8a logbook Ethan Pringle has, after 4 days of work, done the 3rd ascent of Dai Koyamada’s Wheel Of Life at the Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians, Australia. Given V16 after the FA, Pringle registered it as a 5.14d route climb which makes sense since the problem is a massively long 60+ move linkup of several problems in the V9-V12 range.
This ascent is especially notable in that Pringle has been recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during 2009 ABS Nationals and is just getting back into form. Looks like he is on the right track.
Here’s some video of Chris Webb Parsons on the 2nd ascent of Wheel Of Life to give you an idea the length of this climb:
Update: Climbing.com caught up with Ethan to get his thoughts on the climb and his recovery from injury.
Thank god he registered it as a route. I just think that the long boulder problems detract from other hard boulders, when it takes a different skill set to pull something like the Wheel of Life off.
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Really cool to see Ethan stick with it and come back stronger! Nice Send!
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“V16 mutterings have been heard again for the latter, although Dai figures that at sixty-plus moves, a route rating of 5.15a is probably more appropriate.”
– excerpted from an article in Climbing titled “Way of the Weekend Warrior”. Search for that article and go to page 8 to see the quote in full context. I tried to link to it but my comment wouldn’t post.
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Oops, I mean page 9.
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You don’t see many bouldering problems where the climber chalks up 30+ times!
Also, I hate to call out CWP, but it looks like he dipped a few times along the way (all minor though).
Anyone else see that?
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You mean dabbed?
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Well, technically it’s not a boulder problem anymore so it’s not really an issue, eh?
😉
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Ethan – I am two months out from labrum surgery, and just wanted to say, thank you for the inspiration! Keep pulling hard!
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Similarly, I had a major rotator cuff repair done a month ago. I’m still in a sling, but this gives me hope that I can get back to pulling hard in year or so. Way to go Ethan!
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Thanks AlliCat and Colin! It will all come back in time, don’t you worry (I did enough worrying for the three of us)
Narc, I have a logbook not a scorecard!
😉
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Ahh, my bad 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
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