V14 Comes To The Midwest?

Big news out the Midwest¹ over the weekend as Jim Merli² completed a 10 year project of his at Sawmill Creek Dome in Northern Minnesota, yielding a problem called L’ Étoile du Nord that is likely somewhere in the V14 range. The project in question was a sit start to a problem called The Amateur, a V12 or 13 that was also established by Merli. The low start adds several moves of even more difficult climbing to reach The Amateur's difficult crux moves.

Click the image below to see video of Merli making the first ascent of the full line, L’ Étoile du Nord

For reference, here's a video of a very strong climber who has climbed numerous V12s³, one Nic Oklobzija, unable to do the moves on The Amateur...followed by Merli making them look easy.

https://vimeo.com/99558363

Footnotes

1. Midwest defined in this case as mainly states like Iowa, Minnesota, the parts of Illinois that aren't SoIll, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan back
2. Who could also be referred to as the James Litz of the Midwest back
3. But zero V13s, obviously back

Footnotes

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