Bouldering in the UK has gotten even harder, with the discovery of the ‘Britain’s hardest boulder’ in the Lake District.
Found by climbing enthusiast Dan Varien in the summer of 2023, ‘Spots of Time’, which is named after the William Wordsworth poem, has been proposed for the world’s hardest bouldering grade, V17/9A.
Now, you can watch its first successful ascent in a new documentary film by Wedge Climbing. The 15 minute film follows British bouldering trail-blazer Aidan Roberts as he conquers the near-impossible boulder for the first time.
Previously competing for Great Britain in the IFSC Climbing World Cup, Lake District local Roberts has now turned his attention to establishing and repeating Britain’s best boulder problems. Prior to Spots of Time, his problem ‘Superpowers’ was widely considered to be Britain’s most challenging boulder.
Directed by climbing videographer Sam Lawson, ‘Spots of Time 9A/V17 - Aidan Roberts Climbing Britain’s Hardest Boulder’, offers us a glimpse inside the 26-year-old's mind as he attempts to make climbing history.
“It was purely by chance that when I returned to the Lake District I discovered this incredible project,” Aidan explains in the documentary. “It necessitated the focus and complexity of the puzzle that I found motivates me so much about projecting”
After around 20 sessions of experimentation and plotting, Roberts found a route with the potential for success and began attempting the climb. Months later, after numerous failures and tweaks to his route, Roberts finally ascended Spots of Time last February.
“There's an immense satisfaction to executing something so close to your limit, and finding the state of flow that facilitates that,” Roberts continued. “I’ve put a lot of work into curating the conditions to find this flow.
“The real difficulty in the climb comes in execution…even when I'm in physical shape, at the right time, in the right conditions, it felt like there was quite a small window for me to execute all those moves well enough to do the entire climb.”
William Wordsworth coined the term ‘spots of time’, to describe small, memorable events that take place in nature.
“The idea is that we can take a large expanse of experience, and condense it into a distinct memorable moment,” Roberts explained. “Whereas on other climbs, perhaps the ascent itself feels like a big proportion of that memory, this climb feels like a contrast to that.
“When I think about that climb, I think about the entirety of the experiences I had up there.”
The Spots of Time boulder is located in the Helvellyn mountain range in England’s Lake District.
- The best women's climbing shoes 2024 for indoor climbing sessions, valley cragging and all-day mountain adventures
- How to choose climbing shoes expert advice on what to consider
