''The Wheel of Life'' is a long sandstone

bouldering Bouldering is a form of rock climbing that is performed on small rock formations or Climbing wall, artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or Climbing harness, harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers ...

route on the roof of the Hollow Mountain Cave in the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains () is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian range extends northeast to so ...

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. When first climbed, it was graded at , one of the world's first-ever boulder routes at that grade. With repeats, it was graded at , and some consider it to really be a

sport climbing Sport climbing (or bolted climbing) is a type of free climbing in the sport of rock climbing where the Lead climbing, lead climber clips their climbing rope, rope — via a quickdraw — into pre-drilled in-situ bolt (climbing), bolts for their ...

traverse route, at the sport grade of .

History

The sandstone roof of the Hollow Mountain Cave in the

attracted some of the leading boulderers, including Austrian Klem Loskot, Swiss

Fred Nicole Fred Nicole (born 21 May 1970) is a Swiss rock climber known for his first ascents of extreme sport climbing routes and for pioneering the development of standards and techniques in modern bouldering in the 1990s and early 2000s; he is considered ...

, and Dutchman Toni Lamprecht, who had created a web of hard bouldering routes. In 2000, when Nicole sent ''Sleepy Hollow'' at , it opened up the possibility of linking up a chain of all the routes across the roof of the cave, namely: Loskot's ''X-treme Cool'' , Nicole's ''Sleepy Hollow'', Loskot's ''Cave Man'' , Loskot's ''Dead Can't Dance'' , and finally exiting via Loskot's ''Rave Heart'' . Japanese climber

Dai Koyamada Dai Koyamada (, born 23 August 1976) is a Japanese rock climber and known as one of the leading boulderers of his generation who established some of the first-ever boulder problems at . He has also established and repeated, some of the hardest ...

traveled to the Hollow Mountain Cave in April 2004, with a plan to spend over 50 days bouldering in the area and working on the full link-up. As well as repeating many routes and creating many new routes in the area, he linked up ''Sleepy Hollow'', ''Cave Man'' and ''Dead Can't Dance'' into a route he called ''Sleepy Rave'' and graded at . On May 12, 2004, Koyamada completed the full 70-move link-up and called it ''The Wheel of Life'' and proposed a boulder grade of , which would have made it the world's first-ever boulder at that grade. It took three years for the first repeat, which was by Australian climber Chris Webb Parsons in 2007. On the recovery path from a serious injury, American climber Ethan Pringle made the third ascent in 2010 and suggested that the significant length of the route made it more akin to a

route, which he felt could be at sport-grade . American climber Dave Graham made the sixth ascent in 2012 and said that "For myself, it's not possible to compare it to other boulder problems, due to its length. I must regard it as a

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

route", and that "The breakdown of the climb puts it in a league above 9a's that I have climbed, which makes me believe its 9a+". In 2013, American climber Daniel Woods made the ninth ascent and felt that it was no harder than as a boulder route, or (Ewbank 35) as a sport climbing route, because of the rests between sections. Wood's grading became the consensus for the route, and by 2016, the additional development of kneepads that can be used for extended knee bar rests between the sections, has if anything slightly further softened the consensus grade.

Variations

In November 2012, Australian climber James Kassey linked ''The Wheel of Life'' to ''Amniotic World'' , and called it ''The Wheel of Life Direct''. Kassey's variation was repeated in 2015 by Dutch climber , who felt that it did not change the then consensus grading of (as a boulder route) or Ewbank 35 (as a sport climbing route).

Ascents

''The Wheel of Life'' has been ascended by: * 1st.

on May 12, 2004 * 2nd. Chris Webb (now Taylor) Parsons on October 13, 2007 * 3rd. Ethan Pringle in June 2010 * 4th. James Kassay in September 2011 **In November 2012, Kassy linked it to ''Amniotic World'' (V9) to create ''The Wheel of Life Direct''. * 5th. Ben Cossey on 30 October 2011 * 6th. Dave Graham in June 2012 * 7th. Ian Dory in June 2012. * 8th. Alexander Megos in July 2013 * 9th. Daniel Woods in July 2013 * 10th. in November 2015; also made 2nd ascent of Kassy's ''The Wheel of Life Direct'' * 11th. Alex Barrows in May 2016 * 12th. Tom O'Halloran in October 2017 * 13th. Jake Bresnehan in September 2018 * 14th. Matt Hoschke in Feb 2019

Filmography

* Documentary on Koyamada's the first ascent: * Recorded send of Ian Dory
Ian Dory sending The Wheel Of Life, Hollow Mountain Cave, The Grampians

References

External links

The Wheel of Life 8C V15
''Hard Climbs'' (2023)
Rock Stars: 10 of the Most Famous Boulder Problems in the World
''99Boulders'' (2021)
VIDEO: Jake Bresnehan on "The Wheel of Life" (V15)
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Rock & Ice ''Rock & Ice'' is a magazine published by Outside focusing on rock and ice climbing. The first issue came out in March 1984. The first publisher was Neal Kaptain. George Bracksieck worked for him, beginning in January 1984, and the two became e ...