Highlight: Why is Return of the Sleepwalker V17/9A so hard?

May seem like an obvious question, but in this podcast highlight, Nate Williams shares his experience with projecting Return of the Sleepwalker, a V17/9A boulder problem, and the challenges he faces with friction control and conditions. Nate also talks about his projecting and beta sharing with Will Bosi, and how they optimise weather and friction conditions for best attempts.

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Transcript

nate williams (00:00)
the individual moves on the low boulder are quite a bit harder than any moves on sleepwalker. And then eventually you get to where...

all the moves are kind of like, you know, pretty easy to do, but then doing like just three in a row is super hard. Cause they build, like every move is really hard. There's no like just free move. Like, so like it's on you the entire time. And that's what makes it so hard.

Um.

Oh, how-

Yeah, yeah and that's why like You know back well, I guess it's not the podcast but back What we were talking about earlier is like how that moved to the sloper is probably, you know Like for me, it's maybe the one of the easiest moves on the whole boulder in isolation Because you can like really control the friction and you can like with perfect friction that moves not very hard But from the sit you are never gonna have perfect friction and without perfect friction that move like

is so difficult to do. You just have to be a lot stronger than the move to do it.

Exactly. Yeah. Um, but...

But I was talking about it with my roommate, Zach, who's going to Bishop today. There needs to be a climbing term for it. And I've just been calling it friction control because it's just such a variable in hard bouldering.

I feel like at this point, the actual muscle fatigue and endurance stuff that the low boulder should add isn't really affecting me anymore. It's just like when I arrive at the Redpoint crux, it's just like I'm just not as sticky as I am when I'm doing it in isolation. And that's what's making it so difficult.

And like, yeah, I've just been calling it, it's in control.

Like... Yeah.

So it's a lot about really finding the sweet spot for the skin when you pull on. Because you know, if your skin is too warm, you're just going to be sweaty. And I'm a pretty sweaty climber myself. But if you get your hands too cold, you're just going to be numb and have no chance. So it's an extremely difficult balance to find. And I feel like I still haven't quite figured it out. And then you know, it's like...

It's like different day to day because you know, it's not always gonna be the same weather up there. So like That's been really difficult for me to figure out. I've been using Liquid chalk like just a tiny amount on my finger like so I can like get my hands pretty warm But if I just use a little bit of liquid shop Just on my pads it like dries them up enough right before I point. I feel like that's been working pretty well, but yeah, it's just like the

The crux undercling and then like the intermediate pinch you grab like the rock is super glassy So if you're you know, if your skin's cold and numb like when you arrive there You just can't like it's just it's all you pulling. You can't like there's like no stick at all. But like

And that's what makes the sit start so, so hard. But even on the stand start, the crux undercling, that's the second hold you grab. So you really have a lot more friction control when just doing the stand. Because you can lick your fingers, or use a fan, use a heater, do whatever.

and you just arrive there a lot faster. Whereas a sit, you've done like nine or 10 moves before getting there, so you kind of lose that ability to control how the holds are gonna feel. And that's what makes it, that's for me is like the crux of returning the sleepwalker, is just having good friction when you arrive at the sloper move.

Hopefully that wasn't too confusing. Yes. Yeah, so the big problem with sleepwalker, especially, so like we just had a ton of rain, right? The big problem with sleepwalker is the boulder's in a wash, so if it rains a ton, it like will collect, you know, higher up in the cannon, and it just runs right under sleepwalker, so it makes like...

It makes the whole area feel super humid, which for me as a sweaty climber, Will seems pretty sweaty as well. So it's been difficult. Yesterday was really difficult. And yeah, it just makes it like...

really hard because like when it's super human you know you have to have your hands be even like colder to be dry and so like yesterday I was like numbing out every try but I had you know just to get through the bottom boulder I had to have like dry skin so it makes it really difficult like the best conditions for me are when it's warmer and dry and yesterday I was cold and humid

I feel like our beta is actually pretty different. He does kind of like a more technical, faster way to climb the bottom.

where he, so he like does the first two moves the same, but then he gets this like kind of bad heel toe cam. And then instead of going to the, like the start hold of sleepwalker as a Gaston, he just goes to it as an undercling and it's like super intense on your wrist and you have to be like super mobile in your wrist for it to work. But it works super well for him and it's like super, super scrunchy. I've kind of played with it like a little bit, but not, I haven't really given it a real chance.

I just kind of feel like I'm a little too big for that beta and like the shoulderway for me Doesn't feel super hard, but I'm it's not quite as fast as his beta But we pretty much do the stand start the exact same way

And I feel like I'm pretty helpful to him, but I feel like my betas, you know, like mostly already figured out. But he just makes like his beta for the bottom looks so good that I'm like, it's kind of bugging me that I maybe should have been trying it his way. I don't know. Oh.

Yeah, I've played around on it and I definitely think I could do it. I just have like my way so dialed and like, I mean, I've gotten like to the crimp with my beta so like it will work. So it's just like, I don't know, it just seems like I shouldn't change anything because I was so close.