Second Ascent of V16 Boulder

Chris Webb Parsons has made the second ascent of The Wheel of Life (V16) in the Grampians of Australia. More like a route than a boulder problem, the massive cave climb, established by Japan’s Dai Koyamada in May 2004, requires more than 60 moves. 

Webb Parsons, 22, worked on the problem for much of September, eventually managing to complete Sleepy Rave (V15), which does all of The Wheel of Life except for a V8/9 start. Going for the full link-up, the young Australian fell a dozen times at the very end. He then had to return home to Sydney, and it took a return visit a couple of weeks later to complete the problem. 

Webb Parsons has bouldered as hard as V14 in Europe, including an ascent of Chris Sharma’s full Unendliche Geschichte (V14) at Magic Wood in Switzerland. 

Koyamada, meanwhile, has returned to Europe and is tearing through hard problems in the Frankenjura of Germany. The Japanese climber has repeated the Markus Bock problem Montecore (V15), as well as several V13 and V14 problems, the hardest of which he thought was Riot Act (V14). According to 8a.nu, Koyamada’s ultimate goal in Germany is to repeat Bock’s 5.15a sport climb Corona. 

Date of Ascent: October 13, 2007 (The Wheel of Life) 

Sources: 8a.nu, webbyclimb.blogspot.com, Boulderrausch.de

Read the report from 2004 — Koyamada Completes V16  

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YouTube clip of Cave Man (V10) at the Hollow Mountain Cave in the Grampians; it's the middle section (V9/V10) of The Wheel of Life.