Gripped Magazine
Katie Lamb Tops Two V14s in a Day
Katie Lamb just announced that in October, she sent Bügeleisen V14 (8B+) and Hide and Sick V14 (8B+). Both problems are located in Maltatal, Austria, and impressively, Lamb topped both problems during the same bouldering session.
Bügeleisen was established by Klem Loskot in 2001. The problem is crimpy, and its severely overhanging flat face resembles the object after which it was named, an iron. Bügeleisen has seen repeats from many top climbers, including Nalle Hukkataival, Paul Robinson, Yannick Flohé, and Aidan Roberts, among others. In 2022, Janja Garnbret made the first female ascent of the problem. Two years later, she also made the FFA of the sit-start version of the problem, which clocks in at V15.
Hide and Sick is a crimpy and shouldery line, established by Slovenian climber Jernej Kruder in 2016. Paul Robinson made the second ascent the following year, and since then it’s been sent by a few other top climbers like Martin Stráník, Nicolai Užnik, and Janja Garnbret.
“I’ve been enamored with Bügeleisen for a while — Klem’s FA in 2001 feels ahead of its time, not just for the difficulty but also the quality, and also I’m obsessed with the name,” said Lamb on Instagram. “It’s a style I think I’m pretty good at, which brings its own weird challenges. It’s easy to fall into the trap of chasing the moving target of my own expectations and climb defensively, as though I have something to lose. In the end, I was happy to do both Bügeleisen and Hide & Sick (V14) somewhat arbitrarily in the same day. After a summer of training in the gym, it was a nice reminder that it’s always good to be out there bugelizing.”
Lamb is one of the best boulderers in the world. In March this year, she made the first female ascent of The Dark Side V16 in Yosemite, becoming the first woman to climb the grade. Interestingly, it was actually her second time becoming the first woman to climb V16. In 2023, she repeated Box Therapy in Colorado, a problem at the time considered V16. After her ascent, the problem was downgraded by Shawn and Brooke Raboutou, a grade assessment that the first ascensionist, Daniel Woods, agreed with.
She had an incredible season last year. In May that year, she made the first ascent of 24 Karat, a stunning V11 highball in Yosemite. In August, she topped Equanimity V15, a line Jimmy Webb described as a “contender for the hardest technical boulder in the world.” Later in the year she made first female ascents of David Fitzgerald’s Echo Chamber V14 and Webb’s Fallen Angel V15, both located in Tahoe. She also topped The Rookery V14 in Yosemite.
Klem Loskot’s FA of Bügeleisen V14
Jernej Kruder’s FA of Hide and Sick V14
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