Gripped Magazine
Noah Wheeler Is First American to Send Burden of Dreams V17
Noah Wheeler just announced that he sent Burden of Dreams V17 (9A). It took him seven sessions across two trips to unlock the problem. The V17 is his third of the grade, his first being Daniel Woods’ Return of the Sleepwalker and his second, Sean Bailey’s Shaolin. Wheeler made news a couple days ago when he shared a video of him topping Burden, but dabbing his foot on a crashpad along the way.
“Some moments are so surreal that they feel unfinished even after they’ve happened,” said Wheeler on Instagram after his ascent. “Sent 2 goes after my dab ‘link.’ Had a flight booked for 6AM the next day. Really had to push my headspace to find sufficient presence for the send. Right now I am just grateful for the places this sport has brought me and the wonderful people I have met along the way. Content and striving for more.”
Burden has long been considered one of the hardest boulder problems in the world, but new beta has perhaps tamed its bite. Wheeler marked the problem as “soft” on his 8a.nu page. He had this to say about the problem compared to Shaolin: “Got to the last move [of Burden] from start every session. I think every move has to be over 75% success rate in [isolation] to send. Extremely in-style such that I would guess this is objectively harder than Shaolin, but easier for me.”
This is not the first time that a climber has needed to top Burden of Dreams twice to get the send. Last year, Sungsu Lee topped topped the problem, but only realized later while watching footage that he ever so slightly dabbed the pad. After lifting his butt off the pad in the sit start, he did one pump before shooting up to the second hold with his right hand. During the downwards motion of the pump, his shirt (and likely his butt) brushed the pad. He went shirtless for his send to avoid making the same mistake twice.
Burden of Dreams was opened by Nalle Hukkataival way back in 2016. It took Hukkataival nearly four years to send the problem. Hukkataival’s beta is what most people think of when they think about the beta for Burden of Dreams. He used a five-move sequence to move up the short, 45-degree overhanging face. Many different betas have been innovated since then.
After Hukkataival’s first ascent back in 2016, Burden of Dreams sat for over six years without a repeat. Many of the world’s best tried their hand at the problem, including Daniel Woods and Shawn Raboutou.. In April 2023, Will Bosi made the coveted second ascent of the problem, using nearly identical beta as Hukkataival. Simon Lorenzi then made the third ascent in December 2023, Elias Iagnemma the fourth in March 2024, and Lee the fifth in May 2025. Makoto Yamauchi topped the problem just last month. Wheeler’s ascent is the seventh.
Wheeler’s dab attempt of Burden of Dreams
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