Gripped Magazine

Home | News Shawn Raboutou recently announced his ascent of Floatin V16 (8C+) in Mizugaki, Japan. The granite boulder only has six moves and involves many feet-off dynamic throws from crimps to gastons, as well as a powerful deadpoint at the top.”Doesn’t get much better than this,” he said on Instagram.

Home | Profiles The North Face Climb Festival is taking place this week at the Royal Docks in East London, bringing together some of the world’s top climbers, including members of The North Face athlete team. More than 35,000 free tickets were reserved online in the weeks leading up to the highly anticipated festival. The festival centres around a 14-metre-tall deep-water-solo wall suspended over the water, with multiple shoreline viewing areas capable of accommodating thousands of spectators.

Home | Indoor Climbing Alberto Ginés López won his first World Climbing (formerly IFSC) gold medal in the Lead competition in Chamonix, France, this past weekend. He was the first climber to win an Olympic gold medal in the sport at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics (the old format of Lead, Boulder and Speed combined). Although he has come incredibly close to taking first place countless times since then, a World Climbing gold had eluded him – until now. It was a dramatic finale to the men’s competition.

Home | News James McHaffie’s direct start to Mission Impossible (E9 7a), called Yma O Hyd 5.14R trad (E10 7a), was climbed three times in a single day by three veteran gear climbers: Hazel Findlay, James Taylor, and Tom Pearce. Yma O Hyd, found at Skyline Buttress in the Ogwen Valley, is one of the hardest trad climbs in North Wales, an area known for hard trad climbs.

Home | News After climbing her first 5.14d last year, Quinn Mason has added another hard Squamish testpiece with a send of Spectre Del Norte 5.14c. “Maybe the most sweaty, pumped, and chalky I’ve ever been,” Mason said. “An incredible reminder of what it’s like to be terminally pumped but somehow keep climbing.” The route links the cruxes of Spirit of the West 5.14a into Queen Bee 5.13c via a technical crux on tiny crimps.

Home | News The American Alpine Club (AAC) has announced the 2026 Cutting Edge Grant recipients. For more than a century, the AAC has supported expeditions to remote mountain ranges featuring unclimbed peaks, difficult new routes, first-free ascents, and other world-class objectives. The Cutting Edge Grant is supported in part by Black Diamond Equipment. Chantel Astorga received $7,000 to attempt the ENE face of Shivling in the western Garhwal Himalaya.

Home | Profiles Assigning a grade or level to a boulder problem (or any climb, for that matter) is complicated. A grade must account for many factors, including strength, power, and technique, each of which encompasses a wide range of variables. It is no wonder that climbing gym setters face an insurmountable challenge when it comes to grading boulders in their gyms.

Home | News Wildfires continue to burn the Forest of Fontainebleau, one of the world’s most iconic bouldering destinations and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located around 70 kilometres southeast of Paris. The forest is home to famous biodiversity, with approximately 5,000 plant species and 6,600 known animal species, while attracting climbers from around the world to its famous sandstone boulders.

Home | News Shauna Coxsey has just announced her ascent of Quiet Storm V14 (8B+) in Gotthard Pass in Ticino, Switzerland. It was a quick send for her. The main objective of her trip has been Hazel Grace Sit V15/16, but a muscle tear in her forearm and an unprecedented heat wave have contributed to a delay of her send. “It sure felt nice to try hard and get to the top of a boulder after lots of time spent mostly slipping and sliding around on my project,” said Coxsey on Instagram.

Home | News Jakob Schubert sent Shaolin V17 (9A) in Red Rock, Nevada in February this year. It was his third of the grade, and came just a couple of months after he climbed his second V17, Mount Doom, in Maltalal, Austria (in November 2025). A video of Schubert’s send of Shaolin has just been released on his YouTube channel – you can view the send footage below.