Sean Bailey on form in US with V16/Font 8C+ first ascent
- Thursday 1st February 2024
Sean Bailey is on great form at the moment smashing out the boulders in the US with a first ascent of a long-standing project going at “Probably V16/Font 8C+”.
Sean Bailey, seemingly having recovered from the disappointment of not qualifying for the Paris Olympics, is currently tearing through a series of hard boulder ascents in the US doing hard flashes, early repeats and first ascents.
In late November he flashed Slasher (V13/Font 8B) and then repeated Black Lung at the same grade. In early December he made the first ascent of The Doors of Perception (V15/Font 8C) on December 8th. Commenting on his first ascent Bailey said “Pretty psyched to get the FA on a pretty legendary LCC one. Tried this line a few years ago and thought it was up my alley but didn’t get back until this season. Such a cool combination of power, extremely tech feet and subtle positioning. With not a lot of holds yet somehow a lot of options it was an interesting process to find beta and decide which ideas were worth pursuing.” Following this he made the second ascent of Transience (V14/Font 8B+), a highball Jimmy Webb addition, topping out with snow on the holds.
Moving across to Bishop in later December, Bailey started his campaign there with an ascent of Buttermilker (V13/Font 8B) before doing Lucid Dreaming (V15/Font 8C) on Xmas day. Writing about his ascent, Bailey commented that this felt hard for the grade for him and was one of his hardest ascents to date, “Regarding the grade I thought this thing was hard. Significantly harder than any v15’s I’ve tried and I think in a good style for me. Regardless psyched to put it down felt like my hardest boulder yet.” Repeats of Spectre (V13/Font 8B) and The Mandala Sit (V14/Font 8B+) followed.
News now however is that Bailey has made the first ascent of long-term project on Peabody Boulder at V16/Font 8C+. Chris Sharma kicked-off with a first ascent on this boulder with what became known as Evilution to the Lip (V10/Font 7C+). Sharma climbed to the lip of the giant boulder and then jumped off. Jason Kehl then climbed the highball finish to Sharma’s boulder which became Evilution (V12/Font 8A+) - albeit Kehl followed a slightly different line. Bailey’s efforts involve adding a hard low start to the boulder which he then climbed with the slightly more direct line of Evilution Direct (V11/Font 8A) whereas Kehl’s ascent involved a more circuitous line to the left.
Although Bailey’s low start ‘only’ adds two moves to the start of Evilution but they are said to be hard, body tension and are the crux of the whole line. Bailey sums up his thinking on the grade of the line saying, “I’m thinking it’s probably V16”.
Bailey hasn’t posted on his Instagram page yet about his addition but follow him here to see what he says about it downstream.