Magnus Midtbö climbing at the Bouldering World Cup in Vail, Colorado, in 2010. Midtbö finished 11th overall. Photo by Caroline Treadway
Magnus Midtbö climbing at the Bouldering World Cup in Vail, Colorado, in 2010. Midtbö finished 11th overall. Photo by Caroline Treadway
8/30/2010 - Norwegian climber Magnus Midtbö has repeated Dani Andrada's 5.15b sit-start extension to Alí Hulk in the Alí Baba cave in Rodellar, Spain.
Midtbö worked for more than three weeks on this route/boulder problem, which can be divided into two sections: the route starts with V9 bouldering and climbs 25 meters through a 5.14b horizontal roof. Midtbö, who bouldered through the first part wearing a harness, finished the route clipped into a rope. Says Midtbö on his blog, "I rested the whole day as usual, and I did it on my first try of the day. I have never put so much time towards a climb before."
This is likely the second ascent of the route. According to UKClimbing.com, there are only about eight 5.15b's in the world, and only one other 5.15b has seen a second ascent (when Adam Ondra repeated Chris Sharma's Golpe de Estado).
UPDATED: UKClimbing.com has posted an interview with Midtbö (translated from the French site Kairn.com) about his send. Read it here.