One year after her historic ascent of Box Therapy (8C+), American Katie Lamb is once again bouldering very hard. In Kirkwood Lake, California, she is the first woman to repeat the ultra-technical 8C boulder Equanimity.
Katie Lamb is definitely one of the strongest boulderers in the world. With Box Therapy, she was the first woman to conquer grade 2023C+ in September 8. She skipped grade 8C at the time. The strong American recently achieved this with the First Female Ascent of equinimity in Kirkwood Lake.
Equanimity: mental stress test
After her ascent, Katie Lamb said that the process of climbing Equanimity was primarily characterized by mental challenges. Why? Because she used the boulder as an opportunity to add new skills to her movement repertoire. "I wanted to make this low angle tech style a strength."
"The crucial point for me was the process of losing trust and rebuilding it to a point of unshakable faith." In the end, she found the right mindset and was able to complete Equanimity (8C).
Candidate for the most technically demanding boulder
The 8C boulder was opened in November 2020 by Carlo Traversi and later repeated by Jimmy Webb and David Fitzgerald. The very technical line requires a complex mix of laybacking and standing on friction holds and demands even more perfect body position and balance.
How difficult the boulder is is underlined by a quote from Jimmy Webb, who, after climbing Equanimity, asked the question: "Possibly a candidate for the hardest technical boulder in the world?" The footholds are nonexistent and he had trouble even finding a way through the seam-like cracks that run conspicuously up the wall.
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Credits: Cover picture Katie Lamb