The hardest boulders in the world (2026)

The first 9A+: Exodia

In November 2025 Italian climber Elias Iagnemma climbed Exodia, a steep boulder near the Rifugio Barbara in Italy’s Piedmont Alps, and proposed 9A+, the first boulder ever suggested at V18. It took him 211 sessions. Christian Core found the line and tried it first. Nobody has repeated it yet, so the grade is still one climber’s proposal.

Every 9A boulder

These are the boulders graded 9A (V17), in the order they were first climbed. A grade this high is a proposal until others repeat it, and some of these are still waiting for a second ascent.

Burden of Dreams, the first 9A

Finnish climber Nalle Hukkataival climbed Burden of Dreams in Lappnor, Finland, in October 2016, after about three years and more than 4,000 attempts. It was the first boulder graded 9A, and nobody repeated it for six and a half years. Will Bosi made the second ascent in April 2023, in 14 sessions, and Simon Lorenzi and Elias Iagnemma followed within a year.

The stories behind the rest

• Return of the Sleepwalker (Red Rock, Nevada): Daniel Woods spent 52 sessions on it, camping alone in the desert for the last 16 days, and sent it in March 2021. Will Bosi, Noah Wheeler and Simon Lorenzi are among those who have repeated it since.
• Soudain Seul (Fontainebleau): Simon Lorenzi spent 25 days on the sit start. To make one kneebar work he put a book under his kneepad, and the boulder is named after it. Nico Pelorson repeated it and suggested 8C+; Camille Coudert and Adam Ondra both called it soft 9A.
• Alphane (Chironico, Switzerland): Shawn Raboutou took around 25 sessions in 2022, at one point falling on the last move twice a day for ten days. Aidan Roberts, Will Bosi, Simon Lorenzi and Jakob Schubert have all repeated it.
• Spots of Time (Lake District): Aidan Roberts needed around 35 sessions, ten of them just to do the individual moves. He climbed Arrival of the Birds in Chironico a month later.
• No One Mourns the Wicked (Colorado): Nathaniel Coleman took 22 sessions for the first ascent in December 2024. Hamish McArthur made the second ascent in a single session in May 2025, while Yannick Flohé, on the fourth, suggested 8C+.
• Charlatan (Fontainebleau): Charles Albert, known for climbing barefoot, finished it in March 2026 after eight years of attempts. He gave no grade, but had earlier talked about it being around 9A.

Who has climbed the most 9As

Will Bosi and Simon Lorenzi have five each, more than half the list between them. Bosi has Burden of Dreams, Alphane, Return of the Sleepwalker, Spots of Time and his own Realm of Tor’ment. Lorenzi has his own Soudain Seul, Burden of Dreams, Alphane, Return of the Sleepwalker and Shaolin.

The hardest boulders climbed by women

No woman has climbed 9A yet. The hardest is The Dark Side (8C+, V16) in Yosemite’s Camp 4, which Katie Lamb climbed in March 2025 in 20 to 25 sessions: the first female ascent of 8C+. Before that the top was 8C (V15). Ashima Shiraishi was the first woman to climb it, on Horizon in Japan in March 2016, and Janja Garnbret, Brooke Raboutou, Jana Švecová, Mishika Ishii and Michaela Kiersch are among those who have climbed 8C since.

Why the list keeps changing

Grades at this level are opinions from very few people. The first ascensionist suggests one, repeaters agree or suggest a downgrade, and the boulders themselves change: Janja Garnbret broke an important hold while trying Mount Doom. Short boulders are especially hard to grade, because the whole grade rests on a handful of moves.

For how these grades compare with the rest of the scale, read how hard V17 is, or look up V17 and Font 9A in the grade chart.