Toru Nakajima has made the first ascent of a new boulder in Ena, Japan, and has named it 'Regret'. 

Nakajima, who has previously climbed an 8C+ and eight boulders at 8C, shared news of the ascent on social media, where he said:

'So, I finally finished up this project on the right side of Emotion V14 in Ena, Japan. It started off with two high crimps, and then it was just three moves to the top with my beta. It took me over twenty days to connect these three moves together'.

'This rock is at the entrance of Ena, so I think the line is famous. I had been itching [to try] this since I climbed Emotion ten years ago. I started trying last season and by the third day, the move was solved. I thought I would be able to climb it right away, but I was terribly misguided'.

'Spending twenty days on just three moves, in freezing cold, is something I'll never forget. But, wow, those twenty days were something else. Hands down, it was the hardest climbing challenge I've faced. But if you ask me the grade, I couldn't tell you. It feels harder than Lucid Dreaming V15 in Bishop, US, which is kinda similar, but then again, who's to say if a three-move V16 is a thing?'

'While trying this challenge, I often thought back to my twenty days on Emotion ten years ago. Just like anything else, looking back helps you get the full picture. Hopely someday I will know about this problem'.

Whilst Nakajima may be uneasy about the idea of proposing 8C+ for a three move boulder, he's well versed in boulders where the extreme difficulty is packed into very few moves. Prior to the recent flurry of interest in Burden of Dreams, Nakajima was one of the only climbers dedicating significant amounts of time to the boulder, having spent almost twenty sessions on it across four trips. 

You can watch a video of Ryohei Kameyama's ascent of Emotion, 8B+, below, Nakajima's new boulder is visible just to the right of it.