Pietro Vidi has made the fourth ascent of Shawn Raboutou's 8C+ boulder Fuck the System (f8C+), in Fionnay, Val de Bagnes, Switzerland.
The boulder is the low start to the Dave Graham masterpiece Foundations Edge (f8C), which has seen ascents from some of the world's best boulderers, including Vidi in August 2023.
Upon making the first ascent of the stand in 2013, after years of effort, Graham said:
'It was an awesome climb. I battled it out, got super pumped, and didn't kill myself falling off wet top out. 19 moves, and about 12 metres long, and one my favorite pieces of climbing I have ever done'.
'The sequence is powerful and tensiony, yet flowing. I love the body positions you get into while you climb it. Very athletic, yet balancy'.
The lower start remained a long-time project until Shawn Raboutou, who made an ascent of the stand in 2018, came along in 2021 to make the first ascent.
Graham brought his journey on the boulder full-circle by making the second ascent of the full line in 2022, before Clément Lechaptois made the third ascent in 2022.
Speaking on social media about his ascent, Vidi said:
'What a process it has been on this one!'
'I first tried it last summer and couldn't really understand the tricky kneebar crux, came back this year after spending the Bavona season with the Master and felt my technical skills definitely levelled up'.
'This time I quickly unlocked the knee sequence, but eventually the already tiny foothold slightly crumbled making the technical crux even more low percentage, then a real battle with wet holds started, making me drop multiple times after the crux with wet hands'.
'After way too many days raging against MeteoSwiss and with some little beta adjustment I just convinced myself it was possible even in this conditions and just floated through the sequence on a random try'.
'For sure one of the most techical rigs I've ever climbed, huge mental battle to get it done!'
Fuck the System is Vidi's first boulder at 8C+, having made four repeats and one FA at 8C.
You can watch the video of Vidi's ascent below:
Comments
Curiously the UKC matrix won't let me refer to the route name in the comments without censoring. Double standards, I say.
Indeed. The system is f***ed.
Swearing is useful in certain limited contexts to add emphasis. In others it is just tedious and unnecessary.
Does the importance of the fourth ascent of some boulder problem really warrant the word f* ck?
My own question is: which particular system is Shawn Raboutou (a pro climber, apparently sponsored by various commercial companies) asking to be f-ucked?
He's American, so it's probably the UK Trad grading system as it might be a bit difficult for him to understand.