Will Bosi has sent his first 9b+ / 5.15c on “King Capella” and becomes the first British climber to achieve the grade! This makes only the fifth 9b+ in the world and he is one of just six people to climb at this level.
This was the first ascent of a long-term open project originally bolted by David Brasco. It’s in the La Capella area of Siurana, named for the famous “La Capella” 9b / 5.15b route. That route was also bolted by David Brasco with his brother Carles back in 1995 and first sent by Adam Ondra in 2011.
Update: Since the original send, both Alex Megos and Jakob Schubert have climbed the route, Alex gave no definite grade but thought a nearby 9b was harder, and Jakob Schubert gave “King Capella” a 9b. Read more about the route’s consensus.
Will who lives in Edinburgh said the route took only ten sessions, saying it “has the same style of the area with a series of boulder problems stacked on top of one another however this route was another level for me. For comparison, it took me three sessions to complete La Capella, whereas it took me three sessions to unlock the first sequence on King Capella“.
Bosi sent “La Capella” 9b / 5.15b in February of 2020, which made him only the second Brit to have climbed 9b. This new route is just 8 meters to the left of it and obviously named in reference. The area is a favorite of hard sport climbers and draws in many European climbers (and sun-starved Brits) looking for a challenge.
Will has now uploaded the process of redpointing with full uncut footage of the route from the ground up – watch the full thing below!
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Will has been in Spain for the past three months training and getting on hard routes in Siurana, Margalef, and the surrounding area. He has an impressive tick list in this time managing to take down “La Furia de Jabali” 9b and “Last Night” 9a (both first ascents), “First Ley” 9a+, “La Ley Indignata” 9a, and “Estado Critico” 9a.
He was also doing a lot of Bouldering in the area too as he’s a multi discipline climber. Will established a new 8C / V15 “Ulls de Bruixa” as well as multiple 8b+ repeats. He has previously climbed two other 8C / V15 boulders, “Serenata” in Roche Abbey, England and “Practice of the Wild” in Magic Wood, Switzerland.
Alex Megos commented in an instagram story that Will “is a machine”. Commenting on 8a.nu he said he’d tried and confirms “La Furia de Jabali” at 9b. He also said he’d link all the moves on “King Capella” but not linked them – though might well be back to try…
Will was one of Team GB’s Olympic Climbing 2020 hopefuls until recently. In the IFSC Europe Continental Championships he managed to get into finals but didn’t take the win. Aleksei Rubstov of Russia took first place and the final Men’s place available for Europe. Roll on Paris 2024!
“Perfecto Mundo” is one of the four other 9b+ / 5.15c climbs in the nearby town of Margalef. Given that he’s been in the area it would seem likely he’s either tried it out or possibly has plans in the future. It’s the only 9b+ to have seen three ascents – first by Alex Megos in 2018, Stefano Ghisolfi later that same year, and Jakob Schubert in 2019.
Will also managed to get featured on the definitive source for climbing first ascents – BBC Breakfast. They’ve confirmed he was being safe by utilizing “a rope round his waist”. You can see some footage and an interview on BBC iPlayer here at 1hr 50mins 30secs.
Will’s tear through Spain was all filmed and shot on camera so there should be a full film shortly. Photos courtesy of Band of Birds.
