Climber	Suggested Grade	Date	Notes
Daniel Woods	V17/9A	30th Mar 2021	FA. Instagram Post, Video
Will Bosi	V17/9A	20th Feb 2024	Second ascent Instagram Post

The Route

Daniel Woods envisioned Return of the Sleepwalker by adding a six-move sit start to the already infamous Sleepwalker V16. Sleepwalker was established by Jimmy Webb in 2018 after eleven solid days of effort. He had been working the boulder alongside Daniel Woods and Keenan Takahashi. Talk about a powerful team, huh? Wood’s nabbed the second ascent roughly a month later and confirmed the V16 grade but was clearly not satisfied. 

He came back for more, three years later, stronger than ever, and hungry to bring the sit start dream to fruition. After a crazed three-month physical and mental battle on the sandstone boulder, Woods mantled over the top and thus established the United State’s hardest boulder (at the time) and cemented his throne as the world’s top boulderer – a throne that since then has seen some serious competition.  

The climb’s difficulty is almost unfathomable when the sequence is broken down – it adds six moves of V13 directly into the V16 with no rest. This is made even more impressive when the nature of Sleepwalker is taken into consideration; the boulder is by no means a one-move wonder. Jimmy Webb describes every individual move as being at least V9 or V10 with some much harder. It all culminates in a huge move to a sloper with a small incut crimp in the back. Once established on this, the climber must bear down and make a big huck out left to the victory hold.

Every move requires a high level of precision, and it must be climbed with incredible efficiency to save enough steam for the final two improbable, low-percentage moves. So it comes as no surprise that adding six more extremely difficult moves of V13 straight into this raises the stakes by a large margin and knocks the grade up from V16 to the ultimate V17.

First Ascent

30th Mar 2021: Daniel Woods

The story of Daniel Wood’s ascent is one of painstaking persistence and willpower. He completely altered his lifestyle to send the boulder, cutting out alcohol, smoking, and caffeine, fully dedicating himself to the climb. During the three months it took him to send, he delved into an obsessive mindset; his whole world revolved around the climb. In the beginning, he had the company of Jimmy Webb, Sean Bailey, and Shawn Raboutou. After they left, it turned into a solitary pursuit. He describes this experience in an interview with Climbing Magazine:

‘’For a good month, I was solo. I’d go up there and session alone. I switched from staying in an Airbnb to camping—put myself in isolation to really get into my head, and just be away from everything, be in the desert, review footage, get psyched, and just get raw with it. For the final 20 days, I camped 20 minutes away from the climb and went full crazy mode.’’

Because of this isolation, the boulder became as much of a mental battle as it was physical. Woods spoke of dealing with doubts about whether the process of trying the boulder was healthy for him. He didn’t know if it was possible and being out there for days on end and completely isolated was not without its mental health impacts. He worked through this by reminding himself of the personal growth coming out of the process, send or no send.

The physical side of things should also not be understated. In the process of trying ROTSW Woods climbed Sleepwalker 15-20 times, once climbing it four times in a single session. He climbed every move countless times, slowly but surely dialing in all the micro-beta. By the end of the process, he was able to get to the sloper four times in a day and the last move a couple of times as well. On the day of the send, he warmed up and climbed it on his first redpoint go.

Second Ascent

20th Feb 2024: Will Bosi

After multiple sessions, Will Bosi has finally made the first repeat of Return of the Sleepwalker. Will spend three days on the stand start, Sleepwalker, and managed to send it first go on the third day. He did however downgrade it from a V16 to a V15.

This sent speculations regarding the downgrade of Return of the Sleepwalker too. If Sleepwalker is a V15, does that mean Will would downgrade ROTSW too? Will announced his send of ROTSW and confirmed the grade as V17.

Will has now become the first rock climber to have climbed three confirmed V17 boulders! What a guy!

Return of the Sleepwalker hadn’t seen any ascents until recently, marking it as one of the hardest boulders in the world. The under the radar Chatanooga raised climber Nathan Williams was out in the canyon putting in a similarly obsessive effort to Wood’s on the sit, after climbing the stand in 2021. He was a strong contender for making the first repeat of ROTSW but was beaten by Will Bosi. Let’s see who claims the third ascent!