Billy Ridal

Ill Trill (8B+) Practice of the Wild (8B+) New Base Line (8B+) Magic Wood treated me well this year 🙏🏻 I’ve spent a lot of time in Magic over the last 10 years. In many ways, it’s become my best measure of progression. Not just physically, but in my overall competency as a boulderer. I’ve been here most years, with several boulders I’ve returned to across multiple seasons, annual data points over time. Having done many of the boulders there, it might seem a reason to head elsewhere, but a narrowed focus has increasingly led me to greater, and more rewarding, challenges. I definitely haven’t tired of the place, and despite my success this trip, I left with more to come back for. Massive thanks @aronhailey for the shots and the great company, still a bunch more I’m excited to post

A few of my blocs from @climbing_gym_sen this week for their anniversary comp. A pleasure to set with you guys @ogata.yoshiyuki @nomura_shinichiro . Anyone coming down I hope you enjoy. Arigato Gozaimasu 🙏🏻

Go to final! I signed up for CWIF on a whim a few weeks back after a trip fell through, this wasn’t part of the plan! Excited to get to go out in front of the Sheffield crowd one last time, it’s a privilege I didn’t think I’d get again. I’ll do my best to keep up 😂 📹:@francesbensley

Always a pleasure to get together with the La Sportiva UK team! Feeling a part of the family, quite literally as a family owned company, is special, so thanks everyone that came and made it happen. As part of the meet we had a workshop in the new resole lab. This was a real highlight for me. Seeing the inner workings of shoes is fascinating, and gives a real appreciation for the craftsmanship that goes in to them. Now, this is going to get a little advert-y, but if you’re curious about resoles, hear me out: Being an authorised resoler is a point of difference in resoling. Aside from a guarantee of skilled craftsmen, it’s also La Sportiva supplied lasts, official spare parts, and training in the exact factory process from the La Sportiva team in Italy. Tech & expertise that is unavailable elsewhere. If you want the best possible result for your resole, this is where to look. I know perceived loss of performance has been a sticking point for many, as I’ve definitely been in that camp before. So, for last few months I’ve had a resoled pair in my bag alongside fresh ones. I’ve been on 8th grade gritstone face climbs and testing World Cup standard boulders, pushing the shoes hard. They’ve done the job without me ever feeling limited. For full transparency, if I was looking to find that extra 1% to get up a project, a brand new shoe would still be the way to go, of course. But for the vast, vast majority of scenarios, a proper resole will perform brilliantly. This also isn’t just a one time thing, if you catch your shoe at the right time (just as the sole is wearing down, but before you begin to wear in to the rand) an authorised resoler can repair the shoe multiple times, increasing longevity enormously for less than half the price of a new pair each time. Give it a try if you haven’t before, or if you did in the past and didn’t like it, give it another go, it might surprise you.

Slingshot (7C+) The first bit of sun all year couldn’t be wasted ☀️This one’s been on the to do list for a long time. I assumed the lack of attention this boulder gets must have a reason behind it, an unpleasant hold or a sand bagged grade? In fact, it’s a great sequence of board crimping and felt on grade, what’s not to like? Get after it people!

Val Masino 🌄 Despite it hosting one of the biggest bouldering festivals each year (Melloblocco), it still feels overlooked as a destination for hard bouldering. The harder classics have tens of logged ascents compared to hundreds in the neighbouring mecca of Ticino. I was guilty of this, only ending up there when bailing from a wet Chironico, but on arrival it was evident the quality and density rivalled anywhere else I’ve been to. What really stood out was the passion from the local developers to make the area what it is now. From the historical details in the guidebook to the management of the landings to make the boulders as accessible and safe as possible. That passion, quality, and obvious potential for further development, feels deserving of more attention from the international community. We had only a few days, just enough to get a feel for the place and see how much there is to do. The few in these pictures were some of the stand outs: 1: Il Sogno di Tano (7C) 2: Il Nalle (8A) 3: Variante Sera (7C+) 4: Il Sogno di Tarzan (7C) 5: Sputnik (8A) 📸:@francesbensley

Billy Ridal takes on the UK's hardest traditional route; Dave McLeod's test-piece at Dumbarton Rock, Scotland, "Rhapsody" (E11/7a), in the pursuit of fulfilling a childhood dream! The route was put up by Dave when Billy first started climbing (2006), and now signifies a clear next level achievement for Billy in his trad climbing journey. 'When I started climbing this was the biggest thing in the universe and the hardest trad route in the world.' - comments Billy. Perhaps the most impressive thing about this ascent was the remarkably short work Billy made of the route, sending on just his 5th lead attempt during two visits. A clear maker that the next generation are ready to push the standard on. Taken from our new UK trad climbing doc 'Trad Stars' part of BritRock season 7. Link in bio to watch 🔥

"You're never gonna rip the gear cause the placements are so good, but apparently you can break the gear itself!' Taken from our brand new UK trad climbing movie 'Trad Stars'; Billy Ridal makes an impressively quick repeat of 'Rhapsody' E11 7a, however this was not without a few moments of drama! The full film as well as 'Little Wings' and 30 mins of trad climbing extras will be out on BritRock+ on the 20th Dec. Subscribe now and be the first to watch online. Link in bio. 🔥

The Old Man of Hoy First climbed in 1966, the Scottish island sea stack was iconified the following year by a live BBC broadcast of an all star line up of climbers. Chris Bonington, Tom Patey, Joe Brown, Ian McNaught Davis, Pete Crew & Dougal Haston over 3 days repeated and established new lines on The Old Man, with a transfixed British audience of 23 million watching their progress. My Dad, a young child then, was one of those viewers, leaving a lasting impact on him. 60 years later, it is still a worthy challenge for any budding climber. It sits in one of the most remote parts of the British isles, without the facility for rescue, infested with vomiting fulmars, and all on ‘geographically temporary’ sandstone choss. It’s about as adventure style as climbing gets in the UK. My Dad and me started climbing at the same time and not long into that journey, the possibility for my Dad to fulfill a childhood dream was born. In 2012, along with my climbing coach, Dan, we travelled to Hoy to climb it, only to be thwarted by poor weather. Every year since it has been on the cards, but it’s taken until now to make it happen. This time accompanied by Frances and Alex (my sister’s partner), we finally made it happen, a smooth family team ascent. Thank you Dad for the unending support you have given me over the years, especially in facilitating my climbing dreams. It was a pleasure to repay that in a small way by fulfilling this one for you.

Rhapsody E11 I started climbing in 2006, the same year that @climbermacleod made the first ascent of Rhapsody, suggested at the time to be the hardest trad climb in the world. The film ‘E11’ was released not long after, immortalising the route and the process that Dave went through to complete it. That film had a big impact on 9yr old Billy making his first steps in to climbing. I didn’t exactly take a straight path since then to climbing it, but it’s always been a source of inspiration. 19 years later the route has stood the test of time, arguably still the hardest pitch of trad climbing in the UK, though I’ll leave it to pub chat to debate that. It’s been a pleasure being up on that headwall, having my own experience with a position and sequence that in some ways I already felt familiar with. The tempo of the route makes it feel really special, it builds through the initial draining crack to a decent rest and your final pieces of gear before questing in to the headwall, where unrelenting but never stopper moves allow you to fight against your fatigue, and your fear, as the lip gets closer and the gear farther away. It came together for me quicker than I anticipated, but not before the route inflicted its full weight, taking the whip right from the top floor and snapping one of the key nuts for good measure. The UK has something unique in this kind of trad, it adds bags of character to a route. Rhapsody demanded something new from me because of that character, and that made the process so much richer. A huge thank you to @francesbensley for supporting me in things like this, and for having to go through the stress of being on the other end of the rope, I appreciate it!
 Thank you also Dave for the vision back then and the source of inspiration for me. Finally thanks @britrockfilms for the photos and for coming up on short notice to get the cameras rolling.

Dandelion Mind (8B+) Bit of a surprise this one. My lime bouldering psyche has been pretty luke warm, and badger cove especially I’ve slightly avoided in recent years, feeling my fingers weren’t there for the hard stuff, so it hadn’t been high on my list. A good scene tempted me down last week to have another punt, and after a not especially encouraging start, found the extreme try hard required for the crux sequence, where previously I had been unable to pull on. The subsequent session started much the same, barely able to pull on for several goes, to suddenly linking from the ground, relatively out of no where. A rare bit of tangible progress, always something to cherish!

Cloud Gate low (FA) It’s not every day such a stunning new feature is found on the grit, so when @jimpopeonarope made the first ascent of Cloud Gate last month I was straight off to give it a go. I love this niche grappling style that only certain rock types give you. Start to finish you are climbing one continuous feature, rather than any discernible holds. Having figured out the stand, it was clear that starting lower down the feature would be possible, adding yet more sloper brawl in to an already draining sequence. Coming back a week later I managed to wrestle my way through to the end and, just barely, contort my way over the bulge to glory. I don’t think I’ve done anything which represents this style in such a pure way before, so massive props to Jim for putting the time in and having the vision to bring the climb in to being. The luxury of strutting up to it clean and ready to go is not lost on me. To the grade… Mantels bear little resemblance to your average climb and so they feel like their grading has its own spectrum entirely. I think morphology plays a larger role, and as such the experience people have seems to vary wildly. Basically, I’m not sure… How do you draw a meaningful comparison when the skill set is so distinct from most climbing, and the individual experiences don’t give consensus? I think it’s valuable to give context to your experience through a grade nonetheless, so I’m giving it my best guess. I suggest 8B for the low, with the caveat that this could vary substantially on how hard you find the stand start. I’m fairly confident that the low adds a couple grades, after that, I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♂️ Regardless, go try the stand, it’s a banger, and you’ll definitely learn something the gym doesn’t teach you.