Want to know what it takes to climb boulders at the highest level? Well, this week’s video comes straight from Red Rocks where Mad Rock athletes, Matt Fultz, Ethan Pringle and Taylor McNeill get together to take down some of the area’s supreme lines. From first ascents to repeats of Red Rock’s sandstone classics, the trio approach their projects in a variety of styles, utilising a diverse range of tactics to send. Mimicking their different personalities, their distinctive approaches to projecting give us a great insight into what you need to climb at the very limit – patience, grit and a whole lot of determination.

What’s so refreshing about this video is the perspective of three climbers that, although climbing at an incredible level, don’t seem to command as much of the
spotlight over here in the UK. Matt Fultz, in particular, has been dominating the bouldering scene over in the US, quietly becoming one of the world’s best boulderers having climbed numerous V16 lines in the last few years (https://www.8a.nu/user/matt-fultz/bouldering). The video finishes with Ethan Pringle repeating Wet Dream (V12), a Red Rocks classic that Pringle FA’d at the age of 17. Ever the visionary, we have Pringle to thank for climbing’s latest grading controversy, Bibliographie (9b+), after he bolted the futuristic route in 2011. Enjoy watching the masters at work!