Drew Ruana sent “Box Therapy” 8C+ / V16 just last week. Watch the full uncut video from Mellow now. Amazing cover photo by @agrphoto.
This makes the second ascent of the problem near Box Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park. The first ascent was by Daniel Woods back in October 2019 and was a link up that added a sit to “Spread Eagle” 8A / V11. The original boulder was found by Tommy Caldwell and his dad Mike Caldwell, where Tommy put up “Spread Eagle” in 2007.
The boulder requires a 6 and a half mile hike out, and then the same back. Earlier this year he climbed “Sleepwalker” 8C+ / V16 which is a Jimmy Webb problem in Black Velvet Canyon. He climbed his first 9A sports route at 16 years old…
Ruana was also on the US Olympics team for sport climbing but narrowly missed out on qualifying in Hachioji 2019. Since then he’s been focusing all of his energy on outdoors climbing and bouldering – leading to these very impressive ascents.
