Climbing back-to-back, the Raboutou siblings , Brooke and Shawn, sent Daniel Woods’s Box Therapy (V16/8C+). Just a month after Katie Lamb’s FFA of Box Therapy, the Raboutou family came armed with a set of pads and a video camera and settled to make history once again.
The 22-year-old Olympian climber, along with her brother, managed to repeat this world-famous line set in Wild Basin, right on Tommy Caldwell’s Spread Eagle (V11) boulder.
Box Therapy had previously been climbed by Drew Ruana and Sean Bailey with Boston’s Katie Lamb, making her the fourth climber and first-ever female to send this problem. Until the Raboutous, everyone settled on the V16/8C+ consensus but now, the question has been asked – is it really V16?
After consulting with her brother Shawn, a well-seasoned V16 and above climber, they settled that Box Therapy might be solid V15. The decision was based on the fact that compared to the benchmark V15 routes Brooke had tried before, this one was pretty easy to send, after just a few sessions.
This wasn’t Brooke’s first encounter with Box Therapy; she gave it a shot last year in September, and it’s quite clear that she made wonderful progress by sending it now, and rather quickly.
The Raboutous are arguably one of the strongest families of climbers in the US and in the World, with Brooke having top performances in the World Cup circuit, and being part of Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
After taking fifth place in August at the IFSC World Championships in Bern, Brooke missed an opportunity to receive her invitation to the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she still has one last shot at the Pan-American Games in Santiago which are happening right now!
Featured image: @brookeraboutou/📸@finn.stack
