US climber Sean Bailey spent the last couple of months of 2023 shredding whatever hard boulder he could get his hands on. During his slashing tour, he stopped in Joe’s Valley, Little Cottonwood Canyon, and Bishop, establishing new problems and climbing classic hard boulders.
His sending spree started in Joe’s Valley, flashing Slasher (8B) and redpointing Black Lung (8B). Later, he shut the Doors of Perception, first ascending this 8C line in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.
During his stay in Utah, Bailey also made the second ascent of Transcience, an 8B+ testpiece established by Jimmy Webb in 2020. The weather conditions didn’t stop Shean from sending, considering he did the climb in snowy conditions.
Moving to Utah, he repeated a series of classics such as Buttermilker (8B), Spectre (8B), and the infamous Lucid Dreaming (8C). A Utah favorite, Spectre was established by legendary climber Dave Graham in 2001 and has seen repeats from world-class athletes such as Paul Robinson, Kevin Jorgeson, Carlo Traversi, Daniel Woods, Jimmy Webb, Shawn Raboutou, and Katie Lamb.
Regarding Lucid Dreaming, Bailey said in his Instagram post that it was harder than any other 8C boulders he tried.
Sean is arguably one of the most prolific and well-rounded US climbers, having climbed The Grand Illusion (8C) in Little Cottonwood Canyon and Box Therapy (8C/+) in Rocky Mountain National Park in 2020. In the following year, 2021, he sent Bibliographie (9b+) and landed three gold medals in the IFSC circuit. We can only wait to see what he’s cooking for 2024 because, most definitely, it will be an even bigger bomb than this one!
Featured image: @seanbailey
