Will Bosi finally climbs Brandenburg Gate, longstanding project at Raven Tor, UK

Scotland’s Will Bosi is on an absolute roll at the moment and after making the long-awaited second ascent of Mutation at Raven Tor just a week ago, on Sunday the 22-year-old made the first ascent of what has long been regarded as the "holy grail" of British sport climbing, Brandenburg Gate at the very same crag.

Located on the steep wall to the right of Hubble which Bosi had repeated in 2016, the line is short and intense with even less holds than Ben Moon’s masterpiece. Unsurprisingly given its proximity to Sheffield, throughout the last two decades it had received attention from some of the UK’s strongest sport climbers, most notably John Gaskins who is reported to have got close in the early 2000’s. It comes as some surprise therefore that the grade suggested by Bosi is "only" 9a+, and not 9b or even harder.

It took Bosi just 8 sessions to unlock the sequence and 7 redpoint attempts to successfully clip the chains. Compare this to the 40 sessions needed to repeat Steve McClure’s Mutation and one begins to understand why Bosi has suggested 9a+.

After his success he stated "I inspected the route out of curiosity a few years back and abseiled down to feel the holds but it was only this year that I began to put some serious time into it. Once conditions improved at the crag, I began to put a number of sessions together and the sequence came together rather quickly for me and once Mutation was out of the way, it was great to return and clip the chains on this one! The climb is very similar to Hubble in a sense but the sequence of moves are a lot more complex and technically demanding. I was stuck for a while on the lower section but once I was able to unlock a sequence, the route came together really quickly for me."

"My view is that Brandenburg was a soft end 9a+, in comparison to Mutation which I regard as solid 9a+. The climbing was harder than other 9a’s I have done in the past but not by a large degree so I feel it just about deserves 9a+. However, again I look forward to seeing the route get more ascents so the grade can settle one way or the other."

TOPO: climbing at the crag Raven Tor, England