The American, who climbs at the top level around a full-time job, has made the fourth recorded ascent of Clément Lechaptois's low start in the Val de Bagnes. It took him about 15 sessions, with a summer of board training in the middle.

Fionnay sits at almost 1,500 metres in the Val de Bagnes in Valais and has become one of the hottest spots for hard bouldering in Switzerland. Its best-known block stands a few steps from a barn and the parking. Dave Graham climbed Permanent Midnight, 8A+, there in 2006. In May 2025 Clément Lechaptois added a low start and suggested 8C+. Pietro Vidi and Simon Lorenzi repeated it at the end of that summer, and now Sam Weir has made the fourth recorded ascent, as Vertical-Life reported on 15 October.

The low start adds a string of hard moves on flat undercuts with terrible feet before you join the original problem. Weir started on it in spring, straight after his repeat of Solitary Daze, an 8C on the same block. He soon had the intro dialled, which he calls hard 8C or low 8C+. Then summer rolled in. He spent two months training on his board, came back a little stronger and over the last few weeks fell one move higher in the 8A+ finish on every go, until he finally had enough left. Stefano Ghisolfi and Jules Marchaland were trying the low start alongside him this summer. "Really pleased with this one!" Weir told Vertical-Life.

Weir works full-time and fits his climbing around the job. He trains on the board twice a week for about three hours, starting with weights, which he admits he hates. Then come 45 minutes of projecting moves he can't do yet, half an hour of easier flash challenges and a short circuit. Saturdays are for projects outside, Sundays for something easier or an extra rest day.

He did his first 8C in 2017, and Vertical-Life now credits him with 25 boulders at 8C and harder. He still rates Poison the Well in Brione, which he repeated last November, as much harder and calls it 9A, if that grade exists. The block in Fionnay has one more big line waiting. The Solitary Daze low project would link the low start of Permanent Midnight into Solitary Daze, and according to the French magazine Grimper the talk is of 9A+, or a stiff 9A at the very least.

Sources: 8a.nu, Grimper, PlanetGrimpe, PlanetMountain, Climbing History

Photo: Fionnay, Olivier Bruchez, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons