Carlo Traversi frees The Dark Side, 8C+ boulder in Yosemite

35-year-old American climber Carlo Traversi has completed his long-term bouldering project in Yosemite valley, calling it The Dark Side and grading it 8C+. As such, it is now the hardest boulder in the valley.

The Dark Side is located not on some obscure boulder somewhere in the valley, but right in the the middle of Camp 4, on the left side of the famous Thriller boulder. This hosts Ron Kauk's 1984 testpiece which gave the boulder its name, Jerry Moffat's 1991 powerful V11 addition The Force.

Traversi explained that he had been unable to imagine the problem in 2003 when he first visited the boulder and was incapable of climbing either of those legendary lines, and it wasn't until 2013 that "it popped right out of the wall and I haven’t been able to take my eyes off it since."

Traversi, who in 2018 made the first repeat Beth Rodden's trad masterpiece Meltdown, invested 50+ sessions in this problem over the last 7 years. After his successful ascent he stated "It’s definitely my most difficult climb and the most work I’ve put into anything in my personal climbing." And as valley local Tommy Caldwell pointed out on Traversi's social media handle, the ascent is "a particularly big moment for Yosemite bouldering."