Isabelle Faus climbs Amandla 8B+ in Rocklands, South Africa

At the end of August 22-year-old Isabelle Faus from Boulder, Colorado, travelled to Rocklands in South Africa where she managed to repeat Amandla, an extremely crimpy 8B+ first climbed by Swiss bouldering legend Fred Nicole a decade ago.

Faus' remarkable ascent doesn’t come from out of the blue: according to www.rockandice.com at the end of 2014 she sent her first 8B, Epochalypse at Flagstaff Mountain, while at the start of summer she sent the 8B Nuthin but Sunshine established by Dave Graham at the Rocky Mountain National Park. After her South Africa trip, Faus made the most of her form to repeat The Shining in Chaos Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park. As it happens, this Jimmy Webb 8B was also repeated yesterday by Austria’s Katharina Saurwein.

With her ascent the American joins the select list of female climbers capable of sending boulder problems of this absolute difficulty. This includes Tomoko Ogawa who set the ball rolling in 2012 with her ascent of Catharsis at Shiobara in Japan and then, in 2014, Ashima Shiraishi (Golden Shadow, Rocklands, South Africa), Shauna Coxsey (New Base Line, Magic Wood, Switzerland) and Alex Puccio (Jade, Rocky Mountains National Park, USA). While this list isn't long, it is growing rapidly and it is clear that the first female 8C boulder problem is only a question of time.

Click here to watch the video of Faus climbing Amandla www.island.io