You could call the things on the surface of ‘Trieste’ (V14) in Red Rock Canyon ‘holds.’ Really, they’re pieces of the boulder that face the wrong direction. Here, Brooke Raboutou fights them, and wins.
Walking through the Nevada desert, climber Brooke Raboutou casually affects a street-tough demeanor. She shadowboxes the camera lens and cocks her head: “Hey y’all. Let’s do this shit.”
The scene cuts, and she works the moves on “Trieste,” a striking Daniel Woods testpiece in Red Rock Canyon, just outside Las Vegas. Notice Raboutou’s body tension as she forces the heinous, down-facing loaves that pass for holds on the proud, steep block to cohere. Right from the first move, she’s like a spider made of steel cables.
And if you’re in the “how scary could it be, it’s just bouldering” crowd, watch Raboutou’s gritty precision up the (sand-dusted?) slab at the top. If she were as erratic as camera operator Shawn Raboutou’s breath, she’d be on the ground in a heap.
Instead, the 20-year-old Brooke Raboutou focuses on the next “hold,” intent on the top of one of Red Rocks’ proudest hard boulders.
Runtime: 7 minutes
