Bloodsport 8A+/B

Bloodsport (also written Blood Sport) is a steep gritstone boulder problem at Shaftoe Crags in Northumberland, England, currently graded 8A+. It is built around small, positive-feeling but painful holds and long moves off them, demanding maximal finger strength through a sustained, powerful sequence rather than a single isolated crux.

History

Sources disagree on exactly who made the first ascent: one climbing-history record credits an ascent to Andy Earl on June 24, 2007, while other references attribute the original first ascent to Joe Wilson. The problem was originally proposed at a harder grade, 8B, and has since settled at 8A+ as the standard sequence, using a crimp to gain the break rather than the original left-hand method, became the accepted way up. A harder left-hand finish variation, Bloodsport Left Hand, is graded 8B+ and is a separate, later addition to the boulder.

On film

WIFE ON HOLD - Gritstone Bouldering (2026), a roughly 25-minute film by Leo Skinner, follows Sam Carling, Leo Skinner, Solly Kemball-Dorey and Finn Parry across gritstone venues in the Peak District, Northumberland and northern Yorkshire. Bloodsport is one of the harder problems the group works on during the Northumberland stretch of the film, shown as a test of the finger strength and precise sequencing that grit boulders at this level demand.