Box Therapy V16

Box Therapy is a granite boulder problem at roughly 10,500 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, reached by an approach of about two hours. It is a sit-start extension of Tommy Caldwell's Spread Eagle (V11), adding a lower section of small edges and slopers into the existing line, and Daniel Woods graded the full sit start V16 on first ascent. The problem rewards precise, rehearsed movement over many hard moves in a row, since the crimps and slopers offer little margin for improvisation.

History

Daniel Woods made the first ascent in 2018. Before Katie Lamb's ascent, only two other climbers, Sean Bailey and Drew Ruana, had repeated the V16 sit start. On September 6, 2023, Lamb topped Box Therapy on her fourth attempt of the problem overall, becoming the first woman to climb a boulder problem at V16. She reached that grade having skipped V15 outright, after previously sending at least six problems at V14. The remote, high-altitude setting adds its own difficulty on top of the climbing itself: the two-hour approach and thin air at over 10,000 feet make repeated sessions physically costly, so most ascents of the sit start have come after long stretches of dedicated, trip-specific effort rather than casual attempts.

On film

In Sequence: Katie Lamb and the Craft of Hard Bouldering (2024), from Patagonia, centers on Lamb's approach to training and problem-solving at the highest levels of bouldering, including her ascent of Box Therapy while working a full-time engineering job. The film treats her send as one data point in a longer pattern of methodical progression rather than as an isolated headline result, focusing on the rehearsal and sequence-refinement that go into linking a problem at this grade rather than framing the climb as a single dramatic moment.