Sep 16, 2020
Zig announced his 2005 send of Dynamitus SDS V9 with little fanfare. A single sentence on his blog: "Zig added an acceptable sit start to Dynamitus which would bump the grade to V9." 15 years later, in a top 10 bouldering area, it was still unrepeated*.
This climb is fiendishly hard. It took me as many sessions as Grizzly V11, Papa Bear V9, and Last Chance V10 COMBINED. At 7 sessions, it's my second longest project ever - the only climb I put more time into is RTK V12.
To answer the provocative title: No, it's not physically harder than Grizzly. You'll need stonger fingers and bigger biceps to have a chance at Grizzly. However, it's drastically more nuanced. Dynamitus SDS was the bigger challenge for me - strenght won't save you. Super awkward and scrunchier than Young One. It's a game of finesse. Virtuoso climbing. Zig's specialty.
While hiking out, I noticed some fresh chalk on L'urbaniste, so I hopped on and grabbed a video and photo for the topo. Great photo-op - what a view!
Some kind climber has done some trail maintenance around the overlooked climbs on the small boulder below the main cluster.
Freedom 45 V0 and Dirty Dancer V0 are two lowball warmup options at the main cluster. They can be found in the full topo.*from full sit under the bulge.