Shawn Raboutou (born April 19, 1998) is an American rock climber. In 2022, he became the first person to climb the bouldering grade of on more than one occasion.

Early life

Shawn Raboutou was born in Boulder, Colorado on April 19, 1998. He is the son of former professional climbers and

Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou (born 8 August 1963), is an American rock climber and rock climbing coach. In competition lead climbing, she is a 4-time World Cup champion (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995), and won the biennial World Championships in 1995. Sh ...

; his younger sister is

Brooke Raboutou Brooke Raboutou (born April 9, 2001) is an American professional rock climber. At age 9, she ticked a and became the youngest female to climb a . At 10, she sent a and became the youngest female to climb . At 11, she became the youngest femal ...

, a competition climber. In 2011, when Raboutou was 13 years old, he climbed ''Welcome to Tijuana,'' a graded

sport climbing Sport climbing (or Bolted climbing) is a form of rock climbing that relies on permanent anchors (or bolts), permanently fixed into the rock for climber protection, in which a rope that is attached to the climber is clipped into the anchors to ...

route in Spain.

Climbing career

Bouldering

On April 6, 2022, Raboutou made the first ascent of '' Alphane'', a boulder problem in

Chironico, Switzerland Chironico is a former Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality located in the district of Leventina (district), Leventina in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Ticino in Switzerland. On 1 April 2012, it was incorporated into the municipali ...

, although he didn’t announce his ascent until August 2022. Later on in 2022, Raboutou announced his first ascent of ''Megatron'', another boulder in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, making him the first climber in history to climb two different V17-grade boulder problems.

Competition climbing

Between 2015 and 2017, Raboutou participated in the IFSC World Cup circuit, although he did not win any medals. He then took time off from

competition climbing A climbing competition (or comp) is usually held indoors on purpose built climbing walls. There are three main types of climbing competition: lead, speed, and bouldering. In lead climbing, the competitors start at the bottom of a route and must c ...

to focus on bouldering outside. In 2022 he returned to the competition scene in the North American Cup series and took home a silver medal.

References

External links