Sean Isaac made a quick redpoint ascent of Musashi (M12) in mid-March taking him only six tries over two days. Musashi drytools a 25m horizontal roof at The Cineplex in the Canadian Rockies. Up until a couple months ago, Musashi was touted as the world's hardest mixed route. Ben Firth's The Game, which parallel's Musashi to the left now claims that title. Since established two winters ago, Musashi has now seen 14 ascents.

Along with Isaac, Evgeny Kirovshetsev of the Ukraine and Mauro Bubu Bole of Italy are the only other two people this year to repeat both Musashi and Rocky Mountain Horror Show (RMHS). All three believe that RHMS is definitely the harder of the two. Musashi has gotten easier with traffic (holds are more positive from picks digging in) while RMHS has become harder.

"M-grades are all over the map," informs Isaac. "A mixed first ascent is graded on many factors like how strong you're feeling, how much you're willing to sandbag or how magazines decide to report new routes. Most of the top-level mixed routes are actually pretty close in grade; splitting hairs is pointless."