Owen Whaley, who previously has done two 9a's, has done the FA of "Man-Bod" (9a) in Mt Charleston.

"Man-Bod” is a link-up between two existing Andy Raether routes at Robbers Roost. The climbing on the route is extremely diverse, with powerful moves at the bottom and harder technical climbing at the top. The moves were familiar to me because of climbing the two sections previously, however, linking them proved to be much more of a full-body challenge. I had a great experience trying this route and am excited to continue trying the hard lines at the crag. Robbers Roost is turning into quite the destination for hard sport climbing."

David Graham reports on Insta that in March he did the FA of Celestite (8C+) in Valle Bavona. The 41-year-old made his first 8a headline in 2000 and has since been one of the world's strongest climbers. Amazingly, he had his best year ever last year with two 8C+’s and seven 8C’s. (c) Rainer Eder

”I approached this problem with zero expectations every session as I really wanted it, but the style of climbing required patience, balance, and a laser sharp focus, hard things to bundle all together; there was no just "trying hard".

After three sessions trying to progress from the start, always making it a move farther, in a magical moment, after a crazy fight, I found myself standing at the top. Astonished to have not drawn out the process, a habit of mine, my first thought was to question its difficulty. Could I climb something of this level that quickly? If it had taken another ten days of making mistakes, I'd have zero hesitation with the proposal, yet, I often doubt my strengths and abilities.

If compare it to all the lines I've climbed, it seems like where it belongs, unless I missed some crucial easier beta. I'm very proud of my climbing on this one, it's majestic, climbs beautifully, and is an amazing addition to the valley.”

How can you still progress after 20+ years as a pro climber?
I feel stronger honestly! 😅😅😅, 🤔🤔🤔. Not sure why?? Maybe smarter??? Healthier lifestyle. Ah just eating better, no partying, lots of good rest!! Better attitude about climbing, more patient and also less concerned with conditions. Always finding new solutions, not getting angry. In the past, I would get much more frustrated when I would fail or not do well. These days I think I'm so used to failing that I'm surprised when I succeed. I do boulders that are really my antistyle too. So I assume they should be hard but I think it really helped my mental game, to push longer and harder. Never get pissed, it is not wise!!! I am feeling strong!!

Justin Deschamps has sent Condé de choc (9a) in Entraygues. (c) Lilian Moretti

"I tried for the first time Condé de choc last summer, after having already sent all the 8th graded routes of the sector. I struggled in the lower crux section and especially on this classic jump dyno. I came back stronger this year and tried the route with Adrian Houbron. I found an alternative beta to avoid this impossible dyno (6b for Adrian 😂), using an intermediate tiny crimp instead of jumping. Adrian sent this route quite quickly and I came back the following weekend with better conditions to follow his example. I fell two times at the last move and I managed to stick it in an insane fight at 8 pm to send my first 9a. The vibe was crazy at the crag and my friends supported me a lot during these runs. Now time to join Tanguy (Merard) in Le Pamphlet, [for] the project there." 🤙

Sebastien BOUIN has made the third repeat of Alex Megos’ Bibliographie (9b+) in Céüse. In total, the 30-year-old has now done more than a dozen routes 9b to 9c. (c) Clarisse Bompard

”Bibliograpghie was a big goal for this year. Since Alex did the first ascent of this one, I was really psyched to try something really hard from someone else, here in France. Even if Céüse is very far away from my own natural climbing style. I was really motivated to go through the process on Bibliographie. I am usually alone when trying my projects in France and not many people try them, but Biblio was something different. You know, a 9b+ in my ‘local’ area, already with 3 ascents by top climbers... it was obvious that I had to try it. During the process, I fell 11 times at the top of the route (after the main crux). I think I underestimated this last part of the route. It doesn't look or feel that hard when you do this single section in isolation. Yet, when you are coming from the ground, it was way different. I remember Sean Bailey actually fell 13 times up there, so I am happy that he still holds the record ;-).

Conditions were quite challenging this year. It was raining almost every day, and we had to wait, patiently, for a good window to make an attempt. Bibliographie is not a route that particularly suits my strengths, so it was a great challenge to do a 9b+ on tiny crimps for me. But, now it's time to go back to something a little more my style ;-).”

Jana Švecová (Vincourková), who last year did her first two 8B+, has done Kocour v botách, z cíga potáh (8A+) in Hlubočepské plotny, video.

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Last weekend, we visited a small crag near Prague. Actually, it is only about 10 minutes away from the center of Prague, and it's really cool to find such good climbing in a city this big. Anyway, we heard that there might be an 8A+ boulder which is going through small crags, so I immediately thought of trying to flash it. On Thursday, we went to check out the holds, and I felt quite confident that I could actually flash it. We returned to the boulder the next morning because of better conditions. I prepared myself and gave it a flash try. Unfortunately, my hand slipped in the last move, and I fell off. Ah, it's such a bad feeling to be so close to flashing an 8A+. In the end, after a couple of tries, I managed to send the boulder. I also discovered another beta and ended up skipping some moves. If I had known this beta before the flash try, I might have been able to flash it because it felt super easy. On Sunday, we went to check out another project in the area that hasn't been climbed yet. I gave it a few tries, and I think it could be an 8B boulder at least, so we definitely want to come back one day. På

William Bosi made the first repeat of Nalle Hukkataival's Burden of Dreams (9A) in April. Here is the progress interview three weeks prior to the send and here Bosi comments his ascent.

Maximilian Dauser has done Nice freshly baked (9a) in Frankenjura. It shares the start and the middle section of Shangrila (8c+) which he did in 2021. (c) Thomas Dauser

"The start of my big 9a project was after sending Shangri-La, as it didn't feel like my absolute limit and I was curious about that process. Previously, my sole goal was doing Shangri-La, which itself was a new level for me.

The process of about 1.5 years around sending Nice Freshly Baked is very special to me because I could prove to myself that I can still push my limit at climbing whilst having a family with a toddler and a baby and pursuing my career as an attorney. The greatest challenge was to create a proper balance between those three goals in life (and deal with being regularly sick - as probably all parents of little kids). Sometimes you want to put a goal last, like I didn't climb outside for about half a year around the birth of my daughter last September. And sometimes you want to prioritize the climbing part, so I tried to create enough time for a second day of climbing per week at the project when the conditions were good in the last weeks."

"The route itself starts with a hard boulder problem and continues with about 12 moves of power endurance climbing up to another boulder problem with a low percentage large move to a hidden hold and two more hard moves. Afterwards, it is basically done. I already got up to that large move regularly last year but couldn't stick it in most attempts. I even fell a couple of times at the next move. In the end, all pieces fell together and I could climb Nice Freshly Baked."

William Bosi sent Alphane (9A) last November after projecting it a dozen sessions. "A few sessions back I was unsure as to whether Alphane would go on this trip, the temperature has been unseasonably hot, some rainy days had made it really humid and the route was damp in places. However, the crew out here managed to keep the psyche really high and the problem came together quickly. The moves on this line are so good and after a lot of time on the wall, I was really happy to claim the third ascent!"

Bosi stopped a successful competition career in 2021. His best boulder result was a bronze in the World Championship in 2016 and in Lead, he has twice been #4 in the World Cup.

Lilli Kiesgen, who last year sent her first three 8A+'s, has over two days in Zillertal managed to send five 8A's; Clockwork Orange (8A), Analdin und die Wunderschlampe (8A), mother firestarter (8A),True Romance (8A) and Jam Session (8A). The 26-year-old is a former competition climber who was #9 in the World Championship in 2016.

Can you tell us more about the five 8A ascents?
We spent two days in Zillertal on our way from Innsbruck to Prague. I’m just on vacation in Prague and cheering for Yannick ☺️. The day didn’t start that well, we parked the van in the wrong parking spot and were pretty lost for an hour. When we finally reached the crag I started to warm up directly in the moves of Clockwork Orange. Surprisingly they didn’t feel hard and I could climb the boulder on my second try from the bottom. Afterwards, we went to Analdin - a real gem in the Forest! The holds and the line is just perfect. It took a bit until I figured out the moves around the sloper in the middle section, but I was still able to climb the boulder within an hour.

We were tired of walking around (and climbing!) so we did a break, cooked some tortellini and napped a bit. In the afternoon I just wanted to take a look at mother firestarter. I got hooked and climbed it after a really short warmup. I think two essential things got together yesterday, I was in the right mood and the conditions were good - not too warm and not too cold.

True romance is right beside the river and has mainly crimps. I figured out a beta with a toe hook so I don’t have to do the powerful extension move. Jam Session is a roof with some heel hook moves and a crimpy top out. The main crux was for me the far move with a bad foot over the edge. None of the boulders I did took long- I think that is essential if you want to climb a lot in a day.

Why do you think you are in such excellent shape?
I think my fitness increased so much because I started to train my weaknesses - steep walls with far moves on good or slopy holds. In the last year, I mostly trained on spray walls and on the Kilterboard and I think that is paying off now.

Matty Hong has sent Biographie (9a+) in Céüse. This was the 19th ascent of Chris Sharma's iconic route from 2001 which was bolted by Jean-Christophe Lafaille in 1989. (c) Alex Aristei

”I first tried the route in 2017 with Margo Hayes and Daniel Woods. We all tried Biographie together for about a month but were unsuccessful. Falling after the crux on my last day made it hard to leave but the season was clearly over. Since then I’ve been dreaming of trying the route again. I planned a trip with a friend from the States to climb in Spain. When we arrived it was too hot so we came to Céüce. I’ve been here about 4 weeks now trying Biographie. It has been a challenging season with a lot of rain but I knew I didn’t want to leave again without completing the route.

I was very strategic this time with my attempts, I learned a lot in 2017 and felt l had to take a new approach. Balancing skin, fatigue, and weather is one of the biggest challenges of climbing here. Sometimes everything can be perfect except for a small cut on the finger which stops any attempt. This year I really enjoyed the process climbing on the route and when I finally did it, it was a surreal moment for me. Something I’ve dreamt about since I was a young climber and certainly since my trip in 2017.”

How did you prepare for the Euro trip?
Most of my training came from bouldering the past few months and then the time I spent learning the route this season. I didn’t prepare specifically for the route as I thought I would be climbing in Spain.

How did you warm up before the redpoint attempts?
Typically as a warm up I would start on a hand board, this gets my fingers ready without compromising the skin. I would then go up Biographie to brush the holds and get reacquainted with the movements. I find warming up on my project useful as it gives me a good idea of how I am feeling that day. Typically I could give two good tries per day, following the 2 on 1 off schedule. Although weather quickly because of the determinant for our schedule.

How come you think Biographie has become such an iconic route?
This route is not only iconic for its history but also for its notorious difficulty. Despite 15a [9a+] being a commonly climbed grade these days this route has certainly challenged some of the best climbers. I believe the route also presents a unique balance of difficulty which requires bouldering strength, endurance and a strong mind. These aspects all together make the route so amazing.

What's next?
I have another few days here and I’ve begun trying Bibliographie (9b+), the moves feel good and I’m excited to return.