Last week, Angela Eiter did the first female ascent of Zeris, 8c in Götterwandl (Imst - Austria). Pic(c) Bernhard Ruech. We addressed the Austrian for her to tell us a bit of how the process of sending this route was, how long and how much effort she put in it, a little description of the route and whether she's planning to compete this year. "As far as competition climbing is concerned, this year I just focus on the World Games in Columbia on 3rd August. Besides training for this event I want to increase my performances on rock climbing. That was why I aimed to complete some hard routes in the climbing crag Götterwandl nearby my homeplace Imst. One of them was the route 'Zeris', 8c, a combination of the hardest part of 'Zeus, 8b+' and the boulder-like route 'Osiris', 8a+. The special thing of this route is the crack at the beginning. It is important to know where you have to place your hands in the crack. The best is to find the positions immediately and save energy for the upcoming powerful moves on very crimpy holds. After some softer movements a hard sequence associated with the crux at the end followed. The crux is a very big move, where I became a regular victim. However, I had to take a break of two weeks, because of an injury on my elbow. Step by step I recovered and my power improved again. Therefore, I wanted to try my project. The first moves went well, but I nearly fell in the crag and almost once again on the wet grimpy holds. Pumped, but motivated I reached the crux. I focused my mind, placed my feet and jumped into the good hold and catched it :-)! After two further hard moves I could clipped the anchor finally - YIPPIE :-)! Sometimes you have to put much effort in your project and there is just a short moment of success in return! However, it is always worth doing it :-)!"

1. Romain Desgranges 36+ Dinara Fakhritdinova 40+ 2. Ramon J Puigblanque 33+ Mina Markovic 35+ 3. Jorg Verhoeven 33+ Helene Janicot 35+ 4. Manu Romain 33+ Maja Vidmar 35+ 5. Dmitry Fakiryanov 33 Charlotte Durif 33+ 6. Magnus Midtbö 33 Mathilde Brumagne 32 Dinara was #7 in the Lead World Cup 2012 but she has only once made it to the finals before. Last year she won the Speed event in Arco and in fact three times she has been the Speed World Youth Champion. Romain was #5 in the Lead World Cup and he has been competing intensively for ten years, getting better results year by year. The male route had 45 holds and the female 51 holds. The chief route setter, Adam Pustelnik, said that it got humid once it got dark making the route harder as an explanation why the climbers did not make it higher up. Complete results

Adam Ondra has onsigthed Torture physique in Gastlosen but he is unsure whether he just did the first 8c pitch or the 9a extension. If he has done the latter, he would give it a personal grad of 8c+. "What a nice feeling of feeling strong! I kept climbing, clipped the first anchor of 8c (and didn't know about it, as there is only one bolt with lock-carabiner), continued, clipped the anchor of second pitch from the reinforced side-pull, unable to continue nor clip the second bolt of the anchor. While falling off, I thought that I had not sent even the first 8c. What a nice suprise was to find out that I might have just onsighted Torture Physique 2.0, which was graded 9a at first, that ends up in that anchor, even though I don't know if you are allowed to clip the anchor from underneath (reinforced hold) or you have to do this two more moves. Nevertheless, I did at least the first pitch and maybe the second one as well. Nevertheless, the second pitch seemed to me like easy or hard 8c+, depending on where it ends." Adam has previously done two 9a's for which he has given a personal grade of 8c+. Later he did the FA of the second extension giving it 9a+ but says it might be 9b for shorter guys. "This place is crazy!!! I love it here."

Eva Scroccaro has done La peste nera 8b+ in Baratro which originally was graded 8c. Two years ago, when Eva was 12, she did an 8b. Eva started to climb when she was 4 and she does not train, it is more about playing with her friends and her mother Giulia who almost is at the same level.

Daniel Jung has done his eigth 9a, The Essential in Frankenjura. "Some years ago I saw a video of Adam Ondra trying it and it looks so hard. Small pockets!! I thought I would never try it. It has small pockets, that’s not my style! Last year Gabriele Moronie tried it, he gave me the beta and I liked it a lot... I guess the Ondra version could be 9a+." Full story at Daniel's blog

Four days ago, Cameron Hörst did his fourth 8b+, Doomsday in Ten Sleep, a technical vertical route. Today, on only his third go he did his fifth, Rodeo Free Europé in Wild Iris, a steep powerfull route on one and two finger pockets. His father Eric Hörst comments, "I thought it would take many days work, but Cameron was confident...and as he tied in for his red point go Cameron told me "I'm going to channel Alex Megos and send this now". The same day, Jonathan Hörst (10) who also has done an 8b+, did 41 pull-ups at the local climbing festival.

Kairn reports that Adam Ondra has onsighted La Cabane au Canada 9a in Rawyl which Lionel Clerc made the FA of in 2006. The first 9a OS was made by Alex Megos this spring by Estado Critico in Siurana. It should also be mentioned that Adam Ondra last year onsighted two confirmed 9a in Red River Gorge, Pure Imagination and Golden Ticket, for which he choses to give a personal grade of 8c+. Previously, Adam has onsighted 15 8c+' and the runner up in this Contest has onsighted one. Planet Mountain has the 9a interview where he confirms the grade and says he did not have time to warm up properly, just half a route and than"“ran around and flapped my arms as best I could and then set off.”

Cameron Hörst has over five tries done his fourth 8b+, Doomsday in Ten Sleep. "Lots of deadpoint moves for me, but such a great line! I stayed true to the gray streak the whole way." His younger brother, Jonathan (10) has also done an 8b+. Their father Eric, is the author of training for climbing books with worldwide sales over 300,000. Here is his 8a article on kids progress The Hörst family is on a family climbing trip for the month of July and next stop is Wild Iris. As a comment to Tito Traversa tragic accident, Eric comments. "The main thing for us is to stay focused and undistracted. Cliff base is often noisy and busy with people talking and such...it's easy to be distracted and mess something up. So I remind the boys to "pay attention to all the critical things"...be aware and engaged in active risk assessment and management. But for kids it does take a responsible parent to be involved in the process. (c)Eric Hörst

Vertical Life Mag reports that Alex Megos has done The Wheel of Life in only two sessions, the fastest ascent so far. It was set up by Dai Koyamada in 2004 as an 8C+ boulder, however other personal gradings classify it as an 8C or even a 9a (+) route, due to it's immense lenght of 65 moves through a roof. (c) Oliver Miller Interview with Alex' trainer - Patrick Matros