Jonathan Siegrist has done the FA of Back to the Future (9a+) in Mt Potosi. (c) Ryan White

"The last remaining Joe Brooks project from over 20 years ago! And I can see why... Climb Atlantis, and then blast directly -no rest- into an outrageous, heroic roof boulder problem. It felt SO good to finally stick the blind campus move. Elated! I lost track of the days, but as far as effort invested it is on par with anything I've done in the cave. Word on the street is that Big Frank fell going for the lip in the early 2000's... so impressive. No kneepads. 9a/+." In 2001, Francois Legrand published an article about their USA trip.

Did you any specific training for the send?
No specific training just trying to make time once or twice a week to try it, as I’m prioritizing my training for spain right now. I leave for Catalunya on Sunday. Can’t wait!

Olivia Ogier, who did her first and only 8A last November, has done Lethal Design (8A+) in Red Rock (NV).

Can you tell us a little more about Lethal Design?
I first got on Lethal in December, and I only gave it a couple of tries as it is very sharp and I had other goals. I came back to it a couple of weeks ago and fell on the last hard move, and I got extremely motivated to go back, but the weather kept me from trying it until this past weekend. I decided to make a solo trip out there, arrived at the boulder to find that most of the stash pads had been taken, and I had to make 4 small pads stretch across the whole boulder, including the highball top out 😅. I fell 8 times at the last hard move in the morning, almost gave up but decided to try again in the evening and I sent with no warm-up!

What's your climbing background?
I climbed competitively from the ages 9-15, then decided to only focus on outdoor climbing, with my hardest sends being Rodeo Free Europe 5.14a (8b+) this summer and then Lethal this weekend. I also in the past year decided to start competing again, with intentions of doing the 2023 elite USA climbing circuit.

Florian Wientjes, who previously has done nine 8C's, reports on Insta that he has done Off the Wagon Sit (8C+) in Valle Bavona. "I started trying it on a short trip last Dec. The plan was to try the stand but after that went down pretty fast I started trying it from the low start. I did all the Moves and also did my first links which gave me confidence that this Line is absolutely doable for me. From session 2 I always fell on the big move and the mental battle started. 6 more sessions came and went with close calls and new "Highpoints". It was mentally really hard climbing to the big move just to fail another time on the same move as the 60 times before."(c) Xaver Quintus

Dave Graham started working on it in 2005 and the next year, Chris Sharma and Nalle Hukkataival began projecting it. Six years later, Nalle did the FA of the stand start calling it 8C. Two days later Jan hojer did the first repeat, calling it 8B+, which was later confirmed. In 2018, Shawn Raboutou made the FA of the sit start and it has also been done standing from the ground, in both cases using the same starting holds.

Did you do any specific training?
I worked hard on some moves on the spraywall which required a lot of contact strength. I also made some replicas for the big move.

Why not do the sit-start project from the ground?
For me, Off the Wagon and the cart is part of its aesthetic. Moving the wagon to start from the ground is for me not as attractive as starting sitting on it.

What's up next for you?
Actually no plans 😅. Back to training I guess and (let's) see what's (to) come.

Eva Hammelmüller has had a great day in Arco where she onsighted Silver smile (8a+) and flashed Shantaram (8a+) and Gado (8b). (c) Felix Mast

Could you tell us more about that great onsight/flash day?
I didn't expect much from yesterday, as I've been ill the last few days and I didn't feel 100% fresh. Yet, trying the routes without much pressure or expectation turned out to work pretty well, and I onsighted one 8a+ and flash another one. Thanks to @paul_lewandowski95 and his perfect beta, I could also flash one 8b, which he sent a few tries and one broken hold later - nearly in the dark.

Do you have your sights set on sending 9a?
I focused a lot on training the past month, so I couldn't check out another 9a - but the day before yesterday I tried 'Pungitopo', a cool 8c+ first ascended by Adam Ondra, and I am really psyched to try this route again!

Elias Arriagada Krüger, who has previously sent four 8B+ boulder problems, has done Dreamtime (8C) in Cresciano. (c) Xaver Quintus

”Dream come true!!!! Had a few sessions over new years with bad condies, so I came back now for a 3 day trip to finish it. After getting super close on it on the first two days, I climbed it on my third climbing day in a row in my first go, but dabbed the tree at the very end. Like WTFFFF!!!! So I had to climb it again. That’s where the mind game started. I started to give some goes again, but all of the sudden I started to slip out of every move from the bottom part, which wasn’t a problem before. It got warmer and warmer, my go’s got worse and worse. And then, with a huge fight, I managed to climb it again and this time without a dab. What an intense day! Beyond happy to have climbed it!!!!”