Buster Martin does Furia de Jabali (9a+)

Buster Martin has repeated Will Bosi's Furia de Jabali (9a+) in Siurana. ”Six sessions. Final piece of a life come back. Could barely pull on last year but despite climbing having a back seat in my life I kept up the fingerboarding which got me up this thing. Wouldn’t have sniffed at it if it was given 9a.”

Can you elaborate, on what you mean by climbing taking a back seat and not sniffing at 9a?
If the consensus for the grade was 9a then I wouldn’t have complained.

Until a short trip out here a month ago, I hadn’t been climbing as much for the past 10 months or so, with most of that time being spent in Indonesia. However, I never stopped training completely. Classic 20mm pulls and weights as standard then the addition of Front 3 half crimps, micros, high angle work on the fingerboard to work my weaknesses. Whilst I didn’t have the time, motivation or mental energy to climb I found that short fingerboard and weights sessions were manageable and knew they’d pay off.

I also filled the board in Bali with grimmest scew ons I could find, so when I did climb it was an hour of limit moves on there, I was more working a general weakness but it came in useful on this route.

What is coming up next for you?
I didn’t have much luck in my climbing in the first quarter of last year so I’m keen to get some confidence up and get moving again. I thought doing a short route like Furia and trying something longer like Estado would give me a good base and target both ends of the energy systems to later apply more specifically to the endurance required for First Round First Minute (9b) which I got back on today.

More thoiughts from Buster and a video of the start can be found on Instagram.

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Keenan Takahashi did the FA of Ego Death (8C) last September a couple of months after he did his first 8C+. "Immediately upon walking up to it, I knew it was something special if it was possible. It’s the sort of thing I’ve dreamed of since I started climbing, steep compression, at my limit, decentl…

Solveig Korherr ticks Rêve de poutre (8c)

Solveig Korherr has done Rêve de poutre (8c) in Saint LégerGood one! Felt just like board climbing. Two days.” (c) John Thornton - Les petits chefs du néant (8c)

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
I spontaneously decided to try “Rêve de poutre” (8c) on a short trip to St Léger because it was one of the few routes that were dry at the beginning, and it seemed like one that could suit me. It has an easier start into the upper part of ‘Cadafist’ (9a/+), which is quite powerful on small crimps. Four hard quite basic board moves, and then some power-endurance to the top. Very fun!

What is next? Start projecting Cadafist?
Maybe one to try for the future. I will go back home and perhaps do some shorter bouldering trips to Ticino in between some work & training.

Marine Thevenet flashes Catatonica (8A)

Marine Thevenet, who has roughly 100 8A - 8B+ boulders under her belt, has flashed Catatonica (8A+) in Brione.

How was it pulling off your first 8A flash?
I’m not particularly looking for flashable boulders because I like to feel that I control the movements when I climb. I just tried the boulder and did it right away. I was well warmed up, and my friend had just done it, so I had good beta.

Can you tell us more about your month long trip to Ticino?
Since I started my new job as sports agent I can work from anywhere ; so I went to Ticino to work and climb! We had quite a lot rainy days so I couldn’t try The Kingdom (8C) - it dries really slowly - but Ticino is full of nice boulders and the boulders in the river dry fast so I cannot complain.

Austin Purdy completes Freakshow (8C)

Austin Purdy had a productive night session up at Coal Creek where he first sent Freakshow (8C) followed by two 8B’s and an 8A. ”Psyched to take this down and to be done with those sharp holds. The highball finish was a bit sketch alone, but definitely makes the boulder full value. As for the grade it is certainly much harder post break than it was before, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be V14 now and just V13 before the break. I'm not very confident in my grading at the moment though since this is the first hard thing I have tried since recovering from some injuries this winter, and this is certainly much harder than the V13's down the hill, so for now I will defer to Daniel's expertise.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent and why you opted for a night session?
I have not had much success climbing the last couple of months due to some minor nagging injuries. I felt like Freakshow would be a good reintroduction to hard boulder for me since it is quite long for a boulder and none of the moves are exceptionally hard for the difficulty of the full line. It ended up being a perfect project to get some fitness back and I was very psyched to send it.

I think I sent around 7pm. The boulder sits in the sun all day and the day I sent was actually rather warm for this time of year so climbing at night felt like the only good option. I do find myself climbing at night quite often in general though as I typically prefer colder temps and it is the only time I can get outside on days I am working.

Jonathan Siegrist repeats Don’t Die in Linares (9a)

Jonathan Siegrist has done Don’t Die in Linares (9a) in Texas. The 38-year-old has now done 75 routes 9a and harder. "I went FULL A Muerte after sticking the crux move and decimated my skin in the process… felt the do or die moment on the top out as I tried to contain the bloodbath! Another nasty one from Cody [Roth]..."

Can you tell us more about the "bloodbath"?
After sticking the main crux you still have a pretty serious 7C boulder problem and on this move I got my hand stuck behind a toe hook. When I ripped my hand out of the pocket I left a huge piece of skin behind and at this point, I still had a 7c-ish section to finish the route... so I felt the real pressure now as I could feel a pool of blood filling the jug I was resting on! I knew there was no way I could have another try and with my trip ending in a few days, I knew this was really my last effort for the season. Thankfully the top was not super hard but I definitely took every move very seriously and kept cleaning the blood off of my fingers as often as I could! I like moments like this where the climbing level is way below your max but you really have to focus. If not for the whole risking your life thing, I think I would really enjoy big solos.

Bronwyn Hodgins completes La Rubia (8c+)

Bronwyn Hodgins has sent La Rubia (8c+) in Villanueva del Rosario. "WOWOWOWOW!!!! I can’t believe it!!! I chose this route a year ago as a lofty dream and trained for 8 months specifically at home, then lived in Villanueva del Rosario for 2.5 months this winter and managed to get the send on the final days of the trip!!! Definitely suits my style, hang on forever with a four limbs in a crazy 3-d cave. The crux was tough!!! But I do love crimps and I think it also suited me. The kilter board training was definitely for this!! By far my longest sport project. Send go was a fight at the top, I very nearly dropped that last move at the chains! SO PSYYYYYYYCHED!" (c) Julia Cassou

The Canadian climber is more known in the climbing world for her big wall free climbing and remote first ascents, but after three back-to-back big wall expeditions in 2022, Bronwyn was feeling burnt-out from expedition stress and logistics. A little lost for motivation she travelled to Spain to climb tufas and improve her Spanish, and soon found herself wondering how hard she might be able to climb if she put her intense focus into training and sport climb projecting...

"It was hugely intimidating arriving at La Rubia, having only climbed one 8b+ and a handful of 8b's. I definitely felt like maybe I had dreamed a little too big this time! But over the course of the season I slowly ticked away at more manageable chunks of the route until I was finally able to put it all together.

The mental aspect was really tough. I felt like I had some of the tools from big wall free climbing such as performing well under pressure and sequence visualization and execution, but I had no experience in sticking with a project for anywhere near this long. At the same time, I continued to make progress pretty much every time I tied in which was super motivating.
The route is 55m long, and steep with many knee-bar rests in the top half, which also gives a lot of opportunity to overthink things and get nervous. On the send go, I climbed super smoothly and faster-than-ever all the way up to the final bolt (where I'd fallen on my last attempt a few days earlier). I tactically skipped the final knee bar so that I didn't interrupt my mental flow and launched myself with all I had left for the big move just next to the chains. I still can't believe my fingers latched onto that hold!"

Loic Zehani does the FA of Zao (9a)

Loic Zehani has done the FA of Zao (9a) in Sainte-Baume. Zao was the 22-year-old's 77th route logged in the 9a to 9b range. "Very old project (maybe 30 years!). It's a nice route slightly overhang and vertical. The rock is absolutely beautiful and the climbing is very powerful for the fingers. It starts with 4 hard moves (more or less 7B FB ) followed by 6 very hard moves (8A FB). This section is one of the most beautiful slices of rock that I have climbed and it finishes with a very nice vertical and demanding climb without [poor] feet. Very proud of this one because it's not my favourite style of climb!"

Piotr Schab completes JoeDan (9a)

Piotr Schab has redpointed JoeDan (9a) at Santa Linya. The Polish climber has redpointed 29 routes 9a to 9b over the last twelve years. The picture above is from Pachamama (9a+).

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Joe Dan was actually one of the very last routes left in Santa Linya [for me]. Powerful start into a deadpoint crux move that appeared last year after a broken tufa, then Fabela climbing to the top. Didn’t climb routes for a year, so struggled a bit with the top endurance part.

What has stopped you from climbing routes this past year?
Over the last year(s) we’ve opened our second gym called Mood in Kraków, tough times to train so I focused on bouldering. [I] Wanna come back to routes though!