Jana Svecova, who last year did two 8B+, has done the FA of Appointment of the king (8A+) in Al Tawian. Last winter was also spent in the United Arab Emirates doing FAs.

Can you tell us more about your second trip to UAE and your 8A+ FA?
We came to the United Arab Emirates for two months, from December till the end of January. We decided to go to the Emirates because we know that you can enjoy climbing in winter here. It’s most of the time about exploring new areas and doing FAs. One of my FA is also boulder Appointment of the king which I graded 8A+. It has just really small holds, even for me 😃 whole climb is powerful and technical at the same time and it's in a 50-degree overhang. I also try to add a sit start now since we roll out one big stone and it is possible to start two moves lower, those two moves alone are around 8A maybe harder. I am 100% sure it will be around 8B+ 😀 We have two weeks left so let’s hope I will report some ascent of the lower start soon.

Martin Stráník has done the first repeat of Adam Ondra's Kráter 8C/+ in Holstejn and here is the video. " 11 days in total. Had to climb very precisely and fast on this 22 moves long boulder, which was really on my physical limit. Could send it on my 7th session, but after a hold broke I had to work much more on it, thus I recommend upgrade to 8C/C+." (c) Jakub Konečný

Martin won silver in the World Championship in 2007, at age 17, and has been one of the best climbers in the world since then. In total, the Czech has done 17 8C's, out of which four was in the last year. Until 2019, he basically only did Boulder WCs but later he started doing Lead events as well. In 2021, he made the podium twice at the WC and was #4 at the World Championship.

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi has done Open your mind (8c+) in Santa Linya. The Ukrainian made his first 8a news at age eleven when he did his first three 8c’s as well as his first 8a onsight. Since grade one, he has basically been home schooled and for the last seven years been travelling around Europe with his family. Previously, the 17-year-old has done 16 routes 8c+ and harder and last spring he did No Kpote Only 8C+, calling it 8C after finding a new sequence.

What are your plans for 2023?
I really hope to explore Tirol and all the amazing crags/routes it has and properly settle down in Innsbruck for the studies (will finish the German preparation next semester and then will start a proper course). I suppose because of it I won't really have the possibility to travel a lot except for the uni vacation days, so homecrags/projects are going to be the main focus. Would also really like to start bolting/developing/FAing some stuff, because it definitely lights me up!


What do you plan to study at Uni?
I'll study Computer Science, so first semester is going to be full on math with not too much time to chill in between. Most of it will be offline. If I'm lucky I'll get some days to go out for a bit longer then a weekend, but longer is unlikely.

Vojta Trojan, who previously has sent seven 9a’s, has done the fourth ascent of Tom Bolger’s Wild West (9a) in Margalef. ”Hard bouldery start, then endurance leading into a last crux under the anchor. Very cool route.. 9a/a+ feels right for me - as it's much harder then the left exit.” (c) Jan Erben

Can you tell us more about the ascent? Since I was in Margalef in November and sent the left exit, Wild Publico (9a), I wanted to finish this hardest and purest version of the route, as I got back here after Christmas. It took me way longer than I thought and I'm glad, that the one perfect condition day saved my ass and I could clip the anchor.

The route took me 6 days (1-2 tries a day) to finish, + I knew the start moves from Wild Publico. Thanks to Tom for bolting the start and opening this quite new and very cool route as well as many others!

Solveig Korherr has had a great trip to Ticino where she did Teamwork (8A), Walker on Earth (8A) and La persistencia de la memoria (8A), "A lot of perseverance & finding the suitable beta for my size. Finally, the left heelhook stayed on :)"

The 24-year-old has previously done five routes 8c+ and harder but only two boulders 8A and harder.

Could you tell us more about the three 8A ascents?
Spending three weeks in Ticino for me as a sport climber has been the longest time bouldering outside. The three things I learned the most are that bouldering is extremely about failure, perseverance, and style dependent. After a rather rocky start and a lot of failures in the first two weeks in Ticino, I’m glad my perseverance paid off in the end and I could send a few 8A boulders.