Cathy Wagner has done Ces démons niaquent (8a+) in Précipice de Corbière, giving it a personal 8a grade. "HAPPY! Outstanding route, where many technical kneebars around single tufa allowed me to compensate for my lack of the physical strength. But even with that, it was not at all given, especially when two days of working and reworking the moves were really laborious. Big thanks to perfect conditions today, to my two SEND kneepads and mainly to Seb for his patience when belaying and his encouragements.

Including also her send of Poème rock direct (7c+) from last week, the 57-year-old has done a total of 863 routes 8a and harder, out of which 49 she climbed in the last year. This is almost certainly a world record in female climbing.

Molly Thompson-Smith has done Sideshow (8B) and Fat Lady (8A+), suggesting a personal 8A grade, in The Bowderstone. (c) Sam Pratt

In this year's Lead World Cup, out of six events, she hasn't placed lower than #17 which she did last weekend in Edinburgh. This upcoming weekend she will compete in the Jakarta WC.

"I felt mentally (& physically) drained after the Edinburgh WC, so a short trip to the Lakes with Sam was the perfect solution and break I needed to get myself psyched to go away again for another comp. I’d been told the back of the Bowderstone wouldn’t suit me so well so when I heard about Sideshow I was interested to see if it would be a possible goal for our 2 days there. I tried it for 5 mins when we arrived but realised I was still feeling super tired from the comp so we left. I came back the next day and felt so much better, and the boulder went down 1st try from the ground after working out the beta for the upper section.

After Jakarta I’ll stay in Indonesia for small a holiday with my mum! And after that, I have lead nationals, but my main focus will be getting back on Hubble in the U.K., and a trip to Switzerland for the second half of October!"

Noah Wheeler has done Delirium (8C) at Mount Blue Sky. The 20-year-old started bouldering outdoors only in 2020 as until then focused on competition.

"After doing Wheel of Wolvo in about 4 days the next obvious progression was Delirium. It took me about 2 sessions to send, the first of which I spent dialing the stand moves and the second of which I began giving bottom goes. I sent pretty surprising, as I was tired, after about 5 tries in that day. This send in general was fairly surprising as my fingers were injured for most of the summer and I took quite a lot of time off but I’m glad to be back pulling hard.

Psyched to have finished this off before the road to Lincoln closes. Hard 13 into hard 12 going from a power sequence to a techy and thus finicky top. Really glad to have done something so hard that’s not in my style."

Hamish McArthur has repeated Malcom Smith’s Hunger 9a at The Anvil. Last year, he was the Youth World Champion in both Lead and Boulder. In 2022, he has twice made the final in Lead and in Boulder, and he has placed in the top 20 on three occasions.

“For me, this trip to the Anvil was a marker that the very long competition season was finally coming to an end. I was tired of having to perform and felt the need to disappear into the woods for a few days. Both the place we camped and the route itself were beyond beautiful. The Anvil is this perfect 60-degree overhanging sheet of rock hiding itself in the forest by loch Goil. It's hard not to be inspired when looking up, especially as Hunger follows the perfect line straight up the middle of the overhang.

We arrived late afternoon on day 1, and climbed into the night with head torches. After a questionable night sleep suspended from tree, and a hearty bowl of Scottish oats I was ready to start redpointing. 3 times that morning I climbed through the first crux smoothly, and each time I dropped the 2nd crux by a hair. I unwillingly made myself rest for a good few hours, then in the early afternoon did some star-jumps and prepared for the send.

I set off much more relaxed this time, smiling on the rests and enjoying the anticipation of one again arriving at the 2nd crux. I told myself to squeeze harder, and thankfully I wanted it enough to scream my way through the hardest moves on the 4th redpoint attempt. The route was a joy to climb, and most importantly I feel refreshed and ready to put my head down to get strong over winter.”

How do you manage to combine comp climbing with rock climbing?
With where I'm at in my career, training and competing occupy the overwhelming majority of my time. Despite this, I am absolutely in love with outdoor climbing and definitely hear the rocks calling throughout the year. For the time being I use outdoor climbing as an escape from the intensity of competing. It reminds me there is so much more to climbing than just topping routes.