Molly Thompson-Smith, #3 in the Euro Lead Championship last November, has done her first 8B, Keen Roof in Peak District. Amazing is that in March she did her third ever 8A and that she only needed two sessions for the well-confirmed 8B. "Maybe soft? Or just really my style? I don't really know what 8B should feel like!"
Video on her Insta.
The 23-year-old has been an active competition climber since 2011. In 2017, she had her best year ever when she was #7 overall in the Lead World Cup.

So could you please describe the boulder and your feeling once you felt it could down quickly?
I think it suited me perfectly - athletic moves made easier with strong fingers. I was pretty confident I could do it soon & thought all I needed was a cooler day (I first tried it in the sun last weekend). Some easier climbing leads into a backwards snatchy move off of a 2 finger pocket and crossly undercut. Then it’s pretty hard to hold the release, before traversing the lip to the finishing jug. I was quite relieved it did go down in my second session, as I’ve had this experience before of being confident I can send a climb quickly, and it turns into a several session epic. In my first session I tried the big backwards slap, as that was the crux move. After working out the best foot positions for every move I then climbed from the crux move to the top. I decided to come back when the conditions were cooler. Today I perfected the tor sequence leading into the crux move and reminded myself of all the body positioning before trying from the start. Then it took me 3 goes from the start before I did it :) I was really excited as I thought I’m in pretty good physical shape, and climbing a boulder like this so quickly kinda confirmed that to me!

How come you picked up hard bouldering just recently after a couple of years break?
Jan, (Hojer, her partner since 3.5 years), decided he wanted to be a sport climber, so we mainly went on sport climbing trips the last couple of years😂. When I was at home in the U.K., I was focused on training for world cups and didn’t believe that comp training and rock climbing could go well together The last couple of weeks have been great to see that they both can complement each other really well, when planned in properly so I think I’ll carry on doing that. Living a 10 min drive from the Peak District & having tonnes of harder boulders to try just made it really easy to get out after a gym session or by myself. I’d like to start doing some more sport if I can find some keen partners!

Adam Ondra and Stefano Ghisolfi are both born in 1993 so they met often in youth cups. Stefano lives in Arco which is one of Adam's favorite destinations so they have a lot to talk about. Ondra asks Ghisolfi about his background and interestingly, the first time he did a 7a route, he continued the extension and almost onsighted an 8a+.

Simone Tentori, who previously has done eigth 8B+', has done the FA of Megalodonte 8C in Val Masino. (c) Maximiliano Piazza

"What a journey!! The longest battle to date. So many days practising these moves till perfection. Hard connection of Crazy snake 8B into Snake's bite 8A+. (Both done last November). First of the grade for me and for the valley, so proud of this ascent. Thanks to my friends and all the people who kept the psych high!"

How many sessions did it take in total, including the 8B and the 8A+ links you did last November?
I climbed in Val Masino almost every weekend from November till April, so almost 6 months. But I climbed other stuff and I had to stop one month for the snow in December that covered the boulder and a skin injury that required 1 month to heal. So in total, it was not more than 20-25 sessions I would say.

Killian Chabrier, who had just done one 8B+ prior to 2021, has now done six up to 8Cc+ trav. Fanatic Climbing has made an interview, where he thanks his new trainer Pierre Brebion.

"Pierre showed me a new vision of training based more on pure climbing and less training on specific exercices. It allowed me to quickly transition between my strength sessions and my climbing sessions in the forest or indoors. And I made enormous physical progress!""

Thomas Ballet, four times Top-6 in the World Cup, has done his first 9a+, Super Crackinette in St Léger. In 2016, the 31-year-old retired from the competition scene.

"When I was competing I almost never climbed outdoors. Six years ago I did Sankukai in Entraygues which has been downgraded to 8c+. After three years of a climbing break because of work, I started climbing again two years ago with no goals. I was missing climbing and I love our sport more than anything. Now I only climb on rocks, doing lots of different routes and styles, easy routes but "legends routes" for example La rose et le vampire in Buoux. In February, I decided to find something harder. I worked Super Crackinette for four weekends and finally sent it."

Jean-Baptiste Jourjon, who did his first 8c in 2002, has had his best week ever by doing Purée de ratatouille 8c and, in just three sessions, Tonnerre d'orage 8c+ in Col du marocaz.

"I belayed Mathieu Bouyoud when he tried and sent the route with 8c+ proposal in 2012. I just put my fingers once in it and I could not imagine having enough power endurance. I thought it would not be downgraded because he did quite a few tries which I'm not used to 😂. A few weeks ago I sent an 8b+ next to it and there were draws in the 8c+ so I thought "why not"? All the moves were ok quite quickly that time but I had no idea how it would be linking the 15 to 20 intense moves. I made few adjustments during the first tries and I quickly had optimized beta.

Covid restrictions forced us to climb nearby but fortunately, we have crags close to home. It's a chance but also a personal choice otherwise living in a big city would not allow climbing regularly outdoor with a full-time job and family who is my best sponsor. Maybe restrictions were positive in my case because I work a lot from home and I stopped nibbling as I always did at the office. 2-3kg less and regular route climbing made me progressing in that power endurance style. I hope I'll be able to confirm other such hard routes even if I still fail to climb a few 8b's around...

About the grade: Mathieu didn't use a knee pad. I don't know about other repetitors. For me, it helped resting before the intense section. On the other hand, some other repetitors didn't use a knee pad but were going far left on the undercling of the route to the left to get some rest, which is allowed but not so beautiful as you need to go back then to the right. The knee pad also helped improving friction on crux.

Grading is a never-ending story, the route I did the week before suggested 8c by Mathieu and I repeated a few hours later felt as hard as Tonnerre d'orage to me. So hard and beautiful that it almost feels like a better achievement than the 8c+. Now I probably need to send 9a at 50+ to make again a news on 8a.nu."

Could you please say something about peaking at age 42 and how come you had a 14 years break of doing 8c's?
Good shape periods are so strange and hard to manage for me. I remember being strong in my 30's: I had stopped climbing 4 to 6 months to focus on triathlon. Back to climbing, I had peak power like 3-4 months after, certainly thanks to the absence of climbing injuries (fingers...). Since then I have some peaks but shorter and shorter. It generally ended with small injuries because of bad rest management. I often focus on bouldering on cold days and switch to lead around summertime.

Spring 2019 in my 40's I had a peak shape in bouldering with problems like Vecchio Leone 8B in Brione. Generally, on routes, I have a lack of power endurance but that time I felt not so bad in 8a-8b's after only 2-3 weeks. Usually, in such a case I was thinking, "let's get more training before trying harder, I feel good but no chance for a long and steep route with so little pump training". This time I stopped thinking and jumped to a 14 years project and succeeded in a few sessions. It was a good option because right after I felt weaker due to a new injury leading to less intense training and regression (finger, shoulder, biceps... I don't remember).

Part of my success now is probably more long term focus on lead and capability to rest on less and less good holds because I don't feel physically stronger for the hardest moves. I also discovered the hang board routine from Emil Abrahamsson and was really impressed by the results he obtained on himself. I don't feel so much progress on hangs like him but I agree it might preserve joints and tendons. Need to find a similar routine for bigger muscle groups that also feel painful...

Gonzalo Larrocha, who just did his 18th 9a, has done Ramon Julian Puigblanque's Priorato de Sion 9a in Alquezar. In total, the 36-year-old has done seven routes 8b and harder the last week, out of which four FAs! Psicosis 8c/+ in the picture by Uri.

So how can you explain being in the best shape ever?
I don't know what is happening this week. It could be the vaccine's secondary effect. I have been trying this route for two months. This route is a different style of climbing. I used 16 different kneebars to climb the 15 meters route. On the other hand, a broken hold in the crux section could maintain the difficulty.

It should be mentioned that Ramonet graded it 8c+ but all repeaters have thought 9a fits better. Many of his FAs have later been upgraded.

Jonathan Flor reports on Insta that he has done Fin de alihulk extension sit start 9a+ in Rodellar. "Very happy to be able to climb this type of route again and return to our second home. Now looking forward to the many other projects I have here👀🤟." n(c) Javi Pec

Jonathan has previously done some 40 routes graded 8c+/9a and harder including the FA of Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension Total 9b, which has a harder intro boulder than the left variation he just did.