Solveig Korherr has during ten days done eleven routes 8a+ and harder in Frankenjura including;
Klodike Cat 8c, "Wow! What a freaking good day! Definitely my style! Psyched to have sent it in my third try. First 8c in a day!"
Roof Warrior 8c, " Last day, best day! What a sick roof! It was so much fun finding all the beta and climbing through the horizontal and pumpy part of the route. Jon would have been proud of my kneebars :D"
Triebwerke 8b onsight,"I think more experience on rock over the last few years have made me much better at making decisions and reading the rock on the fly."

"My trip to the Frankenjura was rather spontaneous as I was only supposed to stay for two/ three days but in the end, I stayed for ten days and it couldn’t have been better. At the beginning, I just wanted to climb a lot of routes without any specific goal and pressure. I guess that was the key in the end to have a very successful trip and a lot of fun!" (c) Julian Bückers

"It was actually better than expected!" Adam Ondra did good links and found a knee bar during his first day on Alex Megos' Perfecto Mundo 9b+, bolted by Chris Sharma.

Vadim Timonov, who did four 8C's during a four weeks trip to Ticino last Christmas, has done the FA of Low Priora 8C/+ in Djan-tugan. "Powerful moves, hard work with underclings. 17 moves in total in 65 degrees overhang."

It starts right in the hole in the bottom of the pictures and tops out in Priora 7B, shown in the picture. The Russian also opened Focus failed 8C that tops around the corner to the left. Last year, Vadim got the bronze in the Euro Championship and next up for him is the Moscow Euro Championship.

So how is this new boulder spot and where is it located?
In 2017, it was a big mudflow and a large area with stones appeared. Really good world-class area. A lot of stones around but we haven't seen much yet. Need more time for exploring. We are thinking about boulder festival for next year. It is located 20 hours south of Moscow by car or 3 hours by plane.

Natalia Grossman has done three 8A's on her first weekend trip to Joe Valley; I shaved my head for this (pictured), Barely Legal and Death Cream. In total, the 19-year-old studying Psychology and Business in the University, has done 32 boulders 8A to 8B during the last six months. Last year, Natalia got the silver in both Boulder and Combined in the Youth World Championship.

Is it not time to step up the game to 8B+ with such grade pyramid?
I was only there for the weekend, I’m psyched that I was able to try lots of fun climbs and I can’t wait to return! I am pretty busy with school so I don’t really want a long term project right now.

Nathaniel Coleman, who has qualified to Tokyo and who has previously has done one 9a, has sent his first 9a+, Empath in Tahoe. It was set up just two weeks ago by Carlo Traversi and later both James Webb and Daniel Woods have also done it. On Insta, Nathaniel thanks all three for beta and energy. (c) Ross Fulkerson

Do you know how many sessions the guys repeating it did used and what about the grade? (We asked FA Traversi.) Daniel and Jimmy put in about 10 days of work. Nathaniel a bit less, but we gave him all the beta. Hard to say if it’s soft when you have some of the best American climbers trying it in perfect conditions. Also, 9a+ isn’t the top of the scale anymore. It’s a hard route to grade. I honestly didn’t really know. Daniel told me it was comparable to First Round (9b). Jimmy said it was much harder than Dreamcatcher (9a). So those comparisons helped inform my grade suggestion. But it’s just a suggestion, as always with grades, time will tell. I will say though, everyone who has repeated it is capable of climbing 9a+ in a day if they find the right route. We just don’t have a lot of hard routes to test ourselves on in America.

Matt Fultz, has beside one 8C+, done his eight 8C in 2020, Death Star in Eldora. The 29-year-old has had an almost continues progress for ten years but nevertheless, during the last two years, the late bloomer has stepped to a new level. Picture from his Insta, where he says, "Brilliant boulder from @dawoods89! Took me several sessions of work, but very happy to do it 2nd go today since my shoulder is usually sore for a week after I try it 😵."

Jacob Schubert has had a great trip to Arco with the Austrian National team. During five climbing days he did Beginning 9a (+), Omen Nomen 9a and Thunder Ribes 9a (8c+). The best male competition climber during the last ten years, also did six routes 8b+ to 8c+, including the onsight of 5 Uve, More info on his Insta. (c) Heiko Wilhelm

Palmer Larsen skips 8c+ and does his first 9a, Algorithm in The Fins. He projected it for some 15 days doing just some 30 tries as each try took some 45 minutes.

"Solving an algorithm is exactly what I felt like I was doing in order to send that route. It’s 40m long with a boulder crux at about half way and then two boulder cruxes right at the top. Each effort would be about 45 min so it took a lot each time I pulled on. I put about 15 days of work into the route and over 30 tries over the course of the past few months and sent it on probably the last day of the season before it gets too cold.

Perfect beta, temps, skin, mental toughness and desire, and just a bit of luck for it to all come together. Cheer to Johnathan for finding and getting the FA of the line. It felt impossible at first to me so I couldn’t imagine what he had to go through."