Moritz Welt has done his sixth 9a during the last 12 months, Lulu in Céüse. Among the teenagers, he is #1 in the 8a ranking game.

"Tried this one straight for the last three weeks, at least about seven sessions or something. Fell a lot of times at the very end. Once even after the last crux in the final slab. Did it on the last day of my trip a few minutes before it started to rain".

Natalia Grossman, who has done four 8B's in 2020, has done her tenth 8A+ during the last five months, Phallus in RMNP. "Proud of this one:) My biggest mental battle to date!"

What the #4 in the 8a ranking game is talking about is that she injured her bicep on the first day she tried the sit start forcing her to take some time off. Later when she started bouldering again she did not want to push hard but even so tried it a bit. "Deep down I knew I shouldn’t be trying Phallus so I took a month off from the climb. Yesterday, I finally went back after feeling healthy and strong and sent 1st try!" Full story on her Insta.

Edu Marin spent 170+ days in China out of which 50 days of bolting, to put up the hardest MP in the world, Valhalla.

Julia Chanourdie, who previously has done one 9a+, reports on Insta that has done her second 9a, Sang Neuf in Pierrot Beach. Directly after the send, she tried the extension Sweet Neuf 9a+ and says she will come back once the temperature has dropped. Anak Verhoeven has done the FA of both routes.

Chanourdie was #4 in the Lead World Cup and has since tried to make it to the Olympics and she made it happen in Toulouse where she was #2. Her Speed PB is 8.94 which is one of the best among the non-specialists and here on 8a, she has been predicted to be Top-8 overall in Tokyo, even before she had qualified.

Daniel Fuertes has done his second 9a+, Ali Hulk extension total in Rodellar. The 39-year-old did his first 9a out of 12 in 2009. (c) Carlos "citro" Logroño

"For me it has been very important send because with this I return to do my best performance! I could not tell you how many days last years and this summer I have focused on these routes. I was climbing there about two weeks in June and then two weeks now. The key has been to not give up and also very important to share methods and tries with other climbers such as Enrique Gallardo and Dave Graham. When you try a hard route it is great to share methods for the crux because any small change can make a difference! That my little princess, Africa, has started the kindergarten, has been also very important haha 😜, now I can spend more time climbing 😂😂."

Iker Pou (43) was just recently listed as #3 overall climbers in the world here on 8a. In 2000, he did Action Directe and this summer he did an 8B+ FA as well as two 9a FAs. In between, he has done another 30 routes 8c+/9a up to 9b (+) as well as numerous big walls FAs all over the globe up to 8c. His latest is is the 600 meter Rayu located in Peña Santa with pitches up to 8c. The FA was done together with his brother Eneko and Kico Cerdá after five weeks of hard work.

"The Basque brothers are convinced that, given the exceptional quality of the route, it will become a classic that will be pursued by the best climbers in the world. There have been marathon days of up to 18 consecutive hours ..., we have ended up destroyed..., but we are happy, we have given everything, and when you make an effort 100%, you have a very good taste in your mouth".

In the end, they redpointed the whole route, mainly protected by trad gear, in a 12 h 1/2 non-stop attempt from the ground to the summit. Click on the headline to see a picture gallery. Video teaser.

Chuck Odette has done his first 8c (b+), T-Rex in Pipe Dream after roughly 80-100 tries over two years. The 64-year-old started climbing at age 23 back in 1978. Turning 35, he decided to try to start pushing his limits, reaching his first 7c+ at 37 and first 8b+ at 44. (c) Eric Steiner

"It was cold and wet yesterday (9/9/20) here in Maple. There was a skiff of snow on the trail up to the Pipedream. It was a huge change from two days prior when the temps were 75f (24 celcius) and 14% humidity. My dry skin doesn't adhere well below 20% humidity. We (Maggie & me) almost didn't make the trip up for our Wednesday climbing ritual. The warm-ups were numb-outs. Maggie offered to stay and belay but it was too cold for her to climb... :(

Temps made it up to a balmy 49f (9 celcius) with humidity at 33%... I figured I'd give it one go and wait for hopeful better conditions on Friday. T-Rex is 40 meters long... too long for cold temps. I almost fell at the 3rd bolt... not a good start for a route that's 26 bolts long! Somehow I reeled in the bad left hand pinch that was attempting to thwart my efforts for the day. Instead of monitoring heart rate and pump, I focused on how numb my feet and hands were before moving on from rests.

Taking one move at a time I passed the crux and eventually the anchors of Millennium (8b+). I felt strong on the moves connecting Millennium to the T-Rex extension and just kept knocking down section after section one move at a time. Before I knew it, I was making one last big move to a jug at the lip of the cave, a place I'd fallen on previous attempts while on redpoint. The last four bolts were totally on lock down and anticlimactic. Done... whew... I announced my retirement from climbing to everyone at the crag immediately after lowering off the anchors and touching the ground... then... I qualified it... I'm retiring from climbing until Friday. Time for a new project... something fun... stay tuned :)

PS: I know some strong climbers have started giving T-Rex a downgrade to 8b+ recently from the original long standing consensus grade of 8c. I feel that it's deserving of the 8c personally. It's a full step harder than any 8b+ I've done in the past, but I'm also a full step older than most of my previous 8b+ routes... oh well... ratings... kind of like religion... totally subjective and worth about 2-cents on a good day... lol."