Katie Lamb, who has done five 8B's during the last two months, has done Freshly squeezed 8A+ in RMNP. In the 8a monthly ranking game,the 22-year-old is #1 among the female and #11 including the male.

"Of all the boulder nugs in the Colorado bubble, Freshly Squeezed is one of the hottest fire I’ve touched. The moves are big and powerful which meant I had to learn to spread my arm wings and fly. The boulder is so good it has reduced grown men to tears and is protected by an osprey overlord who flies over the nearby Lake Haiyaha and swoops for trout as climbers give good goes in the nearby talus. Although the grade doesn’t reflect the full difficulty of the climb, I have taken away deep learning lessons of both climbing and human empathy from the ascension experience. Boulder points of 8a ploos but learning points of 8b :). Well done Colorado bubble, you’ve got a good one!"

Moritz Welt has done her eight 9a, La prophétie des grenouilles in Fournel. "First I tried " Une Arquée..." and after taking it down quickly I decided to go for the right exit. Took me like 3 sessions and 5 tries after doing the 8c. Rather low end 9a, pure fitness climbing." The 19-year-old is #5 in the 8a Lead ranking game and in combination with Boulder he is #3.

Maho Normand has done his second 8c+, San ku kai in Entraygues. Earlier this summer, the 145 cm tall did his first 8b onsight, Racing in the street in Rue de Masques. "San ku kai is a very physical route with large compression movements, I started to work this route at the start of the summer holidays and I had to put in about ten or fifteen sessions to be able to achieve this beautiful route in Entraygues. My next project is to make one more 8b onsight and to do an 8b+ flash."

Laura Rogora, who yesterday won the Briancon World Cup, reports on Insta that she has done La Prophétie des grenouilles 9a in Fournel and remarkable, she just needed three tries. In total, the 153 cm tall has now done 14 routes 8c+/9a and harder out of which five this summer including one 9b. (c) Ida Mutto

“I have to say that in qualification, I was quite nervous after such a long time without competitions and I controlled some of my steps may be too much,” says Ondra, who was the only one to top the first route and who top the second one together with the Austrian Jakob Schubert.

“The semi-finals route was not pleasant at all. There were a few question marks when it was not clear at all how to climb the section, where to put my hands, where to put my feet. Even so, I was much more confident and could enjoy the climbing much more,” explains Ondra his feelings about the route. Ondra eventually reached the same position as the Austrian Schubert, but the initial happiness was replaced by accusations of stepping on the bolt by the side of referees. “I was again accused of, as well as of the Olympic qualification in Japan, that I stepped on the bolt. Fortunately, our protest was accepted and it was confirmed, that I really didn’t stand on it,” comments Ondra this little drama. Despite the same result with Schubert, he advanced to the finals from the first place, due to better result from the qualification.

“I had a great time in the finals. The route was rather endurance one, there were not so many uncertain steps and sequences that were difficult to read. The route graduated with a really difficult endurance finish, which was mainly about the perfect physical form, that I think, was very good in recent weeks,” says Ondra. The final section was pretty hard, but Ondra will remember this unique atmosphere and applause of 5,000 fans for a long time. “The last meters were really dramatic and I got very tired there. I thought these were my last steps before falling, but fortunately, I was able to hold that tiny hold and clip the rope into the final quickdraw. It was a really beautiful experience when 5,000 spectators applauded me. I think I will remember this victory for a long time,” smiles Ondra just after the competition. (c) Petr Chodura

Laura Rogora, who just did her first 9b, won her first World Cup and actually she did not touch the top hold as she was strong enough to clip from the second last hold. Also Janja Garnbret topped it in good style, almost shaking and resting from all the last holds. Boulder expert Fanny Gibert was third. Complete results (c) Vladek Zumr

Interesting is that the 19-year-old Italian has done a four routes 9a to 9b this summer. In total, the 153 cm tall has now done 14 routes 8c+/9a and harder which is most by all female. Last year she qualified to Tokyo but in Lead she was just #14 overall, although she got the silver in the Euro Championships.

Adam Ondra created once again the perfect show by topping out the final route. As usual, he was almost running up the wall with ease beside the last two holds were he fought hard. Runner-up was Domen Skofic who got his first podium since he won once in 2018. Third was Jakob Schubert. Complete results (c) Vladek Zumr

After the final, there was a touching ceremony for Luce Douady who tragically died this summer at age 16, falling 150 meter from en exposed path. Last year she was the Youth Bouldering World Championship and she got the bronze in the European Championship in Lead for the seniors.

Alexander Rohr reports from the last most doing four 8c+' and two 9a's, out of which two FAs. In total the 24-year-old Swizz has now done 22 routes 8c+ and 9a with his last one knocking on the 9a+ door. More pics on Insta

"After having completed Adam Ondras's Transcription, 9a in Charmey, I quickly did El Molinero 8c+ in Gimmelwald, Les temps difficiles 8c+ in Soyhières as well as Le roi lézard 8c (+) in Jansegg. Then I switched focus to an old project in Gimmelwald. It starts with Surfers Paradise and then opts for the left exit. I thought it is harder than Wipeout. That is why it is called Knockout 8c+. The crux is right in front of the chains.

After that I moved to the old idea linking Jungfraumarathon, 9a into Gimmelexpress 8c+. It’s got one more bolt in-between to get to the last but hard ten meters of Gimmelexpress. You basically do the whole hard part of Jungfraumarathon without the last part which is around 7c+. Instead, you climb to the right and do the last part of Gimmelexpress. This part is the redpoint crux for Gimmelexpress too and would probably check in at 8b+. Short and very intense climbing. Two days before the successful attempt, I could repeat Jungfraumarathon three times in a day but I was still falling in the last hard move of the new link-up. I then took a restday. After that, I finally did it on the first go of the day."