Iziar Martinez, who did her first 8b+ ten days ago, has done her first 8c, Florida in Rodellar and it just took five sessions. (c) Pablo Beni "I climb since I was a kid with my parents, as I grew I started to train seriously three years ago. Now I train un Geko Aventuras, my father's rocodromo. My motivation is being the best climber that I can be and my family and trainer help me to reach this goal. One project I have is to do an 8a onsight."

Mathieu Bouyoud has done his 22nd 9a, via the FA of Je vais bien tout va bien exit 9a in La Balme. In the 8a ranking game, the French is #11. "It starts by Je vais bien 8c+ and finish by the exit of Tout va bien exit 8b. It's 50 m long route in a big overhang on the left part of the cave. Now I would like to do the extension by Tout va bien 8c, maybe in total 9a+. I bolted this routes 5 years ago."

Matt Fult, who had 8B+ as personal best until 15 months ago, has done his eleventh 8C, Blade Runner in RMNP. In the 8a ranking game, the 29-year-old is the new #3. (c) Kevin Takahashi Smith

"12 sessions from start to finish. The physical difficulty is only one aspect of what made Blade Runner so tough for me. Weather, humidity, and skin all played huge roles in coming together for the send. The crux “button” hold would either feel amazing or impossible, all based on those factors!" As reported on Insta he sometimes did have to set the alarm at 3am in order to get better conditions.

Alex Puccio has done The Wheel direct 8B (+) in RMNP. "1st try 3rd day on it. To me it definitely felt harder than the wheel of chaos! The end was a harder end and DEFINITELY harder the shorter you are. I say low end V14?? I have done a lot of v13’s and especially for all the v13’s I have done recently and have repeated recently this is deff a step up! Fun climb regardless and glad I sent before the rain settled in! :) Oh, no knee bars and with the big bump shoulder move out left in the crux." (c) Robin O'Leary

The former very successful competition climber is #1 in the female annual ranking game as she has been for more or less ten years straight. This in spite of having been unlucky with several bad injuries. As reported on her Insta, she had a close call for one more the other day as she had an almost 100 kg rock rolling over her foot.

Adam Ondra has done the FA of another two 9a's; Mia in Vranjača and Genius Loci in Paklenica . The latter adds a cruxy start to Il Maratoneta, the famous 8b+ put up by Manolo in 1987, which Ondra had onsighted a couple days earlier. Mia: "Amazing 50m line in an amazing cave close to Paklenica. Hard to say about the grade, after 25m of 8a/a+ you get into resistant section with weird crux which I think suits my style, even though after having worked the moves it is max 8c+. Possibly 8c+/9a. 3rd go."

The 27-year-old has now done 167 routes 9a to 9c. The runner up is Alex Megos with around 75. When it comes to 8b+ or harder onsight, Adam has 175 and here he is even more superior. In the 8a data base, Patxi Usobiaga is #2 with 40 onsights 8b+ or harder.

Laura Rogora, who did her first 9b yesterday, celebrated by onsighting Ixeia 8b+ and Esperit rebeld 8a+ (b). This should be a female onsight new standard day as there are only a handfull female that previously have onsighted an 8b+. (c) Marco Iacono

So how what that experience taking down your first 9b?
Still unbelievable. I booked only for one week here in rodellar because I only wanted to check if it was a possible long term project. I would never thought it was enough for the send.

Jonathan Siegrist has done the FA of Phat Camp 9a in Wicked Cave. In total, the 32-year-old has now done 50 routes 9a to 9b, which means he is #6 in that list overall in the world. In the 8a ranking game, he is #4. (c) Dru Mack

"It's a connection between two awesome 8c+'; Fat camp and Bad girls club both 8c+, without the good rests on either and a new boulder problem in between as well. I climbed them some years ago. The route is just long, very steep and physical throughout. Usually I hate kneebar centric climbing but occasionally it's a good challenge for me."

Jan Hojer and Molly Thompson-Smith have had some great days in Frankenjura having done Der Heilige Gral 9a and Father and Son 8c, respectively.

Jan: ”It’s rare to find this route dry which added some pressure to finish it off this trip. In the end it took me 4 days. We are going back to Cologne now for a little bit before we drive to Ceuse.”

Molly: “The last few months on rock were great for me to get more familiar with my rock climbing level, and start to push myself to climb things quicker and try harder lines. After watching Jan on ‘Der Heiliger Gral, 9a’ I decided to check it out and could do all the moves so I hope it stays dry enough for a few more sessions this summer! My other new project is ‘Infinity, 8c+’ at Eldorado. I love how short and powerful this crag is and I’m not sure many women have climbed the harder routes here so it’s a nice challenge!“

Laura Rogora, who has qualified to Tokyo 2021, reports on Insta that she has done Ali hulk sit start extension total 9b in Rodellar. It is a 15 move sit start link up to a 9a+ extension set up by Jonathan Flor. (c) Marco Iacono

The 153 cm and 19-year-old has previously done 13 routes 8c+/9a to 9a+, which means she has the most impressive female ticklist in the world. She did her first 9a at age 14. Being 15-years-old, she won her first Euro Youth Cup and two years later she was #6 in a World Cup. Overall, the Italian must be considered as a contender for the best female climber out there.