Oriane Bertone has done the Fontainebleau traverse Atomic Playboy 8A+. "Fantastic trav with a boulder grade in the 7C+ section." The 13 year old has done more than 20 Boulders 8A and harder including Golden Shadow 8B (+) when she was 12 years old.

Philipp Gaßner, who did his first 8c+ being 14 years old, has done his first 9a, Working class in Frankenjura. "Tried it two days last year and one day this year; striking line with one hard bouldery section near the top." The 18 year old is #6 in the 8a Combined ranking game having done also ten 8B boulders in 2018.

Stefan Scarperi has done the 25th ascent of Wolfgang Gullich’s classic from 1991, Action Directe in Frankenjura after six days of working it during the last two years. In total the Italian has done four 9a’s out of which two the last two weeks. In 2015 he was #3 in the Euro Championship. ”It is just amazing and Wolfgang did it the same year when I was born. I think this is my hardest although Biologico took me a lot of effort.”

Moritz Welt, who the last two months have done two 9a's, have done the FA of Midas 8c+ in Frankenjura. The 17-year-old is #2 in the Combined ranking game after Daniel Woods. "New line starting with the first two bolts of Triebwerke and ending in the upper part of Fürther Freiheit. Pretty much my style with technical moves on tiny holds, hard to grade though... pumpy 8a into 8A+ boulder into another pumpy 7c/+ with a few medium rests in between. Loved to try it!"

Daniel Woods reports on Insta, with many great pics by James Lucas, that he has done the FA of his 4th 8C+, Box Therapy in RMNP up at 3 169 m elevation. The 10.5 km hike took 2 - 3 hours depending how much snow it was and he did it seven days. As can be seen on the picture, there were plenty of snow and projecting also involved rapping in and shoveling away snow and ice on the top out. Some of the days he worked it it was 1 degree and windy conditions. "18 moves out a 50 degree roof, micro holds that make your pulleys feel like they are gonna pop after every attempt." More on Climbing. The 29 year old has been one of the leading boulderers since he was 16 years old and in practice, he has the most impressive bouldering tick list out there. In 2010, he won the Bouldering WC in Vail and this year he did his first 9b.

Said Belhaj has done the 23rd repeat of Action Directe in Frankenjura which Wolfgang Gullich opened in 1991. Today it is considered the world’s first 9a. Ray Demski ”First time I went to the Frankenjura was in -96 but AD was not even a fantasy to climb at the time. Then in -15 I went up to check the moves for the 1st time. Everything seemed possible exept the jump in the start. This spring I tried for 1 week and managed all the moves. On this trip, with 1 month of preparation I was back. I felt weaker than in the spring and the progress went backwards in the end during a 3 week period. I was also very warm for the season which didnt make it easier for me as some moves were in my limit. After a 5 day break from AD, climbing in Margalef, I came back. The temps had dropped and I felt well rested. I sent the same day on my 2nd go. To be honest I never thought I would do it this season but hoped that resting and better conditions would make miracles -and so they did. The route and its history was the only true reason I wanted to do it as its somehow been a part of my life since I started climbing.”

Katha Saurwein, one of the best female multi discipline climbers, has done her first 8b trad, Tainted Love in Squamish. (c) Jon Glassberg "I knew I wanted to try ‘Tainted love’ before coming here as this stemming corner with an almost closed crack in the corner and blank sidewalls, first ascended by Hazel Findlay looked stunning. It’s about fifteen to twenty meters high and is protected by small offset wires and one cam. At first both Jorg (Verhoeven, who also did it) and I had a hard time getting off the ground, we didn’t know how to move, how to position our body. From session to we got a better feeling for the open dihedral and at one point we both had our own beta worked out, which was actually quite different, due to our height difference. On our fourth session our goal was to get used to placing the gear, but as I started climbing it felt great, so I just kept on going. I was so focused on my climbing that I wasn’t really scared, and as I slowly made it higher and higher I found myself up top before realizing what had happened."