Alizee Dufraisse, who sent her first 8B+ last month, has completed Tigris (8B) in Magic Wood.

Can you tell us more about the process behind the send?
I did the ascent pretty fast. One day I did the 7C ending and maybe 3/4 days in the 8B, I’m not sure. The goal is the 8B+ sit start so let s see if I can figure out the beginning, haha.

Alex Ventajas, with close to 20 routes 9a and beyound under his belt, has sent The famous gem (9a) in La Saume. (c) Crimp Films

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
A couple of weeks ago, I visited La Saume for the first time. After sending Beginning (9a+) in Arco a few months ago, I suffered a minor finger injury that lingered longer than expected. These days in La Saume marked the first time I truly felt the finger recovering — getting stronger again.

I didn’t have a clear plan, but my attention was quickly drawn to the hardest line in the sector: The Famous Gem. Since it was my first time in the area and everything was new, I decided to keep things open — mixing easier climbs with projecting each day.

The Famous Gem is a link-up of two existing routes: the 8c Marcellus Wallace and the 8c+ Pastis. I began by working them individually. The climbing style is quite bouldery, which doesn’t naturally suit me, so I needed a few sessions just to adapt to the wall. It was definitely a bit of a fight at first, with plenty of ups and downs. Each boulder section felt tough initially, but once I figured out the moves, I started to really enjoy the process. In the end, I sent both routes pretty quickly.

After ticking those off, linking them into the full 9a felt like a whole new challenge. You arrive at the same two small crimps as in Pastis, but from a completely different position after climbing Marcellus Wallace, which makes the crux feel entirely different. At first, it seemed extremely hard. But the next day, a few small adjustments — body position, heel placement — changed everything. I went from having no idea how to do the crux move to sticking it consistently, and finally clipped the chain.

The key to the send was really the focus on precision. Even small shifts in body tension or footwork made a huge difference, and I had to dial that in carefully. In total, it took me around 6–7 climbing days to send the full line, including time spent working the individual routes. Maybe it’s not a solid 9a, but I’m really happy to have done it fairly quickly — and more importantly, to finally feel like I’m getting back into shape.

What I’ll remember most is the atmosphere at La Saume — the energy, the people, and the strong sense of climbing community that made the experience so memorable.

Jonathan Hörst, standing at 190 cm and 85 kg, has completed Mutation (9a) at Wild Iris Main Wall. The 22-year-old did his first 8b+ at age 10.

Can you tell us more about the ascent and the process behind?
It was definitely a roller coaster ride. I first sent the 8b+ start when I was 11 but didn’t climb much on this wall until I was traveling over COVID. I remember watching BJ work this in the mid 2010s and it was such a crazy link to even imagine. Essentially this climb does the crux of almost every route on the wall climbing 100 feet diagonally, on a wall where all of the routes are 4 bolts tall. I progressed in the early 2020s doing some easier link ups on this wall, and in 2023 gave this 9a some serious effort, ultimately coming up short.

At the time I thought I was in the best shape of my life and fell off the last move (literally) at least 12 times and I took last year off from trying it to clear my head. Additionally, last year was a year off since finishing my undergrad and I got psyched to expand my styles of climbing.

This meant I put more emphasis on new objectives opposed to sport climbing with a lot of time trad climbing, up on big walls, up in the alpine or route developing. I haven’t trained in a gym since February and for most of the spring I was bolting at the Red River Gorge without climbing much on upper end difficulty. All of this contributed to me getting quite bulky and having a mental battle over how well I could climb after little specific focus on hard sending. Surprisingly I had a solid June of climbing at Wolf Point, and when that season closed I came back to the Rodeo Wave in Wild Iris to at least rage on Mutation.

My first day back I made a really good low point with some margin that 2 years ago was tough to make, and got pretty stoked. Another 2 days of working it and I got back to the same last move in 75% humidity and made a few beta tweaks. Then yesterday I came back, got blessed with perfect conditions and climbed better than I could’ve expected.

Its crazy to me not because I was convinced 9a was too much of a barrier but because so much felt like it wasn’t “perfect” especially compared to previous years (limited training, alot of non-limit climbing, sub optimal fitness, etc) which after falling off the end when all of these things were right, made this year feel like not much could happen. Evidently I was wrong! Moving forward since I’ll be moving to SLC I’m stoked to see how much more I can push my high end climbing, but I’ll also continue to put a lot of emphasis on the other styles I’ve become interested in. We’ll see how it plays out!

Niki Rusev, who sent his first 9a route at age 14, has had an amazing day in Rocklands sending Spray of Light (8C), Reverse Cowgirl (8B+), one 8A+ as well as an 8A. The 19-year-old Bulgarian was runner up at the European Youth Championship two months ago. (c) Daniel Gajda

”What a day! Didn’t know about this boulder until I came to Rocklands🇿🇦. First few days were rainy and went to check out that cave where it was possible to climb during the storm ☔️. I enjoyed the process of figuring out the moves but putting them all together at once seemed hard 🔥. Even if I thought I planned my climbing days well I struggled with recovery and also jumped on too many different blocks😮‍💨. I ended up exhausted and after I started to learn how to save some energy I decided to focus on one thing that I feel closer to send😏. I was still wondering which method I should use for that last part. I do usually like to use the most efficient way but this time I chose the more physical one. The toe hook (the less powerful beta) has more micro moves that pumped me even more and it just felt too technical for me🤔. After one day rest and slow warm up it went down from the first send attempt. This is my first 8C. To be honest right after I sent it some thoughts appeared in my mind about the grade but I would say I do feel very poor in terms of experiencing hard grades, specially in bouldering.”

Gabriele Moroni, who is working full time as a route setter, including international competitions, has sent Vivi si muore (9a+) and Trainspotting (9a+) in La Stazione, logging them as 9a’s. At 37, the Italian first made headlines in 2004 by earning a bronze medal at the European Bouldering Championship. Before that milestone, he had already built an impressive record in Lead, claiming three European Youth Cup titles and the Youth World Championship. He wrapped up his competition career in 2018, finishing on a high with a victory in a Bouldering World Cup event that same year. Then in 2023 he made a comeback and in his first comp he was 25th. (c) Ale Palma

How is the summer going in between all route setting?
My summer is going well. It has been pretty hot in the last couple of months but the few times I managed to get outside I’ve been lucky with decent conditions. I am not training much these days but somehow I feel pretty fit and I am very happy that I can still climb routes around 9a rather quickly!

What is your next plan?
I’ll have two weeks holiday in august so the plan is to chase some fresh conditions in the alps.

Michael Piccolruaz, Nicolai Užnik and David Firnenburg have sent The smile (8C) in Rocklands. Giuliano Cameroni made the FA in 2018 and the high ball stood unrepeated until last year. (c) Daniel Gajda

Can you tell us more about the trip and The Smile?
Michael:[pictured] We've been on the trip for two weeks now. I came out with Nicolai and his girlfriend Sofya and then we met up here with a couple more friends. It's Nicolai's and Sofya's first time here so I've been showing them around a bit on all the amazing classics, while I've climbed some lines I hadn't done during my previous trips. I'm really looking for the good lines and I'm especially keen on some that are a little spicy in terms of height, so The Smile is just the perfect climb that fits all I'm looking for! Unbelievable line, crazy beautiful, the rock is out of this world and the moves are insane. The final jump to the lip makes the whole climb mentally quite challenging but I think I have a good head in such moments so I was confident that I would have a good chance of sending the boulder if I should get up there. When I finally did the move to the right eye of the smile, I just kept going, shut off my brain and jumped.

Nicolai: Definitely one of the coolest and also scariest boulders I’ve done. Since the last move is very committing I had to jump down twice after doing the actual crux move because I was not able to jump off / commit. I did in on the next attempt though so in total I had one session working on it and then did it the next. Probably low end 8C and if it was not for the height I think 8B+ would fit better.

David: So pretty and high wall. Can’t get any better than this! Emotionally challenging, although rationally you know that falling on the top move isn‘t too bad. Once I committed like 80% on the last big move to the lip and landed nicely, I broke my mental barrier. The climbing didn‘t feel like a proper 8C to me but maybe it is due to its height. Undoubtedly it influenced my climbing. Anyways, legendary bloc! 2 sessions.