Chris Frick has done Stop Sika (8c) in Rawyl. It was equipped by Betrand Martenet and the FA was done in 2003 by Didier Berthod at 8c. The completely natural line – hence the name – became an instant classic and settled at 8b+. In 2019 Bertrand rebolted the route, establishing in the middle section a more direct and harder line. After Samuel Ometz Re-FA the consensus now it is back to 8c. (c) Isabelle Bihr

"What a journey! At age of 54, it’s still time to rock’n’roll! No need to give up, keep on living the dream! ‘Stop Sika’ is a beauty. Well, for my generation 8c still sounds like a journey to Mars! When I was already 20 years old this was the hardest grade at the time. So it’s intimidating. Anyway, I had to try! I said to myself better fail on a dream route at my limit than regret too late to have never really tried.

The starting point was one year ago by checking the moves. Couldn’t do the two cruxes. From there the process was underway. My last 8c send was in 2016 at age of 48. To regain experience and confidence I hopped on other 8c’s, foremost trying ‘Mind Control’ at Oliana that could be the sibling of ‘Stop Sika’. The wonderful Vanda Michalkova created a training regime targeting my weaknesses. For several months I lived a climbing monk’s life spending most of my free time training. I never took T-Level supplementals (unhealthy and dangerous!). I work 4/7 and I’m not sponsored."

Jana Svecová (Vincourková) has done Grotta Azzurra (8A+) in Moravský kras and Špekmen (8A+) in Petrohrad. The latter she thought was a soft 8A. The 25-year-old has published a longer video from two days of bouldering also including a 7C flash and some easier sends.

Jana, did her first 8B+ this spring and has in total done 15 boulders 8A+ and harder, since 2019, some of which she has chosen to downgrade. As a youngster, she was an active competition climber, winning a Euro youth cup in 2012, but burnout caused her to take a two-year break before taking up climbing again in 2019. (c) Markéta Nevělíková

How is your climbing life nowadays?
My climbing life nowadays is a bit different since we built our own bouldering gym. We really enjoyed building it, but the training routine changed a lot compared to when we did not have the TeePee gym. The previous two years we climbed only on Moonboard and did some fingerboarding. Now we also fingerboard a lot but whenever we can we go to TeePee, probably as it's new to us and it's a lot of fun. Weekends, as usual, we spent in the rocks, and Sunday evening, the gym again. Sometimes it´s hard for me to be motivated to do all this because I have a full-time job and sometimes I am very tired when I go to training, but luckily when I convince myself to go and have a session when I'm there I get psyched and have a normal session. It takes a lot of convincing some days, cause we climb a lot. 😃 So most days we spent like this just climbing in our new gym then do some additional specific training for finger power or some core training etc.

What is your full time job and do you also work in the gym? My position is HR in an IT company 🙂. And the gym is mainly maintained by my husband. He puts all the holds on the wall and do all the stuff around the wall. Teepee is not a commercial gym but some of our friends have free access so we have like a small commutiny there which is nice and motivational.

Do you have long-term dream in climbing?
I have some, like climbing 8B+ or 8C, but I'm just 158 cm tall and have only a +1 ape index, so it's really hard for me to find something with reachable holds. Sometimes I am not even able to send 7B when it's reachy. But there is one 8B+ in Austria that I should be able to send. With the 8Cs I think if I would find the right one, just on tiny incut crimps I would be able to send it. Any suggestions? For the outdoor climbing, it is quite hard, with the job to go somewhere further for more days, last two years we were just unlucky alot, whenever we went somewhere behind the borders, the weather was trash. So that's why we are going again for a trip to UAE in December, to further develop local boulder potential, which I am looking forward to the most even without any specific project there.

Stefano Ghisolfi has done in Arco, giving it a personal 9a grade. "Better beta was found in the upper part by some repeaters. So this time it is not a downgrade because of kneebars."

Will you go for Paris 2024?
I still don't know what to do next year, the main goal will be Silence (9c).

Luca Bana did the FA of Extrasistole galoppante (9a) in December 2021. "Outstanding project on the 'heart' sector, bolted in 2010 by Yuri parimbelli and remained unclimbed until now. A mix of big exposure, rock quality and savage moves makes it one of the best hard routes of the area!"

Here is the Combined national World Cup ranking in 2022. It was more or less the same ranking in 2021, aside from Japan creating an even bigger gap between themselves and the other countries chasing them. The Czech Republic has dropped in ranking due to the absence of Adam Ondra. Remarkably, Slovenia a country with only 2 million inhabitants has been one of the leading nations for some 20 years straight now.

1. Japan 42 138
2. USA 31 821
3. Slovenia 24 254
4. France 18 013
5. Germany 17 626

6. Austria 14 358
7. Korea 14 150
8. Italy 11 843
9. UK 10 401
0. Switzerland 6 936

Daniel Woods has repeated Dave Graham's Foundations Edge (8C) and Scarred for Life (8B+) in Fionnay. More pictures on his Insta.

The 33-year-old has been on the cutting edge since age 15 when he did his first 8c+ route and first 8B+ boulder. Starting in 2005, he won the American Nationals ten years in a row and he has also won one World Cup. In total, he has done 40+ 8Cs and harder, including the FA of Return of the Sleepwalker (9A).

"I tried Foundations Edge a couple of times in May and a few more times in the past but it was always wet. This time it was bone dry and went the first day. The next day hooked up Scarred for Life (8B+). Both these blocs are world-class and it was an awesome experience getting to climb them. I am here for two more weeks. Next, I’ll try Fuck the System 8C+ and I also want to try the low start project into Permanent Midnight (8A+) or Solitary daze (8C). The low adds is around 8B+ into the 8A+ or 8C."

Loic Zehani has done the FA of Harlem (9b) in Orgon after some 15 sessions. It is a 50 moves steep link-up in between Bronx (8c+), an 8A boulder that continues to the top part and the 7C+ crux of Sachidananda (9a+). Video on his Insta

The 20-year-old did his first 9a at age 15 and in total, he has done 60+ routes 8c+/9a and harder, out of which 43 are FAs. Almost all his hardest routes are done near his home area above Marseille. He has done three 9a's in Spain, and all three he redpointed quite quickly.

What does a normal climbing/training week look like?
Every week is different because I work in a bouldering gym. My working days are different every week so it’s quite complicated to organize small trips. I climb on weekends on rock normally and one day during the week. I do one or two sessions a week in the gym. I climb normally about 4 times a week. I just try to go outside as often as possible.

What is your next plans?
In October I will try to go and train at Chris’ gym in Barcelona and maybe outside. I plan to be in Siurana in November for TENAYA and I would like to go back afterward. In February I will organize a small trip to go to Santa Linya. I don’t have any routes in mind but I have time to think about it. 😉