Advertorial: At the age of 41, Spaniard Patxi Usobiaga has achieved a lot. He looks back on a long, successful career as a professional rock climber, sport climber and boulderer. He has won two Lead Climbing World Cups in a row and climbed 267 routes in grades 8a to 9a+ during his career, 158 of them "onsight." He was the first climber to succeed in climbing an 8c+ route onsight (Bizi Euskaraz, in Etxauri, 2007).

With the Deuter Gravity Motion he gets fit for all his climbing tours. Besides his family, he loves nothing more than hanging out on the rock: "It's a way to find my happiness and realize myself. We all need something to fight for, a reason to improve and maybe become a better person. I manage to do that when I'm climbing. And so it has become my passion that I am dedicated to."

Watch the video and here is the blog.

Felipe Camargo has made the FA of Avenida Brazil, a 280m route with difficulties up to 8c in Gruta Casa de Pedra (BRA), the largest cave mouth in the world. The Brazilian had to wait four years to get official permission to bolt and then he and a selected team started bolting and cleaning it ground up. The ascent took 18 hours with no falls and there is a 26 min. documentary coming soon. The grades are 6, 6, 8b, 8b+, 8b, 8c, 7c and 7b+. " I started climbing at 9 pm to avoid the heat and I climbed till 3 pm. We slept on the top of the 4th pitch on porta ledges, where we also waited for the sun until 12 am to leave the wall. We finished climbing at 18:00." (c) Gabriel Tarso

They have bolted another six routes and the potential is almost endless as there are several similar caves in the area. The only problem is that the walk-in is nearly 90 min uphill. Others teams will also be able to bolt once regulations with the Park administrators are ironed out. The 31-year-old has previously done seven routes 9a to 9b, a couple of 8Cs and also some hard multi-pitches including Corazón de ensueño (8c). As a 16- and 17- year old he participated in seven World Cups and one WCH always placing within the top 35. In other words, Felipe's overall skills and talent as a climber have been vetted. His impact on the Brazilian scene has been profound thanks to his efforts bolting routes and exploring new bouldering areas.

The 35th edition of the Arco Rock Master started of with the Boulder KO, where the last climbers are eliminated after each round. On the last boulder, Chaehyun Seo flashed her fourth straight boulder winning ahead of Laura Rogora, who did it on her second try, and Jessica Pilz. In the men's category, Jakob Schubert was the only one who flashed the the last boulder winning ahead of Filip Schenk, who did it on his second attempt. Stefano Ghisolfi was third.

Seo: ”Rock Master was my dream and I had a lot of fun. I’m so proud of flashing all the problems; let’s see what’s happening tonight!”
She referred to the Duel, where the athletes Speed climb a very steep route, around 7b+ for the girls and 7c+ for the boys. Seo won the bronze race against Camilla Moroni and then Jessica Pilz won a tight race against Vita Lukan. (Strangely, in the picture you can actually see that Vita touched the pad ahead of Jessica. Also the commentator thought Vita won commenting, ”I am not sure what happened to the timing pad?)

Then Jakob Schubert secured his second victory by doing the fastest time of the night beating Michael Piccolruaz by a big margin. In the bronze race, Filip Schenk won ahead of Martin Stranik.

Max Bertone, who did his first 8c+ at age 12, has done La prophétie des grenouilles (9a), giving it a personal 8c+ grade. “A bit deceived that it couldn't be my first 9a but still a great line ! Thanks to Jorg Verheoven for the support at the previous ascent when I fell on the last move. This morning it was dry and windy. Good vibes! The second session was the good one. Between the two sessions Jorg Verheoven and Jules Marchaland sent the route and called it 8c+. Having little experience in this grade, I proposed 8c+ too.”

Could you tells us a little more about climbing this route and what's next on your agenda?
I started this project last year. I had little time and managed to send the first section of this route which is a 8c. Than I spent two more sessions in the second part and I fell on the crux at the top. This year, I knew I would succeed because I quickly managed to pass the crux at the top of the route.

I only have 2 days left in Briancon because I have to prepare for the European Bouldering Championship in Graz, so I will do some easier routes :)

BJ Tilden, who previously has put up seven 9a FAs, has done the FA of Hard Twisted (9a+) in Wolf Point. "A connection of Lions share and Dire wolf with a significant section of new hard climbing. Very psyched on this one!!"

Impressively, the 41-year-old does normally manages to climb only two days a week as he is a full-time carpenter/construction worker.

Killian Chabrier, who until three months ago a had 8b as his route PB, has done Condé de choc (9a) in Entraygues.

”This summer I wanted to do a trip mixed with 2 weeks of lead climbing in Briancon and 3 weeks of bouldering in Magic Wood, with the the objective of doing 9a lead climbing and 8C bouldering. So I decided to try Condé de Choc which I tried last year, this year I did 2 sessions trying all the moves and a third one where I sent it on my 5th try . The route consists of two sections and a rest between them. The first one is a 8A+ Boulder and the second one is like a 7B+ Boulder. The first goal of my trip is done and I am very excited to go to Switzerland and try new projects!”

Pietro Radassao has done his second 9a FA, La Terza Via in Colle dell'Orso. In total, Pietro has put up more than 100 routes and surprisingly, none of his 8c+ and harder (6) have been repeated. Almost all his hardest routes have been established during the last four years when he started to train harder and more frequently. The 26-year-old lives a couple of hours south-east of Rome and has only four times been on climbing trips abroad. The last time was in Spain in 2018. (c) Constantin Esposit

"🌞 These days are hot, very hot even for Molise and so I thought "why not try the route early in the morning?". I woke up at 4 and we met at the crag at 6, and by 7 I was on the wall feeling good and I managed the first free ascent of this project! 🙏 It was bolted a couple of years ago by Giorgio Ferretti, whom I thank for having equipped a logical and natural line, as hard as it is beautiful. It has the first part in common with "Homo Vitruvianus" with which it shares the first boulder problem (8B/+ so far) and after a decent rest it continues on the left on a strong overhang where you have to face another 30 movements without rest (for me this part is not less than 8c). It took me much more effort than "Homo Vitruvianus" (8c+), despite being currently in better physical shape. I propose the grade of 9a, waiting for future repetitions that will certainly better define the difficulty of the line."

Alex Johnson has done in RMNP (CO). Impressively the 33-year-old is peaking having done nine boulders 8A+ and 8B over the last 20 months after having had a five-year break from doing boulder problems of that grade. (c) Allison Vest

"I had a friend recently ask me “you’re on one lately, what’s the secret?” I immediately responded “happiness.” there’s no substitute for real happiness. I’m training, climbing, and spending time with people who push me to be better, try harder, work harder, and be kinder to myself. A lot has changed in my life in the last six months, and all I can say is I’m physically and mentally the best version of me that I’ve ever been. It feels really good."

The 33-year-old first made headlines on 8a in 2008, when we followed up on her victory at the Vail World Cup 2008 in an article. The same year she did her first 8A+ and was also #1 in the 8a ranking game. In 2010, she was overall #4 in the Boulder World Cup including winning one event. She stopped competing in 2015 and took it up again in 2019, trying to qualify for the Olympics.

Sebastien Bouin has done the FA of the 130m Nordic Marathon 9b/+ in Flatanger. It starts with Nordic Plumber (8c) and continues into Thor's Hammer 2 (9a+) followed by a 50m easier pitch on the vertical wall above the of the amazing cave. He has previously said on Insta that there is an alternative 9c link-up starting via Move (9b/+). (c) Marco Müller

“When Adam told me about his project to cross over the cave, and go from the ground to the summit, I was immediately amazed by this idea. The main goal of my trip was to check out this monster link-up. The idea was big, really big. But it's definitely the kind of challenge which attracts me. The bigger it is, the more motivated I am.

As I explained in my Instagram post last week, there are three possible starting routes for this link-up, each offering a different grade. Starting with either:
Nordic Plumber 8c, Or Thor's Hammer 9a, Or Move 9b/+

Whatever the start, it is then followed by a cruxy 9a+ (Pitch 2 of Thor’s Hammer), with a repoint crux at the end (at 80m). My ultimate goal would be to do it by the hardest possible combination: Move. Previously I have already made four trips to Flatanger to do Move (9b/+). Imagine starting from this one and finishing by a cruxy 9a+. Wow!

However, I knew this would be too hard for a single trip. So first I decided to start from the easiest line (Nordic Plumber 8c) in order to get an idea of the challenge, and to be psychologically ready for the end when I start trying the harder version. After first working and sending the second (9a+) section by jumarring into it, I then started trying from the ground, trying to link into it from Nordic Plumber. It changed so much the end. Coming into the 9a+, with my arms already so pumped in the last crimpy crux after 80m of climbing was insane. I was falling there a few times. And then falling on the previous cruxes as well.

The sheer size of the route makes it hard mentally. You can have one go every two days. It's so much climbing, in one intense burst that you simply can't give two goes in a day. Then if you want to be as fresh as possible, you need a rest day in between. So it was quite hard psychologically to only give it one burn every two days. The pressure felt so high in this last crux. The rope drag was also insane. Even if I had already switched ropes once during the route - I had to untie my knot and free-solo the last 5/10 meters (really easy climbing)."

Advertorial: The Association of British Climbing Walls is excited to announce this year’s Conference and AGM which will take place on the 15th & 16th of September. The conference will be held at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham, near Sheffield, and will feature an expanded exhibitor hall and greater delegate capacity. As well as a great range of exhibitors from throughout the climbing industry, including wall and hold manufacturers, distributors, equipment manufacturers, and much more, the conference will also contain a variety of exciting workshops and speakers – including Hazel Findlay and Gavin Scott.

Hazel will be delivering a talk on the power of the mind in climbing, using examples from her epic adventures and big climbing projects from around the world. Her talk will be surrounding the question; “what would the experience of climbing be like if we weren’t afraid to fall, or to fail?” And what better person to be discussing the topic of fear and head game than the first British woman to climb E9 trad?! Other talks and workshops will cover topics such as Customer Service 101 with author and podcaster Gavin Scott, Staff Retention, Routesetting, Maintaining Quality Standards, Sustainability and Your Wall, and Claims Defensibility with Partners&. For more information on the 2022 ABC Conference & AGM, and to buy your tickets, head over to the ABC Walls website.