Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi, who previously has done four 9a's but just one 8B+ before arriving to Fontainebleau, has done No Kpote Only 8C (+). It was put up by Charles Albert, barefoot, as a 9A. Later it has been repeated twice and 8C+/9A as well as 8C/+ have been suggested.

"A great climb and a super productive day! Can't say anything about the grade cause never tried a proper 8C before, so I'll just wait till the grade settles))) I also had my own beta cause couldn't reach the gaston from the heel, so I went down to it with my hands and stood up from the undercling crimp next to it. Would be sick if someone strong could check it out and give it a grade) video coming soon!"

Jana Messner has done her third 8c, in Bus di vela. "I tried it one year ago once (it was the first 8c I have tried), but it felt like a lot of work and at that moment I wasn't really motivated for a bigger project. This year I returned to the crag and it went surprisingly good the first time. On the first day of trying, I fell at the crux at the beginning but climbed from that point to the top. I returned two days later and sent the whole route🙌 ."

What is your climbing background?
I grew up in Villnöss, South Tyrol and joined the competition team in Brixen, when I was six, and the South Tyrolean team a few years later. I was part of the National youth team of Italy during my youth categories and took part in World Youth Championships, European Championships and Italian Championships. I was able to win the youth Italian Championship in Lead in 2019 and make some semifinals at World and European Youth Championships in Lead. During my competition years, I realised that climbing outdoors fulfils me with way more joy than competitions could do and I started climbing outdoors at the age of 14.

Are you related to the legend Reinhold Messner?
He actually grew up in the same village as I did and my Grandma, was somehow related to his mother. But basically, every second person in Villnöß is called Messner😂.

What are your summer plans?
It will be the first summer in a while where I will be at home quite a lot...I'm going to work at the climbing gym and make the climbing camps for the kids...in July I will go to south France (probably Ceuse), after that 2 weeks in Switzerland working on a mountain hut, then finishing the instructor for sport climbing...and the rest climbing I guess...really looking forward to climb a lot in Landro, South Tyrol this summer😁

Joe Kinder has done the FA of Tiger Kween (9a). "Bolted by my wife Lindsey and one of the more unique routes I've done. VERY unconventional climbing. Goodbye cave... you've been good to me physically and mentally. I LOVE ROCK CLIMBING! There’s not a whole lot of pump which I kind of enjoyed. And the difficulty is in two different bolder problems. One is around V8 (7B+) and the other one is about V12 (8A+). "

Bolted by your wife, what?
Lindsey saw the line, aided up it and got one of the best FA’s I’ve had the pleasure of climbing. It took her about a day. There weren’t many adjustments either which was so nice. She has climbed up to 8b and bolted some ten lines. We were both developing more at that cliff during the pandemic. It was a place we could hide out and be alone and we put up some amazing routes. Basically, the two I sent recently are siblings. Mammajama and now Tiger Kween. (We will follow up with an article about Lindsey's bolting, as it's great to see more women developing routes and crags ).

BJ Tilden has done the FA of Monkey From Hell (9a) in Sinks Canyon (WY), which is a sit start link up to an 8b+/c route he did in 2005. Insta video of the added sit start. The 41-year-old has previously done seven 9a FAs.

"The full line is 25 moves with no stopping. I didn’t even wear a chalk bag haha. There are actually three starts. The original 8b+/c starts standing on the granite Boulder at the base and reaching high to a slot.

Start Standing on the ground adds a three-move V11 (8A) to get to the slot, 8c+.
The sit start adds a 7 move V9 (7C) to get to the stand start, 9a."

How do you stay in shape at 40+? How much do you train?
Honestly not sure. Just staying psyched! I usually only climb two days a week, but I am a full-time carpenter which is great cross-training.

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Adam Ondra won the European Boulder Cup in Prague after lots of drama where he, as the last climber, topped out the last problem. Runner-up was Edvards Gruzitis followed by Tim Reuser. Complete results (c) Petr Chodura and comments by Ondra.

"One of the best comps I have remembered for years. Climbing out last in front of the home crowd was just amazing. I definitely got excited and I got this hunger to compete again."

Among the female, Eva Hammelmüller, who was #6 in the semi, was the only female to make two boulders in the final. Last year she was Top-22, four times out of five, in the Lead World Cup. The 21-year-old did her first 8c+/9a in 2021 and just three weeks ago she did an 8A+. Interestingly Eva is 167 cm but has an arm span of 180 cm. Sabina Van Essen got the silver and Lana Skusek got the bronze. Complete results and Full video.

Bayes Wilder did Lethal Design 8A+ in Red Rocks in March and here is the video. Here is the article from March where his father commented. "He did the problem probably with about an hour or slightly more of work. He worked out the moves on several different sections quickly but the first third of the problem gave him some difficulty. He tried several different ideas and eventually found a good sequence. He did one link from relatively low through to the easier section. Then he started trying from the bottom. On his first couple of attempts, he had things go wrong but learned subtle beta changes. Then he got through the lower crux and climbed the rest of the problem to the top."

In the Boulder World Cup in Meiringen, pictures of the boulders were shown in the isolation and climbers including Alex Megos protested. Before the semifinal, Megos talked to the athletes and informed officials that they did not want any topo pictures in the isolation and the officials listened.

This weekend, there is a European Cup in Prague and there are no pics in the isolation. The chairman of the rules committee in IFSC has informed the athletes and the coaches that the new rule with pictures has been withdrawn.

Megos comments, - Cool! That's nice to hear. 😊👌🏼Thanks for considering our opinion IFSC 🙏🏼