Mike Foley has made the FA of Spirit Quest 9a in Squamish, which is a nine bolt direct start to an existing 8b+. Originally it was bolted by Tom Wright who kept it as a closed project until this summer. Ben Harnden was also trying it and later did the second ascent. Climbing.com has the story and we we added one question to Mike.

How was your mental game before and during the ascent?
Before any send, I like to keep the mood light and not have expectations for myself. When I feel close to sending or keep falling on the same moves I find it helps to change up my routine a little bit. Try a different warm-up, climbing at a different time of day etc. It’s easy to train yourself to keep falling at the same moves when every part of your routine is exactly the same.

During the send, especially on long routes, I try to focus only on the moves directly in front of me and not think too far ahead. I try to be focused and present in that exact moment in the route, not the route as a whole.

Neil Gresham, who previously has done two E10' has done the FA of Lexicon E11 7a at Pavey Park, which is equivalent with an 8b+ R trad. If you fall at the final 7C boulder crux at the top you face a 25-meter fall with a risk of slamming into the wall. UKC has the full length interview and actually it seems the 50-year-old's approach can be compared to how dedicated Adam Ondra was projecting Silence 9c.

We are talking about several different coaches like mental, trad, ballet, physiotherapist, nutrition etc. Neil also did also practice falling. "I made it to the fourth-from-last move and bailed out. I looked down to see the rope flapping and looping downwards in a huge arc and there was plenty of time to take things in as the air rushed across my face. It was the biggest whipper I've ever taken..."

It should be noted that the British E-grade, is supposed to estimate how hard and dangerous a trad route is to onsight. On the upper scale, it is very hard to make such an evaluation and that is why we have also added the other trad grading system, where an R added, stands for Risk for injury.

Based on 2 000+ unique votes to, "Male Climbing Hero?", Adam Ondra got 20 % of the votes in Stockholm followed based 15 % for Chris Sharma. In total, 13 heroes were mentioned but anyhow 13 % voted "Other". Most mentioned of them were; Tommy Caldwell, Alex Huber and Patrick Edlinger.

Graham Owens has done The China Glide 9a at Rumney which is a link-up of China Beach and Livin' Astro. "Months of dedication for one moment of perfect execution. All worth it. Feels so surreal to climb a 9th grade route, now time to dream bigger!"

So how was those months of dedication?
It was a pretty big mental battle for me. I thought I’d be able to send without too much trouble, as I knew the sections of the route quite well. However, I struggled a lot with skin, conditions, and staying motivated after a lot of reverse progress. I set my high point (the finishing jump move to the arete) in June, matched it once in July, and finally took it down now in September. But that just made the send even more special!

Could you please describe the route?
The route is a linkup of the two best routes at the cliff, China Beach (8c) and Livin’ Astro (8c+). China Beach is very resistant and sustained, with barely any places to chalk up or clip. After climbing basically all of that route, you have to do a 7B+ boulder problem to traverse into Livin Astro. This boulder is not so bad in isolation, but it has one rose move that’s very hard to do when you’re pumped. After sticking the move you jump to a nice jug where you can recover pretty well. Then there’s the mental crux, a committing 7C or 7C+ boulder problem (maybe a bit easier for tall climbers) that’s shared with Livin Astro. It revolves around a mono-stack hold, which you have to grab perfectly in order to jump way outright to a prominent arete feature. Sticking this move and holding the swing is a pretty amazing feeling, and then you just have two easy moves to clip the chains.

Adam Ondra won the Arco Rock Master Combination by winning the KO Boulder and getting third in the Duel.

Based on some 2 000 votes, "Favorite Moves/Challenges", Sharp crimpers come out as #1.

When an identical poll was done in 2010, Dynos was ranked as #1 in comparison to #5 in 2021. Also, Slopers have dropped significantly in popularity from #2 to #8 in 2021, meanwhile, kneebars have stepped up.