Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman, both born in 2001, had an amzing 2020 doing 72 boulders 8A to 8B+. In the 8a ranking game, only Alex Puccio was ahead of them in the Top-50 boulders.

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Ella Adamovska, who was third in the Combined Euro Championship in December, reports on Insta that she has done a quick ascent of Pal Norte 8c+ in Margalef. (c) Jakub Konecny

"I chose this route mainly because I really liked it visually, it’s an amazing line! Moreover, last winter I sent Pal este which shares the first 3/4 of the route, then at the end of the trip, I tried the moves in Pal Norte once but it felt too hard. Together with Pal este last year it took me about 15 tries (9 in Pal Este and 6 this year). I must admit these kinds of routes (overhanging, based on endurance with small sharp pockets) really suit me.

Even though the conditions are much better than the last winter, there’s definitely not so many people in Margalef, probably due to the covid situation. As the situation is getting worse in Czech, it’s possible I will stay till the half of January since I’m currently studying at the University remotely."

"HOW" you start a boulder can be a tricky game. The best example of this is The Story of 2 Worlds 8C. Dave Draham put it up in 2005 and described it as a "pure sit start" to The Dagger. Dai Koyamada did the first repeat but later UKC said his ascent "wasn't legitimate", as they said he started 40 cm to the right of the original Graham start. Koyamada came back and did it again laying from the ground with his feet on the starting hold, calling his Low start variation 8C+. Later, it was found out that UKC was wrong and Graham did come forward saying Koyamada had started on the right holds, in the first place.

Today, The Story of 2 Worlds is with close to 20 ascents one of the most repeated 8C's in the world and actually due to new sequences and knee pad, some have actually suggested 8B+ for it. At the same time, several of the guys repeating it they have not done it from a sitting position but instead from a crouched position, i.e. using one foot to establish a heel hook before taking off.

In general, Americans are more in favour of defined starting holds from a crouched position in comparison to the Euros mainly opting by starting from the butt. In the defined start, you are supposed to establish your position before start moving just like in comps, meanwhile, on the sit start you are not supposed to do any butt bouncing in order to facilitate the first move. The advantage of the American crouched start is that size does not matter meanwhile the advantage of the sit start is that it is often more obvious. On the other hand, what now seems to be an obvious sit start on The Story... created a lot of controversies.

So what is the best solution in regards to sit starts and defined starting ethics? Basically the ethics that have been used is that it is up to the FA to decide and in order to repeat that boulder and grade, you should start as the FA did. Personally, I do think the FA should opt for a start that does not add a hard move and which is fair for everyone but also that stacking pads is not a problem as long as this "How" is described.

Back to The Story... As Graham (179 cm) did define it as a sit start I think we should follow the FA starting ethics. If this means that shorter guys like Koyamada (165 cm) need to use two pads I am fine with that as long as it is described. Checking different videos, besides several guys do not start sitting, there exist different beta from the sit start which could also be used as an argument for advocating sit starts instead of crouched starts.

It should be mentioned that sometimes like for No kpote only, the second proposed 9A but later downgraded to 8C, the sit start needs to be defined as it traverses in the beginning and you could also start sitting from 2-3 moves in. Please forward your comments and questions?

Niki Rusev, who has done two 9a's in 2020, has done one more 8c, Botor in Lakatnik. Headlamp video on his Insta. "This is a legendary route. No one had sent it since 2008 🤯. And now I am honoured to have climbed it 😃. Today I did four tries. In moments like this, you should not lose faith in yourself. I was tired, it was dark and cold, I had no skin on my fingers, but inside my head, I knew I could send it today and ...... I did it ✊🔥"

"The year started quite bad, for everyone, and I spent two months in my home without going out. In Italy, we had a strict lockdown and I took this as an opportunity to train in my home wall, from the beginning of March. Later, the European Championship in Moscow was delayed. It was my last chance to try to qualify for the Olympics. Then I received the news that the spot for the Olympics was already chosen and my dream was gone. I couldn’t qualify anymore and the goal I was training hard for just vanished.

Even if I still was in lockdown, I kept training and I decided to set another goal so I focused on training for rock climbing and when the lockdown would be over I could start climbing hard outside. After the lockdown, the first restrictions didn’t allow us to go climbing by car, so we went to Eremo di San Paolo and Massone and I climbed three 8c+ in few days.

Then I started projecting a new connection between the historical routes Sant’Anger and Zauberfee and after few days I climbed it, and Beginning 9a/+ was born. In the meantime, I discovered a new possible route there and I bolted with the help of Seve Scassa. He introduced me to bolting, lent me his drill and I bolted my very first route, which turned out to be super hard. It was starting to be too hot to climb there in June so I started climbing in Padaro and projected a new route, with a crazy cross over and when I sent it I called it “The Bow”, a solid 9a+.

The situation in Europe was a bit better in the summer so I and Sara planned a trip with our van to a destination we’ve never been to, but had been in my dreams for a lot of years: Flatanger. I watched a lot of videos and decided I wanted to try Change, the very first 9b+ of the World, a route bolted and climbed by Adam Ondra in 2012 and never repeated and maybe never even tried after the first ascent. We started our trip at the beginning of August and I started trying the first pitch of the route. After a few days on it, I finally found a new beta for the first crux that fitted me better, and at the end of August, I climbed the first pitch. In September, we drove back 3000km to compete in my first and last competition of the year, the Italian Championship. I won, and we decided to drive back to Flatanger immediately. The double trip had been long and tiring, we arrived in Norway for the second time in terrible weather, so we waited and trained few days in the wall Adam built in the camping (the one he used for Silence). After a few days, the sun came back and I started climbing again in the cave, and unexpectedly I was able to climb Change on a sunny day where the condition was far from perfect. The dream came true and we decided to drive back to Italy, happy and victorious!

Back to Italy it was the right time to put the hands again on the project I bolted in Eremo before going to Flatanger. I started to figure out all the moves and did some good links. The temperatures went down and I felt better and better, and I started doing some real attempts, falling at the first crux move and then at the jump, and finally on the very last boulder at the top. On my best attempt before Christmas Lockdown, I fell very high and close to the anchor, but it is still hard there, and I can now tell this can be between 9b and 9b+, a bit easier than Change, but it is taking me more time than expected! I’ll try again when the restrictions allow us to climb again, hopefully, before the end of the year, I can make few good tries, and maybe send it!

These days I was also working on the video of Change, which is 100% produced, filmed, and edited by Sara (Grippo) and me. The final video of the ascent will be online as a Youtube premiere this Sunday, December 27th at 7 pm (CET), and I’ll be in the chat trying to answer all the questions people ask! Link to premiere."