Alex Megos reports on Insta that he has done 15 routes 8c to 9a in Turkey, including four FAs as well as Turkish Haircut 9a. " Thanks. It took 13 days of climbing and I'd say the best crag was Çitdibi. Hopefully more strong climbers will get psyched to go there in the future to repeat some routes and do more first ascents!" (c) Jan Novak

The potential in Turkey seems huge, here is a recent article, Citdibi - A new hardcore Mecca..

"The IOC Executive Board also agreed to add Boulder & Lead and Speed events to the programme, bringing the total number of medal events for Sport Climbing at Paris 2024 to four, two more than at Tokyo 2020. The number of participating athletes will grow to 68 for Paris 2024, a significant increase from the 40 that will compete at Tokyo 2020 next August. " More info at IFSC

In practice, this could mean that 18 males and 18 females will compete in a Combined Lead and Boulder format, as well as there, will be a separate Speed event with 16 males and 16 females in Paris. Another option is 22 respectively 18 but that would mean that the qualification will take a very long long time for Lead/Bouldering in comparison to the Speed qualification.

Giorgio Tomatis, who did his first 8c+ when he was 14-years-old and last year was #3 in the Euro Championship, has done Cobra Reale 8c+/9a in Andonno. (c) Carlo Pena

"It is a route that is a link-up of Cobra and Anaconda. To join these two routes you have to make a fairly hard traverse and then end up on the hard part of Anaconda. It was freed by Stefano Ghisolfi with the 8c+/9a grade."

Kim Marschner, who did his first 9a this summer, has done the Dreamtime in Cresciano. The classical Fred Nicole test-piece put up in 2001 as the first 8C in the world but it was later considered 8B+ until a hold broke down. "Such a classic! 8B+, 8C I can't tell. Maybe low end 8C. The left heel hook drove me crazy. Needed one lucky Go where the hook stuck and I climbed it to the end in my third session. Did the far lock off from the crimp." Video on his Insta.

Yesterday, Marscher was in German television in the Nina final where he was runner up after Alex Wurm, meaning he also lost Euro 25 000 in prize money.

"I started Ninja because of Moritz Hans. He was also a comp climber until he retired three years ago. He asked me to join his team at Team Ninja Warrior two years ago. In the same year, I also competed for the first time at the normal Ninja Warrior Germany and became second after Alex Wurm. Last year I injured my foot by trying the Mega Wall. It is 5,5m high and I slipped off the lip and fell all the way down. So I finished the stage and also the next stage on the same day but the next day I went to the doctor and he said I have a torn ligament. So I couldn’t keep on.

This year I made it safely through the qualification and semis. In qually there was the power tower for the first time. The two fastest from every qualification (there where 6 qually's) competed against each other in that power tower. The one who was faster was straight in finals and won 5000€. I won. So in finals I started and came the furthest but there where still three to come. I fell at the last obstacle the flying bar before the mount Midori Yama. So Alex was the last to come and made it one jump further than me so I became second again. No money for the second place. First got 25.000€"

Jesse train/climbs six times a week although having a full-time job and indoors he has flashed 7a+. "I'm a weekend warrior on the gritstone. I have never repointed a route, my background is very much trad non-sight. I have to do everything by feel or if my belayer, Molly can see something from the ground she uses a radio to tell me, but Molly hasn't climbed the routes beforehand so has no extra beta other than what she can see from the floor. Sometimes it's wrong."

Bernd Zangerl, one of the hardcore boulder pioneers, especially in Magic Wood, has done yet a new FA, Grenzenlose in Valle dell'Orco. No suggested FA grade but as it took him quite a while it should be at least 8b trad. More info to come. (c) Jacopo Larcher

"I could have built a landing zone or organized 10 crash pads that have now become "the norm", but I'm not friends with these trends. Adapting the challenge to a personal comfort zone would have made the first ascent easier and more quicker for sure. But, isn`t mother nature the director and sets the level of challenge for us, also in terms of protection? Physically I knew straight away that I can do this project, the crux was the mind. I prefer to work alone or with my best friend on mental physical challenges like this. I am oldschool, but choosing the longer way also means a more intense examination of the project." Full story

How did you warm and keep warm during the send?
I had a self-made fingerboard and I tried to do a few single moves to kinda get warm. The go where I sent it was actually the „warm-up go“ 😅 At the two crimps just before jumping out to the edge, my fingers were so cold that I didn’t feel anything.

"As for questions, it would be good to cover where the idea for 8a.nu came from, how the site has evolved over the years, what your day-to-day role looks like as the editor in chief, and some of the most rewarding/challenging aspects of managing the website/community." More info on Tenaya. Tune in at 9 pm Euro Time - Tenayaclimbing