Fred Rouhling put up Akira at Le Périgord in 1995 suggesting 9b for it. At that time there existed no 9a+ and actually, Alex Huber did not believe him and this was spread around. Jean-Baptiste Tribout and Andrada had tried it and they did not think it was 9b even if they never did it. 8a did always back him up and in 2004, Climbing published and article leaving no doubt that he could have done it. In regards the grade, Rouhling has told 8a that possibly it would have been better to call it 8C+ as it, in practice, is a 12-meter boulder roof where you later tie in and do an 8a route.

Now Rouhling reports on Insta that Seb Bouin and Lucien Martinez have made the first two repeats, saying it is as hards as Rouhling's 9a, Hugh. They think the starting boulder is rather 7C instead of the 8B, Fred has said. "I don’t know but limestone cracks. Perhaps the holds became bigger. When Yuji Hirayama and Dai Koyamada came to try. They thought there was a very big difference between Akira and Hugh...😭.

Fred has done a total of six FA 9a or harder including Salamandre 9a+ and the three unrepeated; l’autre côté du ciel 9a, Mandallaz drive 9a and Empreintes 9a+. Here is a 13-year-old video when he is playing around in the roof.

In a previous 8a interview he said, "I was quite obsessed with the limit between the possible and the impossible. It’s only in the first ascent that we can have this sensation. It is not funny to have detractors but on the other hand to have done things that others consider impossible it’s a consecration especially if these climbers are supposed to be among the best." (c) Julien Nadiras

Stephan Rest has done his first 8C, Das Schwert in Hammerhöhle after some 18 sessions spread out over five months. It was put up by Klem Loskot. "

Projecting this boulder was pretty hard due to its location on the corner of a cave. You never knew if it would be dry or wet. As it got colder and colder I got closer to sending the boulder but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to send it this year. When the temperature were low and the boulder was completely dry I knew I had to send it. And I did. It is 12 moves to the top and the hardest move is to a slopy crimp and then bumping into a bad undercling and placing your foot to the same height as the hand."

Loic Zehani, who previously has done 23 routes 9a and harder, has made the FA of Demon 9a+/b in Orgon. The 18-year-old did his first 9a five years ago and has done a total of 13 FAs, 9a and harder.

"A great line that starts in "Sachidananda" then joins the "Bronx" with a new hard and natural hard link-up. A big fight and great conditions were necessary to send this 55 movements monster of resistance. The first 20 movements are ultra powerful (7C+ boulder in "Sachi" and 8A boulder connecting with Bronx). For the difficulty I suggest 9a+/b because it is still significantly harder than Sachidananda 9a+, 😜😉."

Marcin Dzienski one the Speed qualification in Moscow but most interesting, from the Olympic perspective, was that Nicolas Collin was surperior among the non-specialists setting a new personal best at 6.67. In total, 40 athletes participated out of which a dozen high class non-speed specialists. Complete results

One can speculate that the Speed results will have unusually low impact who will make it to Tokyo. The reason for this is that relatively many Speed specialists will probably make it to Top-20, meaning possibly two or three of them will make it to the Top-8 final. In other words, the best of the non-Speed specialists will probably end #3 or #4 which with the multiplication format means, this result has much less importance.

Lucie Hrozova, who has 14 medals from Ice WCs, has done her second 8A+, Conquerer in Sklapsko. Video on her Insta. Amazingly, the 32-year-old who has done the possibly hardest mix route in the world, Saphira M15-, started to boulder in May.

"I climbed and competed mostly in ice climbing the last years and a lot of mix and drytooling. Three years ago I had very serious surgery of my shoulder. I needed pitons, reconstruction of labrum, biceps and plastic of cartilage, and since then ice climbing is for me very painfull. As I can't do it (but I still believe I will return one day), I started to do more climbing with fingers instead of ice axes. Last year I managed to send my first 8c. Anyway I had this year again some medical issue with compartment syndrome, and with this syndrom it is very hard to climb routes. In May I started with bouldering. First I started just because I had to, because of the corpartment, but lately I really have found it very nice and I kind of fell in love with it."

Roland Hemetzberger reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Neuron 9a+ in Achleiten. Stefan Fürst bolted it some 25 years ago which has an 8c+ start and then you continue in the exit of an 9a called The Void. The 29-year-old living in Innsbruck has previously done seven routes 8c+/9a or harder out of which five in Achleiten. "After Qui 9a+ this is my hardest route so far."

Roland is also a very accomplished multi-pitch and trad climber always looking for adventures. The picture by Stefan Kühn is from another project. He is also projecting a new multipitch project at Wilder Kaiser which will be harder than WOGÜ 8c which he sent two years ago.

Tiba Vroom, who did her first 8A+ last month, has done Riverbed 8B in Magic Wood. Four months ago she had 7C as her personal best but during the last two months, mainly spent in Magic, she has done eigth boulders 8A and harder. (c) Hannes Kutza

"Best line I've ever tried, what a legendary boulder. So incredibly psyched to get this done! I just felt like I hadn't reached my limit yet in rock climbing so I decided to stay in Magic Wood to try a really hard project. The line Riverbed immediately caught my attention when I saw it for the first time, and when I saw the video of Alex Puccio climbing it I was really inspired and I knew I would enjoy the moves. At first I thought it would be too hard for me now and I needed a lot of time to do it, but when I had worked out all the moves, I saw it becoming possible more and more. I decided to give it my all and try to climb it this trip. In the end I think it was mostly a mental battle and I'm so happy I could pull through and send this dreamline!

Normally I don’t go bouldering by myself, always with my boyfriend and coach, but he couldn’t stay as long unfortunately. But because it was my only chance to climb outdoors with all the corona restrictions and also no competitions I decided to stay by myself in my bus.

The new Speed World Record holder is Iuliia Kaplina with 6.96. The Russian won the qualification in the Euro Championship ahead of Alexandra Kalucka 7.75. Complete results. © Leo Zhukov

Noteworthy is that this was the tenth time Kaplina has set a new WR and that she has won 12 World Cups.

A total of 31 women participated out of which a dozen non-Speed specialists with previous good WC results. Petra Klingler, who has qualified to Tokyo, was the fastest among those with 9.01.

Seb Berthe, who had a personal 8c+ personal best six months ago, reports on Insta that he has done Supercrackinette 9a+ in St Léger. The Belgium is famous for all his big wall adventures around the globe. (c) Julia Cassou Full length interview at Fanatic Climbing.

"It’s my second route in the 9th gr ade, I also climbed “Speed integral” this summer, but may be you missed that because I repeated it very quickly (laugh)! Whatever the grade, it’s all the time incredible to send a route at your limits, with some physical and mental abilities required. After the send, you understand all the things you put together for clipping the anchor. The most complicated the process is, the strongest is the happyness at the end! It’s not the 9th grade which is bringing to me some joy, but the energy I put in the project."

Katie Lamb, who last summer did six 8B's, has done Wet Dream 8A+ in Black Velvet Canyon. In the 8a ranking game, she is #5.

"Wet dream is the most water boulder in the canyon, so I had to be aquatic with my movement - flowing like water, splashing like a whale. During the moment of sending my friends say they felt a flutter in their heart and a twinkle in their eyes. The boulder of my dreams, occupying my every thought. After sending I put all my money on red and also black in the local casino. Now the girls are doing Wet Dreams too :)"