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Moritz Welt has done his sixth 9a during the last 12 months, Lulu in Céüse. Among the teenagers, he is #1 in the 8a ranking game.

"Tried this one straight for the last three weeks, at least about seven sessions or something. Fell a lot of times at the very end. Once even after the last crux in the final slab. Did it on the last day of my trip a few minutes before it started to rain".

Natalia Grossman, who has done four 8B's in 2020, has done her tenth 8A+ during the last five months, Phallus in RMNP. "Proud of this one:) My biggest mental battle to date!"

What the #4 in the 8a ranking game is talking about is that she injured her bicep on the first day she tried the sit start forcing her to take some time off. Later when she started bouldering again she did not want to push hard but even so tried it a bit. "Deep down I knew I shouldn’t be trying Phallus so I took a month off from the climb. Yesterday, I finally went back after feeling healthy and strong and sent 1st try!" Full story on her Insta.

Alex Megos has said on Insta and to 8a that he thinks Underground is 8c+/9a or even 8c+. It is also listed as 8c+/9a on escalade9 and based on the 8a database, with 24 ascents, you understand that this impressive ascent should not be labeled only with the 9a grade. Anyhow the media says Megos flashed a 9a.

PlanetMountain reports that it was upgraded as C. Bindhammer, Hirayama and Mrazek thought it was either 8c+/9a or 9a. Strangely, in the 8a database, all these three climbers have recorded it as 8c+!

It should be mentioned that there exist several other examples when 8a report a lower grade in comparison to the other biggest climbing media. In other words, it is often the media who want to have the most impressive headlines that are driving grade inflation. Until some 15 years, 8a did often suggest downgrades in order to present more correct grades, which later always were confirmed. However, this stopped around 2005, as we got heavily criticised for it.

Edu Marin spent 170+ days in China out of which 50 days of bolting, to put up the hardest MP in the world, Valhalla.

Julia Chanourdie, who previously has done one 9a+, reports on Insta that has done her second 9a, Sang Neuf in Pierrot Beach. Directly after the send, she tried the extension Sweet Neuf 9a+ and says she will come back once the temperature has dropped. Anak Verhoeven has done the FA of both routes.

Chanourdie was #4 in the Lead World Cup and has since tried to make it to the Olympics and she made it happen in Toulouse where she was #2. Her Speed PB is 8.94 which is one of the best among the non-specialists and here on 8a, she has been predicted to be Top-8 overall in Tokyo, even before she had qualified.

Iker Pou (43) was just recently listed as #3 overall climbers in the world here on 8a. In 2000, he did Action Directe and this summer he did an 8B+ FA as well as two 9a FAs. In between, he has done another 30 routes 8c+/9a up to 9b (+) as well as numerous big walls FAs all over the globe up to 8c. His latest is is the 600 meter Rayu located in Peña Santa with pitches up to 8c. The FA was done together with his brother Eneko and Kico Cerdá after five weeks of hard work.

"The Basque brothers are convinced that, given the exceptional quality of the route, it will become a classic that will be pursued by the best climbers in the world. There have been marathon days of up to 18 consecutive hours ..., we have ended up destroyed..., but we are happy, we have given everything, and when you make an effort 100%, you have a very good taste in your mouth".

In the end, they redpointed the whole route, mainly protected by trad gear, in a 12 h 1/2 non-stop attempt from the ground to the summit. Click on the headline to see a picture gallery. Video teaser.