Matt Fult, who had 8B+ as personal best until 15 months ago, has done his eleventh 8C, Blade Runner in RMNP. In the 8a ranking game, the 29-year-old is the new #3. (c) Kevin Takahashi Smith

"12 sessions from start to finish. The physical difficulty is only one aspect of what made Blade Runner so tough for me. Weather, humidity, and skin all played huge roles in coming together for the send. The crux “button” hold would either feel amazing or impossible, all based on those factors!" As reported on Insta he sometimes did have to set the alarm at 3am in order to get better conditions.

Here is the All Time High Female ranking
based on the Top-10 hardest flashes.
1. Alex Puccio 10 330 2. Megan Mascarenas 10 230 3. Karoline Sinnhuber 9 930 4. Nina Williams 9 680 5. Oriane Bertone 9 480.

Adam Ondra has done the FA of another two 9a's; Mia in Vranjača and Genius Loci in Paklenica . The latter adds a cruxy start to Il Maratoneta, the famous 8b+ put up by Manolo in 1987, which Ondra had onsighted a couple days earlier. Mia: "Amazing 50m line in an amazing cave close to Paklenica. Hard to say about the grade, after 25m of 8a/a+ you get into resistant section with weird crux which I think suits my style, even though after having worked the moves it is max 8c+. Possibly 8c+/9a. 3rd go."

The 27-year-old has now done 167 routes 9a to 9c. The runner up is Alex Megos with around 75. When it comes to 8b+ or harder onsight, Adam has 175 and here he is even more superior. In the 8a data base, Patxi Usobiaga is #2 with 40 onsights 8b+ or harder.

Alex Puccio has done The Wheel direct 8B (+) in RMNP. "1st try 3rd day on it. To me it definitely felt harder than the wheel of chaos! The end was a harder end and DEFINITELY harder the shorter you are. I say low end V14?? I have done a lot of v13’s and especially for all the v13’s I have done recently and have repeated recently this is deff a step up! Fun climb regardless and glad I sent before the rain settled in! :) Oh, no knee bars and with the big bump shoulder move out left in the crux." (c) Robin O'Leary

The former very successful competition climber is #1 in the female annual ranking game as she has been for more or less ten years straight. This in spite of having been unlucky with several bad injuries. As reported on her Insta, she had a close call for one more the other day as she had an almost 100 kg rock rolling over her foot.

The rankings page have been updated and there are now many more options to choose from. In the list, by selecting All Time Top-100 flashed boulders, we can see that James Webb is quite superior. In total, he has flashed 117 boulders 8A to 8B and that is based on his stiff personal grading. The 32-year-old has flashed at least two 8B+ that he thought and recorded as 8B. Furthermore, Mark Heal should be mentioned as he should be the person with the smallest difference in between redpoint and flashing as he only has done two 8B+, although having flashed 82 boulders 7C+ to 8A+.

1. James Webb 108 650 2. Daniel Woods 102 196 3. Matt Fultz 101 370 4. Fanny Dong 101 170 5. Mark Heal 100 750 6. Jan Hojer 98 800 7. Jernej Kruder 98 055 8. Jon Glassberg 96 575

Laura Rogora, who did her first 9b yesterday, celebrated by onsighting Ixeia 8b+ and Esperit rebeld 8a+ (b). This should be a female onsight new standard day as there are only a handfull female that previously have onsighted an 8b+. (c) Marco Iacono

So how what that experience taking down your first 9b?
Still unbelievable. I booked only for one week here in rodellar because I only wanted to check if it was a possible long term project. I would never thought it was enough for the send.

Jonathan Siegrist has done the FA of Phat Camp 9a in Wicked Cave. In total, the 32-year-old has now done 50 routes 9a to 9b, which means he is #6 in that list overall in the world. In the 8a ranking game, he is #4. (c) Dru Mack

"It's a connection between two awesome 8c+'; Fat camp and Bad girls club both 8c+, without the good rests on either and a new boulder problem in between as well. I climbed them some years ago. The route is just long, very steep and physical throughout. Usually I hate kneebar centric climbing but occasionally it's a good challenge for me."

Carlo Traversi, who previously has done eight 8C's, has done his first 8C+, Creature from the black lagoon in RMNP. Previous years, he has done a couple of sessions on it before starting to try it this year, all by himself. Luckily he got it on video which will be released soon. "Weird day. Shitty conditions and wasn’t feeling great, then just randomly climbed it. Gave myself a month to do this thing and it only took 3 days. Gonna have to find some other things to try."

So what is your best explanation for this amazing quick send?
No real explanation. I’ve been mostly trying hard projects in CA this spring/summer and just failing on them. I’ve always believed that climbing on things that are outside of your range is the best way to improve. No hang boards, no weights, no structure, just real climbing with good motivation. It’s definitely my most surprising ascent. I don’t consider roof climbing to be my style, that was one of the reasons I wanted to try to climb this boulder. To improve. I actually almost never climb on horizontal roofs.