Simone Tentori, with five 8C’s under his belt, has had a great trip to Rocklands flashing three 8B’s; Quintessential (8B), Monkey Business (8B) and The Arch (8B).

”This time in Rocklands, I spent most of my best days on Finnish Line, one of my dream problems. On the other days, I tried to climb while conserving my skin and avoiding excessive fatigue.

Flashing hard problems has always been one of my favorite climbing approaches, and in the past, I managed to flash almost 40 boulders between 8A and 8A+, but I had never succeeded on an 8B. At the beginning of the trip, my friends decided to go to Quintessential, and I wasn’t sure if I should even try it because it's notoriously sharp. But watching them made me so psyched that I told myself, 'Just one try, why not?' And it turned out to be the right one!

Later in the trip, I managed to climb two more boulders in the 8B range on my flash attempts: Monkey Business and The Arch. They both didn’t feel as solid as Quintessential, but I’m still proud of them. The first one involved a really committing move, and The Arch was a real fight against the pump.”

Jacopo Larcher and Babsi Zangerl have done the first repeats of Alex Luger's seven pitches The Gift (8c) in Rätikon. The 350m route mixes traditional protection on the lower sections, with bolted protection on the crux pitches. Jacopo and Babsi led every pitch during their respective ascents, without falling. All in all, it took them 6 days of work. Regarding multi-pitches and big wall climbing Babsi's resume puts her among the five best climbers in the world. (c) Rene Fischer

Babsi comments; "This summer, we decided to spend time on a project in the Austrian part of the Rätikon, which is conveniently close to us. We rode our e-bikes for 35 minutes in Turbo-mode through Gauertal to Sporaalpe and then hiked for about an hour to the base of the climb. Our goal was "The Gift", a challenging alpine route with seven pitches, first climbed by my brother-in-law, Alex Luger, in 2015. He named it "The Gift" because Pio Jutz started the route but passed it on to Alex, finding it too difficult for himself to finish.

The climb begins with traditional alpine climbing, with the hardest sections in the upper part of the wall. The crux pitch is graded 8c, and the pitch after is 8a+ with a tricky boulder problem. Those two pitches are the hardest of the climb. Jacopo and I had a first taste of the route 3 years ago when we climbed up to the crux pitch and then spent some more days on it this season. On our first day on it this summer, we climbed up to the crux pitch, which was nerve-wracking due to the limited protection in the lower part of the route. The crux pitch is a stunning grey overhanging stripe on perfect limestone. It can’t really get any better! A 5-star line, which offers power-endurance climbing with hard, bouldery sequences. It took us the rest of the day to figure out the different betas and brush all the holds, which get very dirty and slippery after the winter, as the grey stripe is often wet. After a few more days of practice and having checked the last pitches, Jacopo made a successful attempt, leading all the pitches without falling, looking very solid.

I had a different solution for the crux compared to Jacopo and definitely more struggle trouble with a long, reachy move. I needed to spend one extra day in the hope of finding an easier solution. Eventually, I found a small adjustment that helped a bit to make that crux move a bit less risky. After one rest day, despite still feeling tired, I decided to give it a try. We started in the morning but we were waiting for the sun to ease off before I started to climb at 1 p.m. I felt nervous when I reached the crux pitch but somehow managed to save some power for the low percentage crux, reaching the final hold with a big pump. I clipped the anchor and all the pressure fell off my shoulders. I was just happy to have lots of time left and no rush for the last two pitches. Everything came together well and we both stood on top of the wall, which was such a fantastic experience to complete another great project together."

Dylan Chuat completed Beyond in April. "This is one of the 5 most beautiful routes I’ve ever climbed in my life, that’s for sure! I’d never have thought that such a small hold on such a big overhang could work and not even be that extreme! A very smooth approach [intro section] to climb, a first major boulder that finishes by jumping onto a tufa, then a transition to a second huge boulder and all this while finishing on the most beautiful colonette in the south of France, apparently! I think that’s the perfect definition of a king line, right? I’m glad to be back in shape after my operations and to be able to climb routes like this again! Now that the vacations are over, I hope to be able to get back on some really hard routes soon!"

Matt Fultz, with 29 boulders 8C or 8C+ under his belt, has had a remarkable day in Cascade doing the first ascents of The Hero of Ages (8B+) and Death's End (8C).

Can you tell us more about those two 8C FA’s?
I have been having such a fun time climbing in the forest this Summer. I have been trying two projects in parallel for the past several weeks. Sometimes both in a day, but more often switching between each every other session. I arrived last week on a perfectly cold night, feeling rested and strong. I was able to send Death’s End on my first try from start for the day, then I used the psych to do the same on Hero of Ages about 20 minutes later.

Cascade is really becoming a powerhouse for hard climbing in Idaho. I think there are 15 or more 8Bs or harder all within a 5 minute walk of each other. I’m hopeful more people make the trip up and visit these special boulders this Fall.

Stefano Ghisolfi has sent Illusionist (9a) in Flatanger as well as Purgatory (9a) in Hell. (c) Sara Grippo

Can you tell us more about the trip and the two 9a ascents?
I'm in Flatanger trying Silence (9c) and I wanted to try something else, to train and to be away from the same moves for five days, so I chose 2 short projects. Illusionist cause is in the cave and it's the shortest hard route. And I tried Purgatory on the way to the cave and went back to send it few days ago

Sam Avezou of France, who previously earned a silver and a gold at the European Championship, claimed the gold in Boulder & Lead with a dominant performance, winning by over 47 points. On the women's side, Laura Rogora secured her second gold in a highly competitive event, finishing less than 4 points ahead of the bronze medalist. (c) © Yanak Lopez/IFSC

1. Sam Avezou FRA 183.6 - Laura Rogora ITA 155.6
2. Sascha Lehmann SUI 136.2 - Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR 152.8
3. Jonas Utelli SUI 133.2 - Zelia Avezou FRA 151.8
Complete results

Noteworthy is that only eight, out of the 23 Olympians from Europe, participated in Villars. Furthermore, only 17 males and 21 females competed in the Boulder & Lead event.

Thibault Lair, who last year sent Papichulo (9a+), has made the FA of Bison tranche (9a) in La Mongie . This was his seventh 9a FA. "Bison tranche is a route located on a north face at 2500 m altitude in La Mongie (Hautes Pyrénées). We equipped this area last year. I managed to do all the "direct" routes, so I decided to find the hardest variants possible to be able to continue climbing in this sector. So "Bison tranche" starts in an 8c+ then I make an ascending traverse on the 2 left routes to continue while in resistance. There are around twenty movements without rest and with a rather high intensity. It's a shame that there aren't more routes in this area because it's really classy and having the tab in the middle of August isn't bad ;)"

Four days later he repeated and suggested an upgrade of Jonathan Flor's La hebra del viento (9a) in Rodellar. "La hebra del viento is a route to rodellar to the Piscineta. It was equipped by Jonathan Flor who made the FA and who proposed 8c/+. I find it a good notch above the 8c+ in the sector so I suggest 9a soft or 8c+/9a for this route. I think I completed the 1st repetition of the route. In any case, great routes on a great cliff. A hard section in the middle of the L2 then follows a part of physical resistance before finishing with a well-timed end on small holds... Congratulations to Jonathan for all the routes he equips and chains in Rodellar. Notice to amateurs, there are a lot of routes to repeat between 8c+ and 9b:)"

All the male and female medalists in the European Boulder Championship in Villars got the same number of tops and zones in the final, meaning attempts to tops and zones were needed to rank them. Ultimately, Nailé Meignan and Sam Avezou from France, who also both won the semifinal, got the golds.

1. Nailé Meignan FRA 34 (7) - Sam Avezou FRA 24 (2/7)
2. Ayala Kerem ISR 34 (9) - Maximillian Milne GBR 24 (2/14)
3. Agathe Calliet 34 (12) - Dayan Dakhtar GBR 24 (7)
Complete results

Laura Rogora from Italy won the Lead event by topping the final route but was timed so she had to settle scoring six moves higher than Ievgeniia Kazbekova. Among the males, Sasha Lehmann pleased the home crowd getting two moves higher than Sam Avezou.

1. Sasha Lehmann SUI 45+ : Laura Rogora ITA 45
2. Sam Avezou FRA 43+ : Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR 39+
3. Guillermo Peinado ESP 39+ : Lynn van Der Meer 38+
Complete results

Noah Wheeler has completed Drew Ruana’s Insomniac (8C+) at Lincoln Lake. It starts doing eight moves of The Wheel of Wolvo (8B+) followed by a good rest and then continuous through We Can Build You (8B). (c) e.lusive

”My hardest yet given the style. Miraculously figured out the heel only recently which unlocked the possibility of trying the low. 6 or so sessions this year mostly around this month, but the stand took a few sessions last year. Felt a progressive sense of familiarity with the climb up until weather got bad, wherein doubt set in up until a lucky good day of weather the weekend before the road closes for 2 years. Made it out the cave!”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
I did Wheel of Wolvo and Delirium back in the summer of 2022, with them feeling fairly comfortable, and came back in 2023 with the intention of sending Insomniac. I soon realized this goal was more hefty than I had anticipated because the heel move on the stand, We Can Build You, was particularly anti style (I think is has to do with an over-reliance on putting my weight in my upper-body). I barely gave start goes on Insomniac that year.

This year I came back and after a few mental shifts and analysis I discovered the move for myself, sending maybe a month after this awareness. Despite feeling the natural progression necessary for a climb this grade throughout the month, I was self-doubting myself the entire topout as I was incredibly numb and fairly pumped. Before making every next move after a certain point I was like “I’m falling now” but I kept moving in complete separation between my mind and body until the top.