Marine Thevenet, who has roughly 100 8A - 8B+ boulders under her belt, has flashed Catatonica (8A+) in Brione.

How was it pulling off your first 8A flash?
I’m not particularly looking for flashable boulders because I like to feel that I control the movements when I climb. I just tried the boulder and did it right away. I was well warmed up, and my friend had just done it, so I had good beta.

Can you tell us more about your month long trip to Ticino?
Since I started my new job as sports agent I can work from anywhere ; so I went to Ticino to work and climb! We had quite a lot rainy days so I couldn’t try The Kingdom (8C) - it dries really slowly - but Ticino is full of nice boulders and the boulders in the river dry fast so I cannot complain.

Austin Purdy had a productive night session up at Coal Creek where he first sent Freakshow (8C) followed by two 8B’s and an 8A. ”Psyched to take this down and to be done with those sharp holds. The highball finish was a bit sketch alone, but definitely makes the boulder full value. As for the grade it is certainly much harder post break than it was before, but I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be V14 now and just V13 before the break. I'm not very confident in my grading at the moment though since this is the first hard thing I have tried since recovering from some injuries this winter, and this is certainly much harder than the V13's down the hill, so for now I will defer to Daniel's expertise.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent and why you opted for a night session?
I have not had much success climbing the last couple of months due to some minor nagging injuries. I felt like Freakshow would be a good reintroduction to hard boulder for me since it is quite long for a boulder and none of the moves are exceptionally hard for the difficulty of the full line. It ended up being a perfect project to get some fitness back and I was very psyched to send it.

I think I sent around 7pm. The boulder sits in the sun all day and the day I sent was actually rather warm for this time of year so climbing at night felt like the only good option. I do find myself climbing at night quite often in general though as I typically prefer colder temps and it is the only time I can get outside on days I am working.

Jonathan Siegrist has done Don’t Die in Linares (9a) in Texas. The 38-year-old has now done 75 routes 9a and harder. "I went FULL A Muerte after sticking the crux move and decimated my skin in the process… felt the do or die moment on the top out as I tried to contain the bloodbath! Another nasty one from Cody [Roth]..."

Can you tell us more about the "bloodbath"?
After sticking the main crux you still have a pretty serious 7C boulder problem and on this move I got my hand stuck behind a toe hook. When I ripped my hand out of the pocket I left a huge piece of skin behind and at this point, I still had a 7c-ish section to finish the route... so I felt the real pressure now as I could feel a pool of blood filling the jug I was resting on! I knew there was no way I could have another try and with my trip ending in a few days, I knew this was really my last effort for the season. Thankfully the top was not super hard but I definitely took every move very seriously and kept cleaning the blood off of my fingers as often as I could! I like moments like this where the climbing level is way below your max but you really have to focus. If not for the whole risking your life thing, I think I would really enjoy big solos.

Bronwyn Hodgins has sent La Rubia (8c+) in Villanueva del Rosario. "WOWOWOWOW!!!! I can’t believe it!!! I chose this route a year ago as a lofty dream and trained for 8 months specifically at home, then lived in Villanueva del Rosario for 2.5 months this winter and managed to get the send on the final days of the trip!!! Definitely suits my style, hang on forever with a four limbs in a crazy 3-d cave. The crux was tough!!! But I do love crimps and I think it also suited me. The kilter board training was definitely for this!! By far my longest sport project. Send go was a fight at the top, I very nearly dropped that last move at the chains! SO PSYYYYYYYCHED!" (c) Julia Cassou

The Canadian climber is more known in the climbing world for her big wall free climbing and remote first ascents, but after three back-to-back big wall expeditions in 2022, Bronwyn was feeling burnt-out from expedition stress and logistics. A little lost for motivation she travelled to Spain to climb tufas and improve her Spanish, and soon found herself wondering how hard she might be able to climb if she put her intense focus into training and sport climb projecting...

"It was hugely intimidating arriving at La Rubia, having only climbed one 8b+ and a handful of 8b's. I definitely felt like maybe I had dreamed a little too big this time! But over the course of the season I slowly ticked away at more manageable chunks of the route until I was finally able to put it all together.

The mental aspect was really tough. I felt like I had some of the tools from big wall free climbing such as performing well under pressure and sequence visualization and execution, but I had no experience in sticking with a project for anywhere near this long. At the same time, I continued to make progress pretty much every time I tied in which was super motivating.
The route is 55m long, and steep with many knee-bar rests in the top half, which also gives a lot of opportunity to overthink things and get nervous. On the send go, I climbed super smoothly and faster-than-ever all the way up to the final bolt (where I'd fallen on my last attempt a few days earlier). I tactically skipped the final knee bar so that I didn't interrupt my mental flow and launched myself with all I had left for the big move just next to the chains. I still can't believe my fingers latched onto that hold!"

If you have ever climbed in the Arco area, we would like to see your photos. Submit your Arco climbing pictures for a chance to be featured in the new Arco guidebook. The guide will be released in multiple languages this summer and will include updated crags and new additions with contributions from local experts.

To participate, you can upload your Arco climbing photos to the gallery by March 31st 2024, along with route and location tags, credits, and a brief caption explaining the significance of the photo. If you want, you can add your Instagram profile too for a chance to be tagged.

All contributors will receive one month of Vertical-Life Premium, and those whose photos are selected will receive a free copy of the guidebook.

UPLOAD PHOTOS

Loic Zehani has done the FA of Zao (9a) in Sainte-Baume. Zao was the 22-year-old's 77th route logged in the 9a to 9b range. "Very old project (maybe 30 years!). It's a nice route slightly overhang and vertical. The rock is absolutely beautiful and the climbing is very powerful for the fingers. It starts with 4 hard moves (more or less 7B FB ) followed by 6 very hard moves (8A FB). This section is one of the most beautiful slices of rock that I have climbed and it finishes with a very nice vertical and demanding climb without [poor] feet. Very proud of this one because it's not my favourite style of climb!"

Hannes Puman has been in Tokyo since the end of December training for the Olympic qualification series by bouldering with a group of international and local climbers. On Instagram video Hannes recently published a video of an 8c flash he completed Pain makes me feel stronger 8c in Frankenjura that also went previously unreported. It was put up by Markus Bock in 2006 as an 8c+ but it has been recorded lately at 8c and even 8b+ with the aid of knee pads.

Can you tell us more about the flashing Pain?
I climbed it at the beginning of August when I was on my way to Innsbruck for training. We stopped for a few days in Frankenjura on the way. I was on my way to try Action Directe but as someone was trying it and I was motivated to climb, instead of waiting, I decided to try this one instead. My friend Jakob climbed it before me and we went through the beta and he gave me some tricks. He told me the style is similar to our local crags (short and crimpy) and that it is very friendly for the grade.

I didn’t struggle and had a good feeling when I was climbing. The route is so short running beta wasn’t necessary. I haven’t climbed a lot in Frankenjura so I’m not well acquainted with the style and grades there, but comparing with Wallstreet (8c), which I did the in the morning the same day, Pain felt a lot easier.

You made the Finals at the Briancon World Cup last year. Do you have anything special planned competition-wise this year?
At the moment I’m in Japan preparing for the Olympic qualification series. The focus here is bouldering, when I get back to Europe I will start getting into lead training

I came to Japan the 29th of December and I’m staying until the 12th of March. I usually climb 4 or 5 times a week here and [also] do 2 strength sessions. The main plan is to have 2 long bouldering sessions, 1 short and 1 endurance session. I try to keep the plan simple when being here and take the opportunity to climb with a lot of different and great climbers in climbing gyms with good and difficult setting.

I have been climbing with a lot of different people [from different nations]. Danes, French, Swiss, Korean and of course Japanese. Because the setting is so hard and there are so many great climbers here it’s very interesting to see differences in styles and strengths.

What makes the Japanese training scene special?
There are a lot of Japanese athletes and everyone is of course not doing the same training but if I would generalise and compare with Europe it’s more normal to try really hard, have longer sessions and more rest days.

My best training partner nowadays is Matsura Hiiro [pictured]. He is phenomenal. He is just 16 but in the last session he sent boulders which Sorato Anraku could not do. On slopers, he is in another league 😀 I think he never trains two days in a row and I do not think he has ever climbed outdoors. And he did not make it to their Youth National.

Stefano Ghisolfi has just moved from Arco to Innsbruck for better training possibilities in preparation for the Paris Olympics. His other goals for 2024 are Silence (9c) and Burden of Dreams (9A).

Piotr Schab has redpointed JoeDan (9a) at Santa Linya. The Polish climber has redpointed 29 routes 9a to 9b over the last twelve years. The picture above is from Pachamama (9a+).

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Joe Dan was actually one of the very last routes left in Santa Linya [for me]. Powerful start into a deadpoint crux move that appeared last year after a broken tufa, then Fabela climbing to the top. Didn’t climb routes for a year, so struggled a bit with the top endurance part.

What has stopped you from climbing routes this past year?
Over the last year(s) we’ve opened our second gym called Mood in Kraków, tough times to train so I focused on bouldering. [I] Wanna come back to routes though!

Eliáš Kysela, who over the last four months has sent his first three 9a’s, has done Martin Krpan (9a) in Osp/Misja Pec. The 17-year-old did his first 8c some 18 months ago.

”I went to Mišja Peč for a week. The main goal was to climb Martin Krpan. On the first day I managed to send Konec Mira which is half of the route and four days later I managed to send the whole line. I think it's a little easier with a kneepad. But ok compared to the 9a routes I've climbed, it's definitely not 8c+.”