Jessica Pilz, the overall Lead Cup winner 2023, has repeated Jakob Schubert's Kein Licht Kein Schatten (8c+) in Ötztal. Originally it was considered 9a but later an easier sequence has been found, ”3rd go, short and powerful, what a line!! thx Steff [Scherz] for the beta and belay :)” (c) Dimitris Tosidis

Scherz comments on Jessy's impressively quick ascent, " I’ve seen some strong guys trying this route and she, by far, looked the best on it I’ve seen yet. I did this route two years ago and it was a struggle😅. She made it look easy and even did it in one session. It’s a short and powerful route with some low-percentage moves. For her, the challenge was to hit some of the crimps perfectly, as she was pretty spaned out in most parts of the route. Nevertheless, once she got the moves dialled in, she just did it with no hesitation. She's got to look for some harder routes now!"

This was the first time since 2020, that Jessica has climbed a hard route outdoors. The 26-year-old has been one of the most active and successful competition climbers since 2011 when she won her first Youth World Championships. In 2018, she won the senior World Championship and in only the last three years, she has participated in almost 40 IFSC events as well as the the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Last weekend, she won the Austrian Lead and Combined Championship.

"I am super happy to win the overall for the first time. After the world champs in Bern my plans for the season changed a lot because I didn‘t have to compete in Laval at the European Qualifier. Instead, I set myself one last goal for the season to go for the overall. I definitely felt the pressure because I had to finish 4th at least at the last World Cup in China. My season finished last weekend with the Austrian championships. Now I try to go outside as much as possible and try some projects in Tyrol. In November we have a training camp with the national team in Turkey. And that‘s it for this year I guess."

Can you tell us more about the quick ascent? I watched a video of Jakob on the route and the moves looked super morpho, so I thought I won’t have a chance. But then Steff told me he has a different beta which could work for me. On my first try I managed to do all the moves. On my second I already linked the hard middle part, and on third try it went down surprisingly fast :)

It was also super helpful for me that there were many quickdraws close to each other, so I wasn‘t really scared and could check out the moves on my first try easily.

Alex Puccio reports on Instagram that she, on her second session, has sent Chocolate Jesus (8B) in Wild Basin. In total, the runner-up in the World Championship in 2014, has done 250+ boulders 8A and up, which is a female record. (c) Robin O'Leary

Katja Zoner has done her first 8c, Picket Fence at Beauty Mountain. ”Sad I don't get to grab those sick pinches anymore! Amazing, unique holds and movement. Grades are weird and this route suits me really well... certainly didn't feel as hard as I'd expected. Enjoyed some post-crux spice building bad feet hiiiigh above my bolt for the last reach out of the crux sequence.”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Picket Fence is a route I have always been curious about. It sits on the Travisty Wall, which is quite unique for the area in terms of holds and movement style, and it has some notoriety, mainly due to first ascentionist Mike Williams’ professed 150+ days of effort to send. It’s a short, bouldery and technical route consisting of pinches, sidepulls, several monos, and tricky feet. I scoped it out earlier this summer and it seemed to suit me well, then I began trying it at the start of September and made quick progress. Excited to see what the rest of the season has in store.

David Firnenburg has sent Inferno (9a) in Gimmelwald. The 28-year-old has previously done roughly 20 routes 9a and harder.

“Summer was pretty hot in Switzerland and climbing in Gimmelwald was unpleasant. Now the temperature dropped and holds feel sticky again. Checked out the moves of ‘Inferno’ around 3 weeks ago when it was still hot. Worked on it the past weekend and sent it in my last try after falling at the last two hard moves once. The route is a combination of ‘Jungfraumarathon’ (~9a) and ‘Gimmelexpress’ (~8c+). It links the hardest part of the 9a with the second boulder of the 8c+ with a good rest in between. I actually don’t like combinations so much but this line climbs nicely. Great endurance test piece with amazing view onto white mountains. Gimmelwald is worth a visit if you cross Switzerland one day!”

What is your next plan?
I am about to finish my psychology studies in summer next year and then planning to do a one year climbing road trip with my girlfriend Andrea in Europe. Good times ahead!

Adam Ondra has returned to Vranjača in Croatia. Last month he did the FA of A je to! (9a+), named after his favorite Czech cartoon, and now he sent B je to! (9b). Adam has done 28 routes 9b to 9c, out of which 21 are FAs. (c) Kuba Sobotka

”Start like A je to, but then go straight up via very hard crux, some easier climbing and dropable second crux. Bolted and tried in August, now on my second day.”

Sebastien Bouin reports on Instagram that he has repeated Stefano Ghisolfi's Lapsus (9a+) in Andonno. The 30-year-old has done around 60 routes from 9a to 9c. (c) Clarisse Bompard

"Lapsus is actually the link up of two historical routes at the crag. It starts in "Noia", the first Italian 8c+, and finishes in the hard part of "Anaconda" 8b+. There are some hard moves in between to connect both of these routes. It makes for a really cool endurance route, on this blue and orange rock! I haven’t climbed a lot in Italy, and it's really cool to discover new crags, which are actually not that far from France."

Roxane Durand, who did her first 8c last month, at age 38, has sent Last soul sacrifice (8c) in Gorges du Loup.

”I was working on this route since the begining of September. I spent 9 days and 18 tries. The first pitch is Soul Sacrifice, 8b, which is very resistant. The first boulder of the route is very physical, then you have a good rest with a kneebar. Then, you need to climb a bit fast not be too pumped at the end of L1. You need to breathe at the belay with quite good holds and a bad kneebar which is uncomfortable. Then, the second part of the route is still resistant but the holds are worse and it's more bouldery for me. It's hard to stop climbing to clip the quickdraws, I only clipped 3 in the second part, but some of my friends clipped only one or two 😮The second part (L2) is not too long, about 20 movements I think.”

Michael Piccolruaz, who was #15 in the Tokyo Olympics, has repeated Chris Sharma's Alasha (9a) in Port de soller. The 27-year-old Italian is foremost a boulderer and in 2017, he took second place at a World Cup. He has also done two 8C boulders. ”Best experience of my life climbing these moves high above the Mediterranean Sea! The definition of KINGLINE!!”

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Alasha is definitely special. So happy to get the 3rd ascent. I`ve tried it a bit already two years ago when I got to witness Jakob`s impressive ascent. This year then I planned a trip specifically to try Alasha only.

Together with Jernej Kruder we started working on it right away only to find out that the lower part was soaking wet. And this struggle with the conditions continued for almost the entire trip. And as so often it ended up becoming a last day best day kind of situation. A key hold entering the crux just wouldn`t dry up so I had to put tinfoil on it to prevent my fingers from getting wet and like this make it somewhat climbable. The ascent was quite epic then. I had my crew of friends there supporting me and cheering and on my first go of the day I stuck my previous highpoint on the absolute limit saving myself through to the saving right hand jug. The last moves to the lip of the wall were thankfully all in control and I got to fully experience the rollercoaster of emotions hanging on the topjugs of Alasha so high above the sea. Definitely a dream come true. What a Kingline!

What is next?
Next some projects around home in Innsbruck 👍🏻. I have a long term project of climbing all the routes at the Schleierwasserfall. Currently I'm working on Weiße Rose (9a) and I've tried an open project once which is really good as well. So those two routes I definitely wanna climb now this fall.