Keenan Takahashi, who did his first 8C+ in July, has made the FA of Ego Death (8C) at Mt Evans.

”I was shown a photo of this prow project in early July, and thought it looked like one of the best boulders in Colorado. At the time I was close on Insomniac (V16) and so focused on finishing that first before checking it out. After finishing Insomniac, I was feeling pretty exhausted after 2 months of hiking and projecting, so much so that I actually got sick. But I really wanted to go see it, so I went out with my friends Kevin and Ethan to the zone, which I hadn’t been to before, and finally tried the prow.

Immediately upon walking up to it, I knew it was something special if it was possible. It’s the sort of thing I’ve dreamed of since I started climbing, steep compression, at my limit, decently tall but safe, and such fun movement. An amazing combo of technique and power.

I surprised myself by doing all the moves the first session, but I was feeling in for sure my best shape and the style really plays to my strengths. Once I realized it was possible, I couldn’t get it out of my head, and was really fixated.

I had to wait to recover from being sick, which took a longer time than anticipated, but I finally went back with Katie (Lamb) and we tried for a few hours. She was second day on, so only tried a bit, but I seshed for a while and made some key links, doing it in two overlapping parts. For the first time since doing A Little Life, I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about the line too much.

After a lot of rest, I went back again, this time alone as Katie was resting. I found a new mental space I’ve never had before, fully calm and really happy to be there, truly not caring if I did it. I knew I’d try until it would get done. Then, on the wall, I climbed perfectly. The sort of moment I always wish for but have only had one other time, on Kintsugi in 2018. I barely stuck the crux and then had a minor error in the easier upper bit but very fortunately didn’t punt. I deal with ego like everyone else, but the name stems from the flow on the wall, as “I” really ceased to exist, there was just awareness and breath.

All told, for sure one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, in any aspect of my life.

As for the grade: Drew Ruana tried a couple of days, as well as Griffin Whiteside the year before. Drew was trying a different sequence at the top, which sounded really nails, but we both felt it was a big step up from V14s in that style and agreed V15 seemed more than fair. I’m curious what other folks think, but more than anything I’m just so stoked to have had such a fun time trying such an incredible bloc and hope other people like it too!”

Loic Zehani has done the FA of Tsuki no kitsune (9a+) in Chanac. In total, the 21-year-old has logged 70 routes 9a to 9b out of which 38 FAs.

"Nice route, the movements are so nice. The first real route in the ninth degree of the Mende area (the neighbour that I sent 2 days ago [Passing shot (9a)] rather 8c+/9a ). Bolted by Gauthier Leprince (for the first five meters) and my father. In 12 meters there is all: little slopers, shoulders, one and two fingers pockets, compréssion etc."

Jakob Schubert reports on Instagram that B.I.G. aka Project Big in Flatanger, goes at 9c. The Austrian made the FA, of the Adam Ondra bolted route, last week during his 6th live-streaming attempt. (c) Alpsolut pictures - Johannes Mair

"I felt at a point where I had found the most efficient way possible for me, the whole route was worked out perfectly and I didn’t see any room for improvement. So all that it came down to was my physical & mental shape which I think are very good right now. Given the current information that I have and considering Adam’s opinion, it feels right to propose 9c and I’m looking forward to see what time will tell."

Here are the hardest routes in the world including the FAs and the repeaters;
B.I.G. (9c) 2023, FA Jakob Schubert
DNA (9c) 2022, FA Seb Bouin
Silence (9c) 2017, FA Adam Ondra

Excalibur (9b+) 2023, FA Stefano Ghisolfi
Mejorando la samfaina (9b+) 2023, FA Jorge Diaz-Rullo
Sleeping Lion (9b+) 2023, FA Chris Sharma
Suprême Jumbo Love (9b+) 2022, FA Seb Bouin
Zvěřinec (9b+) 2022, FA Adam Ondra
Bibliographie (9b+) 2020, FA Alex Megos, Stefano Ghisolfi, Sean Bailey, Seb Bouin
2018, FA Alex Megos, Stefano Ghisolfi, Jakob Schubert
Vasil Vasil (9b+) 2013, FA Adam Ondra
La Dura dura (9b+) 2013, FA Adam Ondra, Chris Sharma
Change (9b+) 2012, FA Adam Ondra, Stefano Ghisolfi, Seb Bouin


Adam Ondra is listed five times as an FA. Stefano Ghisoli and Seb Bouin are mentioned four times, out of which one respectively two times, as FAs. There are, furthermore, at least seven routes graded 9b/+ out of which Seb Bouin has done four and he is known for his hard grades.

Anna Schliakhova reports from a recent climbing festival in Kniazhi Skeli in Ukraine including an interview with the organizer and bolter Volodymyr Kushka.

”Ukraine is a large and mostly flat country with not so many climbing areas or big potential for new-routing. However, there are a few areas, especially in the west. Despite the full-scale war in the country, people still climb and even establish new climbing areas and hold climbing festivals. Last year it was Kykoshiv Rock Festival held in a brand new area, and this year it was Kniazhi Skeli Festival.

It's been a tradition in the short climbing history in the west of Ukraine to hold a climbing festival on the rocks dedicated to the August 24th Independence Day, with the holiday allowing for travel for the entire country.

It's a little bit strange with the emptiness at the cliffs due to those who have fled, those who are defending the country, those who were killed in this war and those who avoid travelling in order not to get summoned to military service. But, for those who made it to the event, it was a much more rare and precious opportunity to get distracted from the reality of living in the war-torn country and to do our favorite sport.

All that being said, this story is mostly not about the war but about a guy who bolted and prepared several sport climbing and bouldering areas in the past few years. Let me introduce him: Volodymyr Kushnir aka Kushka from Lviv.



How did you start climbing?
Formally, I started climbing in 2000 at the age of 23 or 24, because actually first years five or six... [interruption] oh, cool, air raid sirens sounded all-clear, hooray. Today, by the way, a missile hit a little more than a kilometer away from my house. It was loud.

Yes, I’ve heard there is a huge crater in Lviv’s kindergarten’s yard?
We haven't got accustomed to it here in Lviv as people do in Kharkiv or Kyiv. It was a single attack before, so we all got scared. Okay, let's go. At the beginning it wasn't really like sport climbing. We went to Dovbush rocks, to the only crag and to the only one place there, to be more precise. This cliff and the campsite fell into to a gully, in 2016, and none of the routes survived. So, it isn't there anymore. We climbed Terminator (6b+), at least those who could, but mostly the level of our climbing didn’t allow us to do so. We climbed badly and had actually nothing to climb on, because there were about 5 routes for lead climbing on Dovbush Rocks.

I saw some progress after the first climbing gyms appeared in Lviv. The very first one was Pohulianka opened in 2006. Before we went to comps to Kyiv once a year and it was a great deal for us, we were looking forward to such an event all year long.

Tell us a little bit about establishing new routes and areas?
There are pioneers of bolting in Ukraine who should be mentioned first. They are Serhiy Krasovskyi, Yevhen Grafov, Serhiy Fedirko. The last is serving in the army right now. Those three bolted the majority of the routes on Dovbush Rocks. The first wave of the bolting, if I'm not mistaken, was funded by a presidential grant from (Viktor) Yushenko. At the time I assisted a little Krasovskyi and Fedirko with the bolting.

Out of the bolters who are still in action, I am the one who experienced times before cordless drill bolting. We used just a hammer and a hand-drill. Battery powered drills were like a miracle for us. Later we got a generator and used it with an extension cord. Fedirko use it still sometimes. It was awful [before that] because it took about two hours to place one bolt [hand drilling]. You were hanging on a crag and -- clang-clang-clang -- pinging a hole. It was a breakthrough for us to have a generator.

There are about ten of my routes on Dovbush Rocks. Together with Fedirko we established long routes on Bronia of 20+ bolts. There are also my routes on another crag Tiulpan, including 8a+ (Time to think) which I also managed to [do] the first ascent.

My first major project was Kykoshiv Rock, where I bolted almost all routes except for 5-6 routes established by Pasha Vasylenka and another two by Yura Levitskyi. There 107 routes in total. It turned out to be a "Hero's Wall," because there are not so many easy routes and all of them are pretty fancy. However, there is an excellent set of 6c, 7a, 7b routes. Some eighth grade routes have seen a first ascent already, about 3 or 4 of them. And there are still about 20 open projects starting from 8a and harder.

How do you balance your life to fit also a normal work and a family with three kids?
I used to work in wholesale trade in an outdoor store and for the last five years I sell software for a start-up company. And now I have much more flexible hours which is exactly the thing which has allowed me to start actively bolting. I try to kill many birds with one stone, so to say, still it doesn't work as well as I would like it to.

My family has been in Poland for over a year. It's good that I can go to visit them, which I do every one or two months. They want to come back but here is the war and attacks, so my wife Ira is worrying about our kids and doesn't want to come back yet. Everything is not certain. Climbing and bolting allow me to escape from problems while doing things useful for others.

Note: As a father of three children, Kushka is allowed to travel abroad according to military law, while the majority of conscription age men are banned from doing so.

What motivates you to bolt?
It's interesting for me to do something new. I like climbing even more, but I also like the process of creating some new routes which will be available for climbing for me, as well for others. I like this. I started to realize that for me to establish a route, and then to climb it toprope or just manage to do all the moves to discover that it could be a 7c or 8a in order to announce it to everyone is much more interesting than to do the first ascent itself as it takes too much time. I can say that it's a cool route. I will be sincerely happy for the one who climbs it first.

You are also raising some funds for military needs while bolting, aren't you?
Yes, we send UAH 100 (£2.15) from every printed festive t-shirt, and it's about UAH 5000 (£108), to Vlad Chumachenko who runs a tactical medicine unit. From registration fees we will direct money to our friends who assemble drones by themselves. Yurko and Oksana Kovalchuck order all spare parts from China and assemble drones together with a small team of other volunteers. There will be about UA 20,000 (£430) for their needs. It's like a drop in the sea but still we do something for the military.

Molly Thompson-Smith, who was #10 in the Led World Cup in 2023, has done her first 8A flash, Verna in Mardale head. During the same trip she also sent Downstairs Mixup (8A) and Eagle Huntress (stand) (8A)

Can you tell us more about these ascents?
It’s been a challenging time recently so my partner Sam and I wanted to go to the Lake District for a couple days just to get away. I didn’t really intend on trying particularly hard during this trip, but friends of ours were keen to visit Mardale Head which is a small venue with a fair few hard boulders, and we ended up joining them there. I’d seen my friend Aidan flash Verna (used to be 7C+ but then a hold broke apparently making it harder) in a Wedge video recently, so the possibility of flashing it was in the back of my mind. It’s a pretty straightforward line of small crimps on a small boulder so it was an easy one to suss out from the floor, and didn’t take too much figuring out - just hard crimping! I’ve had sore fingers for a little while so flashing this, and it feeling pretty steady, was a really nice reward for all my patience and rehab lately!

We then moved up to the boulder that the group had come for, but with patchy rain and a big grey cloud coming in quick we didn’t have much time for us all to try Eagle Huntress. I’ve recently developed a new super skill of sending the boulder on the last possible attempt before the rain comes in, and that’s exactly what happened on Eagle Huntress stand! This was another small win for me as although the landing is safe, you end up climbing over a downward sloping boulder meaning you could have an awkward fall. Although I’ve made lots of progress mentally and physically with my confidence since I fractured my ankle last September, I still get spooked fairly easily when bouldering outside, so this one was a test of braveness for me and I was happy to not let my fear hold me back!

On our second day we headed to Sour Milk Ghill - a small but beautiful location near Scafell Pike. I wanted to try Downstairs Mixup - a pretty ratty 8A - as well as some easier classics. It took some figuring out and really small crimping, but I was psyched to walk away with another 8A send with some alternative beta for little people! It’s always an enjoyable challenge figuring out beta that’s better for short people so it was fun to play on this one!

Solveig Korherr has done Spanish Caravan (8c) in La Ramirole. "Revenge on this one after the heat wave. 50m tufa madness. Happy to do the kingline of the cliff. There are quite a few very big moves. It’s definitely harder for shorter people." (c) Jon Shen

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
I first went to La Ramirole at the beginning of August, when it unfortunately started to get very hot. I had quite a hard time on „Spanish Caravan“, especially in the lower part which shares the same start as „Bohemian Symphony“ which I wanted to do first. There were quite a few very big and powerful moves in between the tufas, where I most of the time felt very stretched. After one week of over 30 degrees at the crag, we decided to change destination and go higher in altitude.

At the beginning of September, we came back to La Ramirole, and luckily had much cooler conditions. The lower part of Spanish caravan started to feel better and better and a lot more flowly than before. It took me a few more tries to figure out my beta and find all the kneebars for the whole traversing upper part until I was able to send it. It was a great feeling to clip the anchor of this 50m kingline that traverses through the steepest part of the cave.

Connor Herson has made the first repeat of Ethan Pringle’s Blackbeard’s Tears (8c+), done in 2016, at the Promontory, after projecting it for seven sessions. The 40m crack was originally put up as an aid route by Matthias Holladay who had freed the first 6c section. There is also a glue-in anchor two-thirds up that goes at 8a.

"Blackbeard’s Tears is essentially a long, steep 5.13 crack to a good rest, to a hard boulder. The boulder consists of pulling a roof and really puts a lot of pressure on my right pinky. Two days before I sent it, I ripped a massive flapper there, so I had to change my beta to get that hold with my left hand instead. I didn’t really expect to send the day I did, but everything worked out and I found myself clipping the chains! Stay tuned for a short video ;)"

Carlo Traversi, who has been working on Blackbeard’s took the above picture and says, "Connor is a very talented climber, especially with cracks. You can get a no-hands rest [after the second anchor] in a few ways but Connor used a bat hang."

Connor Herson made his first 8a headline in 2018 when he did an 8c+, 2nd go at age 14. In the same year, he repeated The Nose 8b+ MP; and was #11 in the Youth World Championship. Last year he did the bolted route Empath 9a (+) on trad gear and later he was #12 in the YWC after being #2 in the qualification round. In August, we reported that he had done two 8c trad routes and a 9a in Squamish.

Last weekend, he was busy putting up the 13-pitch Hairline (8b) which summits Mt. Whitney (4 421 meters) together with Fan Yang. Connor has the full report on Instagram. Interview from last year: ”Multi discipline excellence”.

September is coming to an end, which means so too is the RSM Photo Contest. Scroll through the Indoor Gallery and give your favorite photos a Venga! It’s not too late to sneak in, if you have some photos that encompass the Gym Vibes that inspire us: movement, route setting, design and community.
Click here to get started or to give your favorites some Venga love. With big cash and sponsored prizes for the crowd favorite AND participants AND voters, there’s nothing to lose but time!

Sorato Anraku, 16, the overall Boulder World Cup winner, won the title also in Lead, in dominating fashion, by winning the last three events. In fact, the 16-year-old was so dominant that he would have won by a large margin had he only done the last three events. Alex Megos was runner-up after having been Top-5 in four events, out of the six he participated in. Taking into account also the bronze Megos won at the World Championships, in August, 2023 was his best competition year ever as a non-junior competitor. Fifth overall, Toby Roberts, also just participated in four WC events, which also hurt his overall ranking. Complete results