Chris Sharma reports on Insta that he has done La Reina Mora in Siurana. "As I battle it out on my main project “Sleeping Lion” these days, I’ve also enjoyed climbing on this iconic route nearby." (c) Riki Giancola

Sharma started to work on Sleeping Lion last autumn and Giancola says he is pretty close. The estimated grade is at least 9b. Here is an Insta video from last May. Amazingly, there are no routes within some 20 meters of either side of Sleeping Lion and it is located on the big wall opposite of La Rambla and La Reina Mora.

Camilla Moroni has done Fred Nicole’s classic from 1998, La Proue (8B) in Cresciano. ” I managed to send it in 3 sessions between the trainings.”

The 21-year-old has during the last four weeks done six boulders 8A+ and 8B, in spite of having started training for the 2023 comp season. In 2021, she got silver in the World Champion and this year, the Italian, was #9 in the Euro Lead Championship.

Can you tell us about your Olympic goal?
At the beginning of November I moved to Milan with the National Team and it's very close to Ticino, so it's perfect for the "rest days". As I always say my main goal is to participate in the Olympics and I'm training for it. Staying in Milano is a great opportunity, we are training well with the help of Gabri Moroni and the federation. Qualifying during the WCh and the continental event will be difficult but I'll try, even if it will be more plausible to qualify with the combined events in 2024.

Michaela Kiersch reports on Insta that she has done Cinderella is Dead 8A+ (B) in Ogden. "Fist crimping and no-pinky pinches on Cinderella is Dead I love the juxtaposition of bouldering up above the city! You can even see my office from here 😉". Video of the ascent and some more detailed comments.

Other Kiersch news is that Alex Megos just did the first repeat of her Goldilocks in Red River Gorge (KY), from 2017, suggesting it should be upgraded to 8c+.

In April she completed her doctoral degree in hand therapy and immediately went for her first extended trip only focusing on climbing. During three weeks in Magic Wood, she did two 8B+ and another 12 boulders 8A and harder. In total, the 27-year-old has done nine 8c+' and last fall she did her first 9a, Dreamcatcher after just five days of projecting. In other words, Michaela's combined route and boulder tick list is one of the most impressive ever. Here is an 8a interview from this summer.

Alex Garriga reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Outer ring R2 9a (+) in Cuenca. It is an extension to an 8c he did in April which shares the top of El subnormal del antihydral r1 (9a), which he did the FA of in March. (c) David Lopez Campe

The 24-year-old has previously done close to 40 routes 9a and harder, including 13 FAs. The Spaniard is known for his hard grading and there are only about ten guys who have done more 9a's in the world.

William Bosi has had an amazing day in Cresciano where he first flashed The Dagger 8B (+) and later was very close to flash Dreamtime 8B+/C.

The Dagger: "Super happy to flash this classic!! Defiantly would have been my anti style two years ago so really psyched with my training."
Dreamtime: "Sooo good!! Was really close to the flash but slipped off after the crux. Luckily it went down soon after."

Where and how did you fall?
I fell on the flip move before the good holds just missing the hold. Basically, as it had rained so much in the last days it was just a bit humid so I was slipping down the holds I think.

How would you grade Dreamtime?
It’s hard to say, definitely soft end 8C if it is 8C.

How long will you stay in the area and what is next?
Just till Monday then I go to Arco to look at Excalibur 😁 (Ghisolfi's 9b+ project). My main goal was to try flash Off the Wagon (8B+) but it has rained so much up there that I’m not sure I’ll get to try it. br>

Are you going to focus on comps in 2023 and trying to make it to the Olympics?
I am not that keen on the current format so I won’t be trying for the 2024 Olympics. However, I’m definitely still open to comps in the future if things change.

IFSC reports that Elnaz Rekabi, together with three other women are part of a programme aiming to increase the presence of female coaches at the Olympic Games.

"All four participants attended the first online session on November 30th that kickstarted the 21-month leadership programme alongside sportswomen from other Olympic sports. The next step on the blended-learning programme will be a five-day residential session in Great Britain in February 2023. A mixture of online sessions, leadership sessions, and sport-specific mentor sessions will then take place before the programme is brought to a close in July 2024."

In October, Rekabi participated in the Asian Championship without her hijab, which made headlines all over the world. This weekend, the news broke that Rekabi's house had been demolished. International news outlets have yet to independently confirm when the demolition took place.

The non-government affiliated news site, IranWire, who first alerted outlets to the demolition, has also reported that a source previously told them; "The National Olympic Committee and the minister of sports told Elnaz that, “her family’s land would be confiscated if she leaves the country, gives interviews to the media or starts sensitive activities on her social pages.” adding that the family’s property was worth $300,000.

Before heading to Seoul, Rekabi was required to hand over a $35,000 cheque and grant full power of attorney to Iran’s climbing federation to sell her family's property as a guarantee she would come back."

Jernej Kruder, who won the Boulder World Cup in 2018, has done Sanjski par extension (9a) in Osp - Banje in Babna. "Countless tries over the years. Big discussion here about using kneepads...When this route was climbed back in 2004, there was no such things as rubbered kneepads. I'm not against it while doing the FA or repeating the route that was first climbed whit it, but using it here definitely changes the route. Anyways I tried it and did it without and I feel like that's one of my hardest routes I've climbed so far. I guess I managed to climb it in 2 parts very quickly, but the last half of the tries was an "easy go" in 2 parts. probably I was not in the wall for more than 2 minutes :)"

The 33-year-old has previously done nine routes 9a to 9a+ and also Es pontas (9b). He has been an active IFSC competition climber for almost 20 years. This year, he was #6 in the European Championship which he won in 2020. The Slovenian is known for not training indoors but instead mainly preparing for the comps outdoors also by doing multi-pitches.

Alexander Rohr has done the third ascent of La Castagne (9a+) in St Léger. "Nice route! Hard Boulder in the middle and then resistance climbing on crimps." (c) John Thornton

Adam Ondra did the FA in 2018 and then Alex Megos did the first repeat in 2020. Rohr has previously done 14 9a's and harder.

Can you tell us more about the route and the ascent?
The route is roughly 25 meters long and hard on the first half. The Crux is a hard boulder on maybe 7 moves, leading into a very resistant part on small crimps. The crag of St. Léger is located right underneath Mont Ventoux and hosts a ton of routes from 8a to very hard. Usually, the conditions are very dry, lots of wind and usually the temperatures are perfect. This time it was more or less the opposite. Within the two weeks of the trip we had 4 days of no climbing at all because of a completely wet crag. Several days were too hot or extremely cold. 4 good days was all we had. I knew the route from trying it three days last April after having completed Retour Gagnant, another 9a, plus some brief tries on another trip earlier this year. At the start of this trip, I was pretty sure to do it as I planned in enough time. In the end, the weather made it exciting. I had one day where I was too nervous to climb well. On all the other days, I was able to give it all and I sent on the very last opportunity before the weather changed to the worst. Having learned a thing or two on all my recent projects or failures was my biggest asset on La Castagne and it just all came together this time. There was flow in my mind even tough, it was very hard to give some good tries. Progress was made - that is all that counts and that probably is the reason why this project made me very happy.

Niky Ceria reports on Insta that he has repeated Nalle Hukkataival's Bügeleisen sit (8C) in Maltatal. (c) Stefan Kürzi

It was Klem Loskot who put up the stand version in 2001 as an 8B+. Then in 2014, Hukkataival added the sit start to it after a long battle saying it was one of his hardest ever. Ceria told 8a that he needed three days to do the stand and then he did the sit directly in his next session.

Ceria: "The sit start is just a different matter; more modern, I think. It forces you to stick with a diverse beta for the upper moves and it makes the stand more fluid. It represents my favorite place to start the climb and, when you sit, the feeling of looking at the line from that perspective gives you a sense of fullness."