Rollin Grimmett has done Life Of Villains (9a). The 30-year-old has only been climbing consistently for eight years and has mainly been climbing outdoors. "Wow, feels like a dream. I worked on basically only this route all of last winter, almost every weekend driving down from SLC. Lost count of how many attempts, but probably close to 80 tries over the past 2 years. So incredibly psyched."

Can you tell us more about your climbing background and the ascent?
I fell in love with the movement and problem solving nature of climbing, and from the beginning, I could tell I was naturally proficient. Efficient movement and even the subtle adjustments needed, all came intuitively. But I wasn't immediately very strong. When I first started climbing, I never imagined I'd send 8a, let alone 9a. I was barely climbing 7a outside. But I consistently improved because I was excited to try harder than what I thought I was capable of. I always wanted to be better, and I surrounded myself with friends who would push me. Each year since my first 8a I would project outside of my comfort zone, and each year I would send a new grade, culminating in my send of 9a with 'Life of Villains' last week. Consistently, I would devote whatever time and effort was required.

The key in sport climbing for me is to be as efficient as possible. I don't usually do much traditional training in the gym, I prefer to just climb. So often in the gym in between new sets, I would "train" by repeating hard boulders I had done before. I feel like that's a great way to learn efficiency in movement. I guess I've been pretty fortunate to avoid most injuries or issues that some climbers might experience when ramping up training too fast.

I first tried 'Life of Villains' (LoV) halfway through the Winter of 2020/21. It was my first full season in the Hurricave, and I had sent Peregrination and 86'd. I was feeling quite fit and was inspired by watching Dru Mack and others try LoV. All the moves on the route felt hard, but I could tell the route suited my style. It was crimpy and required excellent power endurance, my specialty. But I knew it was well above my ability at the time. I would fall over and over in the middle crux, and only once made it through before I fell shortly after.

A year later I returned for the winter 2021/22 season. LoV was my singular goal every weekend for almost 5 months. I was stronger this time but needed better endurance. I was steadily improving, falling higher and higher, even once on the last move. But I made a crucial mistake. I limited myself to only giving redpoint attempts. I started losing power, and began falling back at the earlier crux. By the time I course-corrected, the season came to a close, and it was too warm. Since then, this year has been one of immense growth for me. I chose climbing goals that would challenge me, I focused on routes that would train my power through the summer. I sent Supertweak (first American 8c) with pretty hot conditions in July, and also spent way more time bouldering in the gym to train. When I returned this season, LoV felt like an old friend. Like as if it hadn't been 7.5 months since my last try. But this time I felt way more solid. Everything felt smooth, exactly how you want it to feel. And 2 sessions in I was already falling near the end of the redpoint crux. Last weekend I fell twice in a row one move away from the jug at the lip, and I was pretty confident it would happen soon. I took two rest days (crucial for me on this route), returned Wednesday and immediately sent. I executed everything perfectly, it was so flowy it felt like I was on autopilot.

Sol Sa signs up to 8a by logging in Siurana. "It’s really big moves for me…, it’s like a boulder that was fun, fun."

The Korean has been a very active international competition climber since 2009. In 2018, she got the Combined silver World Championship. In 2020, she did This year, she participated in seven Boulder or Lead World Cups, and her worst result was #33. As a boulderer, she has done three 8A+, out of which in just six minutes in 2020.


What are your next plans?
I have two plans. My first goal is to win a prize in the Asian Games. However, it is possible to be selected as one of the top two athletes in the Korean national competition early next year. If I can’t be selected another goal of mine is to send an 8B+ boulder and an 8c+ route in 2023.

And if you will be selected?
I want to make it to the bouldering World Cup finals. I want to achieve good results in the 2023 Asian Games as well. When I compete in a competition as a national team, I cannot decide on my own when to go outdoors climbing. After the season is over, I plan to go bouldering to Bishop or Rocklands if I can.

Nico Pelorson has done the FA of Le Braille (9a) in La carriere. Although, it is located only a five min walk from the city centre of Grenoble, the route bolted Mathieu Cortès has been a project for 15 years.

Nico has also done the first repeat of Blaoum 8c (9a) in Baderne, which Pierre Duroché put up in 2007 as a 9a. The 25-year-old, who is very known for his hard personal downgradings, calls it 8c.

In the last two weeks, he has also done Forgotten Gem (8C) in Chironico, calling it 8B+, as well as Big Paw (8B+) and the FA of Les petites prises de la bastille (8B+).

Gio Placci, who did his first 9a+ three weeks ago, has done Trofeo dell'Adriatico (9a+) in Arco, after projecting it for only six days. "What a line !!!! With the kneebar it’s consistently easier, 9a+ low ends IMO. Gabri (Moroni) who made the FA did it without the kneebar rest and so the route was definitely way harder maybe 9a+\b."

What are your winter plans?
I’m training now for the season 2023 but I still have a ten days trip to Spain over the new year, where I would like to climb First Ley (9a+).

Anak Verhoeven is historically speaking one of the best female Lead competition climbers. She made finals in the WC 36 times in a row. In total, she made the podium 19 times, but in 2019 she stopped competing due to injuries. In the second half of 2021, she fully recovered but decided to focus only on rock climbing. During her comp years, she did a dozen routes 8c+ to 9a+, and over the last 16 months, she has done another eight routes 9a to 9a+. Her trainer has always been her father, who started climbing at age 31, and he is also the climber who she looks up to the most. Her mother was her coach at comps and most of Anak's trips have been done together with her family. They live in the northern part of Belgium almost one-hour drive from the same gym she has been training in since she was a child. Almost all of her training has been done by routinely repeating the hardest routes in that gym.

8a had the chance to talk with her after at the Leonidio Climbing Festival, where she made a guest appearance as one of the festival's headlining athletes.  

We've heard your dad is one of the climbers you look up to the most?
He can lovingly belay me for hours and without being able to train, he can still do 7c’s, although he's in his 60'ties. He has a very nice technique and I learn from him. But more importantly, I look up to him for the way he lives his life and I respect and love him for being my father and taking that role so seriously.

Have you thought about moving to a place where you can be closer to good rock climbing?
I am in the transition to becoming a full-time rock climber and at the moment I enjoy going on trips for some weeks. But sooner or later I will probably move outside of Belgium.

We heard you've been bolting new routes?
After the festival, I had the opportunity to bolt a 7c-route which I named Máthema. It was an amazing experience to learn new skills and open a line on Leonidio’s beautiful rock! I might bolt more in the near future because I enjoy it a lot.

What drives you to climb?
I like the challenges that come with climbing hard routes on rock and, I also like pushing myself. When I start projecting a route, the first question is always whether or not I will be able to do all the moves. That’s not easy to find out. I am not as strong as male climbers and usually shorter, so finding the solution to a certain sequence can be tough, especially when trying to do the first female ascent of a route. But at the same time, these uncertainties make the process interesting.

What are your thoughts on on-sighting?
I like on-sight climbing and I’ve on-sighted routes up to 8b+. But so far, my focus has always been on projecting routes during my climbing trips and not on on-sighting.

Have you thought about turning your attention towards a 9b+ redpoint?
That definitely sounds interesting. So far, I feel like I haven’t had that opportunity yet. Next year I would like to go to Flatanger for the first time.

Do you have the same competitiveness outdoors that you had in comps?
I surely still have the same mentality and seriousness as when I was competing, for example in the way I approach training and tackle my projects. But climbing outdoors is of course not a fight between climbers, but a very personal thing – a pushing of your own limits and a constant learning process.



What do you think are your strengths and weaknesses ?
My hips work best doing knee drops and I am not so good in frog position moves. Slopers and pinches are my favorite kinds of holds, but monos are absolutely not. During my competition years I trained a lot of endurance, so 50+ meter routes without big rests are my cup of tea. I have also always liked climbing on steep terrain and roofs, so I’m naturally drawn to these long, overhanging climbs. But I can appreciate more vertical climbing as well and I enjoy both powerful and delicate moves.

Chaehyun Seo, who just did La Rambla (9a+), has done two impressive onsights in a day in . First, she onsighted after being up there for almost 40 minutes and later she onsighted L'antagonista (8c). The only other female who has onsighted an 8c in Janja Garnbret.

Can you tell us more about the last onsight?
It took me almost an hour. The hardest part for me was at about 55m height. I fought there for almost twenty minutes. I just focused on it and thought that this is the last chance I was getting pumped even though I was resting, so I thought that this is the last chance that I can do the crux. I just grabbed the pocket hold and made a cross over to the bad sloper and I just barely made it.

Killian Chabrier has flashed Vecchio Leone in Brione. In 2021 he did his first three 8C's but this year he has previously been focused more on routes having done his first 9a.

Can you tell us some more about the flash and the beta you used?
A friend of mine who was in Brione 2 weeks ago told me I should try to flash Vecchio Leone cause it suits my style a lot. So I decided to take a look! I check some betas my friends used and decided to go for a proper flash but with the idea of climbing with the feeling and reorganizing if it’s necessary. I look at videos before and a guy who was in the same area told me where to top out because I didn’t look where it tops out 😅 That’s what I did with using a beta more powerful in the middle by crossing with a left foot instead of a right one, it feels a bit harder but less random. I think Vecchio Leone suits my style very well cause it’s my first 8B flash and I felt that I couldn’t fall in it!

Jacopo Larcher, one of the very best multi-discipline climbers in the world, has made the 3rd ascent of Beth Rodden’s Yosemite trad test-piece Meltdown 8c+ from 2008. At that time it was the hardest graded trad route in the world and then in 2018, Carlo Traversi made the first repeat, confirming the grade.

Jacopo first tried the route in 2016, when he spent 2 days trying the moves. During this current trip, he spent one evening brushing the holds and 7 days working the route on head-point. During his ascent, he placed all gear on lead. The Italian is spending the month of November in Yosemite, filming for a new documentary series about the world’s hardest trad climbs. ‘How Hard Is Hard?’ is due out in 2023. (c) Andrea Cossu Onsen productions

"There are many hard trad climbs around the world, but very few have become iconic. For me, Meltdown was definitely one of those. I don’t know why, but it somehow had this mysterious aura. I remember watching the movie of Beth’s incredible first ascent, back in 2008; at the time I didn’t know much about trad climbing, and I couldn’t really understand the significance of the route and her achievement at that time. The route just looked so beautiful, yet completely desperate to me. Something unthinkable for me to consider climbing, at the time.

Some years later, when I started to get more and more into this aspect of climbing, I began to realize that her achievement was ahead of its time. Since her first ascent, not much about the route had been heard, which was not so common for a well-known climb situated just in the middle of Yosemite valley. There were rumors about some of the world’s best trad climbers having tried the route over the years, but no one found success. People even created the myth that the route had such thin jams, that it was impossible for climbers with normal fingers. All that added some mystery to the route, until Carlo Traversi, in 2018, finally claimed the second ascent of Meltdown, confirming Beth’s incredible achievement and proving all the “excuses” were wrong.

I had my first taste of Meltdown in 2016, when Babsi (Zangerl) and I checked out the route for two days in between some “El Cap action”. We were both surprised by the beauty of the line, as well as its difficulty. It definitely wasn’t about thin finger jams, but about some very powerful lay-backing on extremely bad and glassy footholds. After those 2 days, I was even more impressed by Beth ascent back in 2008!

We regularly visited Yosemite in the following years, but our focus had always been on the bigger walls, so we hadn’t gone back on Meltdown, even though the line has always been in the back of my mind. As I’m currently working on a documentary about the different styles and ethics in trad climbing, this season I finally committed to go back to the Valley without my big wall gear, in order to climb some classic single pitches and to get on Meltdown again. Luckily, this time I immediately had some more positive feelings working on it. The footholds were still terrible and the route hard, but I somehow felt like a more mature (trad) climber. I was very surprised yet motivated when I managed to top-rope it clean on my 3rd day trying it this year. After that, I naively thought it would go fast on lead, but placing the gear adds some extra spice to it and it definitely makes the route significantly harder.

On my fourth day of lead tries I had to pull out a big (!) fight and dig deep in order to reach the anchor. The easier upper parts always felt good on top-rope, but it definitely felt different when coming from the ground! Usually, while head pointing hard trad routes, the actual send go feels smooth, which is obviously a nice feeling... but on this one, I had to fight very hard and was very close to falling in the upper part, which somehow made the experience even more unforgettable 🙂 It was definitely one of my favorite moments in climbing!

I would like to highlight once more what Beth did in 2008, which was way ahead of the times, both in women and mens climbing history! I honestly believe the shorter you are, the harder this route gets...and yes: fingers size doesn’t matter! Chapeau Beth, thanks for the inspiration."

Anghelo Bernal has done Era Vella 8c+/9a in Margalef, after projecting it for 80+ sessions. Era Vella is the 2010 Chris Sharma classic 5-star route that was the most repeated 9a in the world until 2016 when it was downgraded. Later it has seen much less traffic and there has been a rumor of a broken hold bringing it back to 9a again?

”It has been a common project with Tim Emmett and the first time we tried the route was in 2017 a couple of weeks, then in 2019 a couple of months, and this year it has been approximately two months. When Tim returned to Canada I did work on it as I wanted to do the project with him. Yesterday it was me and now I’m waiting for him to do it too. It is more than a route, it is a bond of friendship on the same road.” (The picture is from 2019)

Tim did not send but has continuously posted reports on Insta describing the roller-coaster emotions about the journey. The 49-year-old has returned back to Canada and is already looking forward to the next chapter of his journey.

Is it true that Era Vella has become harder?
Bernal: A couple of years ago, Tim broke one foothold, although the handholds are the same.

Emmett: I use a different sequence now and so does Anghelo. It might be a tiny bit harder but not significant.

Could you describe the route?
It is a path of great resistance. The route is divided into three parts; the first meters before the roof are easy, then you make the roof, and there you can rest, for me the route in general begins in that part, the second part is 15 meters of an overhang of about 45 degrees very intense and you do not rest until you pass the crux, the third part is about 20 final meters to hold on. What has become more difficult for me are the distances of the bolts, they add a psychological point.

Giorgio Tomatis has done Lapsus 9a+ (b) in Andonno, which is a link-up of three routes he has done before. Stefano Ghisolfi made the FA in 2015 as the first 9b in Italy but later he and the three repeaters (Ondra, Bombardi using one knee pad, and Sigriest) have edited their opinion calling it a hard 9a+. Tomatis, who previously has done five 9a's, thinks it merits 9b. He started working on it seriously at the end of October. "I wanted to do it without kneepads because Stefano's FA was done without kneepads and without, it's 9b."

Can you give us the lowdown on Lapsus?
It is a truly magical route. The connection of all the hardest routes of the most famous wall of Andonno. The process was really incredible and very stimulating. It was a very fun route to try for me because every time I improved something or I could make one extra move.

The 19-year-old is also a successful competition climber having made the podium in Euro Youth Cups eight times, including winning one event in 2021. Already at age 14, he did Noia (8c+) which shares the start of Lapsus. (c) Carlo Penna