Alexander Rohr has done the third ascent of La castagne (9a+) in . "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 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."

Martina Demmel onsighted Pata pa mi 8b (a+) in 2019 after having climbed for less than three years. The next year she made it to the semifinal in her debut World Cup. In 2021, she onsighted roughly 160 routes 7c to 8b+ and became the first-ever female climber to win the 8a annual global ranking game. This year she started off in a cast, having broken her foot and in the summer she focused on the World Cup. Also this year the 21-year-old began a sport police schooling program. Her impressive resume also now includes a second 9a, which she carried out last week. (c) Felix Bub

We hear flexibility is one of your strengths?
Regarding flexibility, I'm on the lucky side which means I've always been very flexible and therefore, could do both splits without any training but since I started climbing, I enjoy doing some mobilisation/stretching for about 5mins in total each morning and evening; that's all😉... I also developed a pretty frontal static climbing style where I use a lot of high feet and 🐸 positions where the flexibility definitely helps me find a way to solve sequences with a lower level of power🧩... but that's nothing surprising I guess😜.

Do you think being flexible helps with onsighting?
Maybe, but I guess that's (onsighting) rather because of the different mindset and the fact that you have to move very intuitive what comes after more & more experience; that helps in making the right decisions quicker and more often🦎💭 While onsight climbing, I'm experiencing the purest form of flow as there's no time to think about something else what makes this so special that it feels like unpacking a present: anything can await you at any point🎁🎉😁

Can you tell us more about your police schooling program?
Since the middle of September, I'm on police school to become a Bavarian Police officer after 5 years of education👮‍♀️. It's a rather unknown program for all kinds of professional sports to allow national team members (criteria to enter the program, should be on WC level) to pursue their sports career but to also have a safe job afterward. Basically, our school time is over the double length (instead of 2,5 it's 5 years) to have enough time for training & comps. School is always from September to the end of January but we've got the luxury to be supported financially the whole time, that's why it's my job now to prepare the best possible for the comps and to move the priority away from rocks😉.

Is the Olympics one of your goals?
Paris isn't my goal as I'm only focusing on Lead the next time (bouldering only to feel more comfortable in unstable positions) & because I've actually never been attracted by the Olympics in general but maybe this changes by LA, who knows😜🙃... I'm definitely psyched to get more consistency into my WC performances and to leave the stage with a hopefully satisfying battle no matter the placement🔥😊.

How often are you able to climb outdoors?
Luckily, there's still a bit of time to head out to the crags around my home where I really need to keep up my mental well-being🦎🌞. And it seems that having school taking over a big part of my daily life now, it plays out surprisingly well in my climbing as I'm appreciating the rare time & simple things much more🦋😁 (expected to be rather stressed by forcing things in these short windows😅). Not to forget here, I'm very glad to have gotten a place at police school after trying to get in there for 2 years🙏😊 (Laser-OP for my eyes delayed everything.)

My plans for winter still have to be discussed with my coach but I'm hoping to join a few friends in Margalef in late February but the trip definitely won't be as long as the previous years😜🙈.

What does a normal week look like for you?
So normally during fall/winter, we've got police school from 7 am to 3 pm (some days start later/end earlier to get more time for training) only within this sports concept. Afterward, there's training with the German team in gyms around Munich. My routine has turned into climbing indoors on 3 afternoons during the week (no specific training yet just trying what feels out of my comfort zone💃) + a lot of stability training for my shoulder as the right one is pretty unstable🦍 and rock climbing on the weekends around home🌞... and a lot of studying in the evenings for school📚. Felt pretty strange in the beginning to have such a structure again after 3 years of mostly intuitive living but I'm enjoying it more than expected (feels amazing to be "productive" except for the lack of sleep😅).

How has the change from an onsight lifestyle to a much more structured life been?
At first, those changes felt pretty overwhelming by getting thrown into a totally new world/surroundings (for comps, police school) but I'm generally keen for new challenges that bring the necessary motivation to adapt to those situations. Most of all, I was looking forward to having something besides climbing to focus on and hopefully put off some self-made pressure on the wall (partly it's working😜💭).

Just to mention it, I still enjoy onsighting on rock probably the most but it simply isn't possible all the time/everywhere because around my home, there are mostly the really challenging routes left but that's a good reason to commit to projecting something finally🙃🦎🚀...

Christoph Schweiger, who was #8 in the Euro Championship, has done The Big Island (8C) in Fontainebleau. "I tried the Island the first time 3 years ago for one session and already unlocked all the moves then because of Covid and a lot of comps where my focus at the moment is, I didn’t make it back to this boulder since then. This year we had a training camp with the national for a week in Font and I spend another session there where I fell really close and ran out of power at the end of the session. Then after a rest day I came back and did it the second go after my warm-up :)"

It looks like this is your first big send this year?
I barely have had time for rock climbing this year because of a really packed competition schedule but I really enjoyed the time in Font now and already can’t wait for two weeks of Ticino for the new year.

Camilla Bendazzoli has done Nagay (8c) in Covolo. "Covolo is my home crag so last summer I happened to go there a couple of times. I didn't know which route to try and I had always heard about Nagay being hard. Luckily I had Davide Picco with me that knew all the moves, so I went and checked if they could someway be possible for me. Apparently, the style suited me well and last month I decided to give it some serious tries and succeeded 😁." (c) Christoph Schweiger

"It looks like Yosemite, but it's sandstone ... During a climbing trip in Ceuse, we were passing in this valley of Champsaur. I immediately saw this wall. It looked far away in the mountains. But you know, curiosity can bring you far away 😁. After spending an afternoon finding a path to get to the wall, I was amazed by this place and the rock. I had to come back to bolt the first line here.

When I was back in Ceuse, trying Biographie, in summer 2020, I went up for few days to bolt the first route of our French Yosemite. It was quite an expedition to brought all the bolting gear to the top of this mountain. I did many push to brought the gear during my biographie rest days. I was walking as much as possible, trying to find the way to the top. And when I was too tired, I left the gear on the mountain. Coming back the next rest day to attempt it again. I finally reached the top of the mountain, and bolted this giga route. The rock is really cool, but needed some cleaning. As it's sandstone, I remember a lot of sand falling in my eyes 👀 I guess "Sandman" is good name for this one. I was dreaming of this route before sleeping"

What does Project Big mean to you?
I’d say, Flatanger is the Yosemite of sports climbing. It’s the rock quality, the potential, the number of difficult routes, it’s simply extraordinary. It’s a beautiful place looking over the fjords to the sea, the cave is massive, it’s steep, offers so many hard route options; as a climber, this is a place you’ll always want to come back to.

“Everybody wants to have a world champion at 16, and a long career. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, but I’m seeing too much pressure put on younger athletes, and an increasing number of injuries because to this.”

"Do we want to raise the next generation of skeletons?"