Katherine Choong has done Rammstein (8c) in Soyhières. The 30-year-old is a former competition climber who some 30 times has been top-30 in the World Cup. She has previously done two 9a’s and several hard MP’s up to 8b+. In other words, her track record is one of the most impressive out there. (c) Laurent Enard

"I first tried this route at the beginning of 2021 and I spent a lot of time there. The route presents difficult boulder sections interspersed with easier sections and ends with a dyno on a final sloper where I knew a lot of climbers had fallen. Often too hot or wet, it is complicated to find good conditions at Soyhières. This past Sunday, I was really tired after a bouldering competition the day before. But the good conditions and I had no expectations, I finally pass the bottom crux and the second one (with a one-finger pocket) and reach the top without falling in the final dyno! I am particularly happy with this climb, a route that is not in my style (bouldering and dynamic)."

Ella Adamovska has sent us the great news that Pepa Šindel, who previously has done three 8c+, has made the first repeat of Michal Mikušínec' Chiroptera 9a+. In the nice video, we can hear he has Adam Ondra as his idol.

"The first 10 moves are around 8b climbing followed by the real deal crux which consists of 5 boulder moves on sharp mono pockets. The line is for sure very specific which confirms the fact that it’s already been unsuccessfully tried by Adam Ondra but remained unrepeated until Pepa’s send the last weekend.

Pepa said that he’s decided to try Chiroptera for the first time at the end of August. Since the weather wasn’t very good during September, he focused on training and other climbing areas and only stopped by Sulov a few times. October was the month of promising conditions that allowed Pepa to try more frequently, visiting the route once a week with his family. Eventually, he managed to send it this weekend after around 25 attempts.

Pepa is well known for being one of the smallest climbers. He is 153cm, very lightweighted and thin fingers could seem like an advantage for this kind of climbing but the truth is that for these small climbers it’s much harder to deal with most of the moves that taller climbers don’t even find problematic and they are always forced to find their own beta."

Michal Mikušínec has repeated Will Bosi’s Furia de Jabali 9a+ (b) in Siurana. (c) Tomáš Buček

"Furia is a super intense crimpy route, 12 really hard moves. It fits my style pretty well. I really like crimps and I’m quite tall which is an advantage in this route. On this route, I spent four days and send it on the last day of the trip. I’m planning to come back in winter to check other routes in this sector."

Staša Gejo has sent Mécanique élémentaire (8B+) in Fontainebleau. "After 3 sessions last week, and falling at the swing around 5 or 6 times, I did it with frozen fingers, pumped and exhausted. It was a battle to remember. I was incredibly happy though. I had so many people support me and push me till the end." More info on her Insta (c) Matt Groom

Melissa Le Nevé did the first female ascent of it in 2017 but otherwise, besides Oriane Bertone, no other females have sent 8B+ in Font. In 2021, Gejo got the bronze in the World Championship.

Did you do any specific or replica training and what was the trick in the end for the send?
I didn't train specifically for it, just practiced the moves on the project. The trick was to get up on the right foot just before the swing. Also, maybe because I reminded myself to enjoy the story of the boulder, its moves and holds.

Jana Svecova has done Roof der Wildnis in Lower Austria, after trying it for only four days, video.

"8B+ boulder was THE GOAL for my climbing career. I actually wasn’t looking for a boulder in such a grade for this year, but recently we got to know one really nice and extremely strong guy Lukas Mayerhofer from Austria. We climbed a lot in Saalachtal together and Moravian Karst as well, we (me and Martin) were going through his YouTube channel checking out his ascents and we found this boulder named Roof der Wildnis 8B+. Looking really in my style and I immediately got psyched and we contacted Lukas if he could show us the area and that boulder. The very next weekend we were on our way.

When we got there, we were amazed at how amazing the boulders in lower Austria are, just absolutely amazing and beautiful, and the particular this boulder is a world-class one. It is a boulder in the roof as you can see in the video, through a small edge where I thought I could fit my fingers pretty well but even it is in a crack and I wasn't really benefiting from having thin fingers as the holds in the crux are quite open and the difficult part is that you can't fully crimp them. This actually suited me even better, cause half-crimping is what I like the most.

First I’ve tried the boulder last weekend where I was able to link up all the moves but it was just too much to send it on the first visit. Our next visit was this weekend and the goal was simply just to send the boulder. I warmed up my fingers and the body, I tried a couple of times the two final moves because there is nothing more frustrating than falling from the final part of the boulder. I did those moves pretty easily so I gained confidence thinking that once I get through the crux, I will finish it easily. Expectations didn’t fulfill and I fell from the final 7B+ top out twice 😁🤯 I started to have dought if I can even do it…

I knew I can’t try it again like this so I had to find another beta for the top-out. That is the moment when Martin comes in pretty handy😁 as he always finds every single possible way for certain sequences and decides which one is the easiest for him. Luckily he found like four different ways to do the last moves and one suited me really well. I must say that before him finding a different method a real mental battle started for me. I was already tired, my skin was bleeding and the grade of the boulder started to play mind games on me.

Anyway long story short. On the next try I fell from the crux and almost lost my nerves, but we had something like psychological therapy discussion with Martin and it helped to calm me down. I also meditated for a little and the next go I did it, I am so happy!! Now hard training for three weeks to get ready for our two months trip to UAE😍"

What is UAE?
United Arab Emirates. It is the area we visited last winter. Our plan is to further develop local potential, we left there couple of amazing projects that we are looking forward to trying again. I have two videos from there on my youtube channel :)

Camilla Moroni, who previously the last five weeks has done four 8A+, has sent Heritage (8B+) in Valle Bavona, calling it 8B. Video on her Insta. “I'm really happy to have finished my main winter projects with Heritage, my best achievement on rock so far. It took me three sessions this season and one the last year”.

The last week, the silver medalist in the World Championship in 2021, did Kings of Sonlerto 8A+ (B) in Valle Bavona and Second life (8A+) in Chironico. "Finally the temperatures have dropped and there are good conditions to try hard stuff. I have tried King of Sonlerto two weeks ago and it seemed really hard, but two days ago whit the right conditions it felt much easier than the previous session. Regarding Second Life I think it is absolutely a soft 8A+."

So what is next? The winter season has just started?
I don't have other projects because now I start training for the next season. Probably I will climb on rock a few more weekends.

Ryuichi Murai, who previously has done three 8C+ FAs, has made the second ascent of Shinichiro Nomura’s Gakido (8C+) in Chigobutai. Two weeks ago, he did one more second ascent of a Nomura FA, Loca (8C) in Shiobara. (c) Momoka Oda

"The other day, I succeeded in one of my main objectives for this season. This line is an old project completed by Nomsin in March of this year and consists of only 4 moves. Moreover, the actual difficulty is concentrated in the second move (aiming for the next hold while fully locking the body in an unstable state).

This day was the third day of trying, and the temperature was cooler than when I tried for two days the last year, so the conditions were perfect. Thanks to that, I was able to grab the pinch hold in a hard direction in a stable state, and I continued to make a lot of close tries. After several adjustments to the trajectory of the move, I finally succeeded in the second move and was able to send it. As for the grade, it's difficult to evaluate because it's very short, but I feel it's easier than the V16s I've climbed so far."

Could you say something about the potential low start?
The low-start project joins Gakido after four crimpy moves like 8B (V13). The most difficult part was reaching the start position of Gakido, and unfortunately, I couldn't do it on this day. Connecting from below will increase the difficulty of Gakido greatly.

Théo Blass (12) has onsighted Bords de lèvres (8a+) in . What’s interesting is that the 147 cm tall climber did not know the grade of the climb and placed all quickdraws. The 12-year-old thought it was 8a+ and the next day they found out that it was actually 8b in the topo. Two months ago, he became the youngest climber ever to have done a 9a. (c) Laurent Dormont


We asked his father Vlad to give some comments about the onsight and about how Théo trains.

”The onsight took about 10 minutes. Theo later joked that onsighting is so much less work than working on a hard red point. The route is a crimpy power endurance line with no rest in the hard section and no going back if you start a sequence wrong.

Theo's training is not particularly structured - during school holidays he does not train and only climbs outside. During school time he trains a couple of times a week (once at our small basement wall and once with his club - generally 1 to 2 hours per session) and he climbs outside on weekends (rarely more than 4-5 routes per session). Before competitions he trains a bit more specifically on our Flathold volumes - we try to simulate comp style problems on our tiny home "comp" wall in the garden.

Theo is currently trying to climb as many routes in the 8th grade as possible, looking to do them quickly and to vary the styles - he tries to do an 8th on each outdoor climbing day (within the limits of what is available at our local crags and nearby as we don't like travelling too far). The idea is to improve his risk-taking (not literally - his personality is quite risk-averse), quick decision making and flow, and to have more fun (not always easy when you are working on a longer term project). He also tries to do more onsights but the onsighting opportunities in our local area are a bit limited (the routes are often quite "sequency" and run-out).“

Solveig Korherr, who last year did her first 9a, has done Solitary Man (8c) in Frankenjura. “Power-endurance testpiece. Sick move to the mono! Good day outside with Romy, Jon & Floyd today. 6 tries.” (c) Jon Shen