Shawn Raboutou and Matty Hong were invited athletes for the Red Bull Duel MP Ascent. They were neck-on-neck with Jernej Kruder and Domen Skofic when Matty slipped out on a hand jam and took a bad fall. "It was unfortunate I sprained my ankle. We had worked out a strategy and we were trying to win and make it to the final. But it was a cool experience anyway."

In June 8a published Shawn's 9a rumors which in August was confirmed through a Mellow video of Alphane. No confirmation yet about The Megatron 9A ascent.

Why do you wait 6 months to publish your most difficult ascents?
Matty: Don't want to brag that much and easy to get caught up in all that stuff. Our priority is just to climb.
Shaw: This is Matty's quote. I have no comment.
Matty: The culture might be changing as climbing is growing. It is important to hold on to real values. You can say that this is Shawns quote :)
Shawn: No, I don't know...no comment :)
Matty: There is a new video coming up on Mellow within two weeks.

You right away mentioned strategy and winning when I asked about the Duel experience, yet you seem to be very laid back?
Matty: We are very competitive and want to send hard but we like to keep it more to ourselves. Staying neck-on-neck with such great competition climbers was a great experience and I probably slipped due to going too fast on the hand jam. It is a great feeling to push yourself to perform. It is about nerves, excitement, and enjoyment.

What's next?
Shawn: We are more focused on route climbing now. I think there is a great learning process to change disciplines and improve your climbing.

Any specific routes you want to do?
No comments :)

What about the Olympics?
Shawn: We were actually thinking about going for it but in the end, decided that it is not our path. We would be caught up for two years in that process and that is just too long.

Loic Zehani has done in Santa Linya. (c) Eduardo Ruano Li

Could you tells us more about your ascent
It is a very beautiful route which is divided into 2 parts. The first is 8c+ and the second 8c. With a good rest in between. The first part is the hardest for me. The movements are powerful and resistant. I fell there a few times. The second part suits me better (one and two fingers pockets). It took me about ten tries.

What's next for you?
I am currently looking for an apartment around Lleida to stay 6 months there (santa linya, margalef, siurana). I don’t really have any routes in mind. Just want to try lots of hard routes.

In total, the 20-year-old has now done 50 routes 9a and harder, out of which 25 are FAs. During the last 12 months, he has done 17 routes 9a to 9b.

YouTubers, world class athletes as well as drones and fixed cable car cameras are all covering the excitement of the Red Bull MP Duel ascent. Magnus Midtbö presence, along with his 1.5 million subscribers, and the media attention and access might make this one of the most viewed climbing events.

”I am thinking 24/7 about how I can take my youtube channel to the next level. I am editing 12 hours a day and I am just as motivated and obsessed as I was trying to be the best competion climber in the world. It is also about brain storming and in a way moving into new areas. Next week, I will start training with the Norweigian military and I will be part of storming a war ship. The possibilities for creating content is endless.”

Magnus climbed the six pitch 8a+ route together with Cedar Wright meanwhile the other YouTubers on hand are going for the three pitch 7b route.

Magnus, how was the MP experience?
It was fun. Cedar was falling and screaming all over. The route was actually better than expected. It will be a nice video ;)

Drew Ruana, who previously has done four 8C+, reports on Insta that he has done The Ice Knife (sit-start) (8C+) in Guanella Pass, commenting that it is his hardest send ever and that he projected it for some 35 days. (c) Alton Richardson

Drew is a former successful competition climber who was #8 in the World Championship in 2019. He stopped competing after he failed to qualify for the Olympics. Since then the 22-year-old has been one of the very best boulderers in the world. In total, he has done more than 80 boulders 8B+ and harder. Here is an 8a interview with the full time Chemical engineering University student.

The stand start was put up by David Graham in 2011 as an 8C. Then Daniel Woods repeated it giving it a personal 8B+ grade and when he later did the FA of the sit-start he proposed 8C, saying it was his hardest ever. In 2016, Daniel upgraded it and some other of his hardest boulders and here is his logbook comments.
“The sit adds in a powerful and awkward 4 move 8A+ into the 8B+ with no rest. The style of this boulder is different than anything I have climbed on. The holds require good friction and the movement is off balance and weird.

Cathy Wagner has done Esprit de vi (8b) in Bellver, on her second go, giving it a personal 8a grade.

”A must-do 👌. A perfect overhanging route packed with knee-bars working for both moves and rests. Hard 8a seems fair to me.”

In total, the 57-year-old has 866 routes 8a and harder in her logbook, the first one being in 1994. Without personal grades, she has probably done close to 900, which is more than any other female has climbed. She shows no signs of slowing down, having had more or less the same 8a score for 25 years straight. During the last 12 months, she has logged 36 routes 8a and harder.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did her first ever multi-pitch, was teamed up with experienced Sasha Digulian. “The first two pitches were so intimidating that I just surrendered to the wall. Honestly, this is one of my best climbing experiences ever. I am so exhausted and I want to do it again but I do not think we qualified for the finals.” Sasha commented that she thinks she has never been so pumped in her forearms ever.

On Saturday, there will be the big, as well as, the small final but mainly the athletes are just talking about the cool experience and that the six pitches routes were so fun and challenging. Red Bull does not want to draw too much focus the prize money as "it is all about bringing together some of the best athletes in the world to share the experience".

World Cup winner, Luca Potocar, and Olympic winner, Alberto Gines Lopez were as amazed talking about a unique experience, but also saying that they wanted harder routes. "We are World Cup climbers and so used to doing crazy moves on plastic but it is anyhow exhausting combining (more than) two pitches together."

The finals will be live-streamed on Saturday. There's no lack of cameras and drones covering the 180-meter routes which the route setters have been working on full-time since mid-August.

16 of the very best climbers in the world will compete in 8 teams up two identical 180m six pitch routes up to 7c+, in the qually and 8b in the final, on the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland. The qualification will take place on the 26-27 October and the final on the 29th after a rest day. More info, including a presentation of all the athletes. 8a will cover the event and make interviews at the site. © True Color Films/Red Bull Content Pool

- Sasha DiGiulian (US) and Angie Scarth-Johnson (AUS)
- Mélissa Le Nevé (FRA) and Katherine Choong (SUI)
- Petra Klingler (SUI) and Louna Ladevant (FRA)
- Barbara Zangerl (AUT) and Jacopo Larcher (ITA)
- Alberto Ginés López (ESP) and Luka Potocar (SLO)
- Domen Škofic (SLO) and Jernej Kruder (SLO)
- Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA) and Marcello Bombardi (ITA)
- Shawn Raboutou (US) and Matty Hong (US)


Shauna Coxsey and Pesche Wüthrich tested the route and made the FA. Shauna said, "I had so much fun with all the different moves – and the teamwork with Pesche was also great. He really made it cool – I've never climbed multi-pitch before, that was a first."

Jain Kim has won 30 World Cups and in 2014 she won the World Championship in Lead. In the Asian Championship, two weeks ago, she took bronze in Lead after having had an almost three-year-long break since she became a mother. In a recent interview by the Korea Alpine Federation the 34-year-old says.

"I think my challenge as a climber who is also a mother has just begun. My current plan is to go for the qualification to Paris 2024, no matter if I can qualify for the Olympics or not. Of course, I gained massive courage from the IFSC Asian Championships. I’m not sure if I can keep my performance at the same level I used to, but I want to do my best not to give up till the end."

Elnaz Rekabi from Iran climbed without a hijab in the Asian Championship. For this, she apologized on her Insta, although it is not known whether or not this was done under duress. Four days ago she posted on Insta, which has grown from 80' to 542' followers, that she was thankful for everyone who came to the airport to welcome her. Yesteray, Elnaz posted an Insta story.

"These days my heroes are people who pay a heavy price to have a normal life. Having a safe, normal and free life is the right of all human beings."