Daniel Woods has repeated Dave Graham's Foundations Edge (8C) and Scarred for Life (8B+) in Fionnay. More pictures on his Insta.

The 33-year-old has been on the cutting edge since age 15 when he did his first 8c+ route and first 8B+ boulder. Starting in 2005, he won the American Nationals ten years in a row and he has also won one World Cup. In total, he has done 40+ 8Cs and harder, including the FA of Return of the Sleepwalker (9A).

"I tried Foundations Edge a couple of times in May and a few more times in the past but it was always wet. This time it was bone dry and went the first day. The next day hooked up Scarred for Life (8B+). Both these blocs are world-class and it was an awesome experience getting to climb them. I am here for two more weeks. Next, I’ll try Fuck the System 8C+ and I also want to try the low start project into Permanent Midnight (8A+) or Solitary daze (8C). The low adds is around 8B+ into the 8A+ or 8C."

Loic Zehani has done the FA of Harlem (9b) in Orgon after some 15 sessions. It is a 50 moves steep link-up in between Bronx (8c+), an 8A boulder that continues to the top part and the 7C+ crux of Sachidananda (9a+). Video on his Insta

The 20-year-old did his first 9a at age 15 and in total, he has done 60+ routes 8c+/9a and harder, out of which 43 are FAs. Almost all his hardest routes are done near his home area above Marseille. He has done three 9a's in Spain, and all three he redpointed quite quickly.

What does a normal climbing/training week look like?
Every week is different because I work in a bouldering gym. My working days are different every week so it’s quite complicated to organize small trips. I climb on weekends on rock normally and one day during the week. I do one or two sessions a week in the gym. I climb normally about 4 times a week. I just try to go outside as often as possible.

What is your next plans?
In October I will try to go and train at Chris’ gym in Barcelona and maybe outside. I plan to be in Siurana in November for TENAYA and I would like to go back afterward. In February I will organize a small trip to go to Santa Linya. I don’t have any routes in mind but I have time to think about it. 😉

Camilla Moroni, #2 in the World Championship in 2021, has done The bizarre Ride (8A+) in Magic Wood. "New beta for weak and short people."

So, you found some new short person beta for Bizarre Ride?
I went back to Magic for just one day to send Bizarre Ride and Jack's Broken Heart, but I managed to only send the first one, which, unlike for most other climbers, it felt easier than Jack (for me). I found a beta that suits me better with a foot jam and a right heel that make the boulder more technical.

What's coming up next for you?
The next weekends I will compete in the Italian Championships, after that I hope to come back to Ticino to work on Heritage (8B+) and send Delusion of grandeur (8A+).

Is your long-term goal, Paris 2024?
Yes of course, in fact, this season I worked more on lead than in the last years.

Nico Pelorson has done and Practice of the Wild 8C (B+) in Magic Wood. There are videos of both sends on his Insta as well as many other recently done ascents. The picture is from New base line (8B+). In total the 25-year-old has done 18 boulders originally graded 8B+ to 9A, however, he has suggested 17 downgrades and one upgrade.

Could you tell us more about your latest 8C ascents?
I passed (sent) the Force on my first day in one session. I thought that was going to be the project of my stay but in 1h30 I was done with this boulder perfectly in my style. For Practice of the Wild, I had already tried a session during my previous stay at Magic wood, 3 years ago. This time I succeeded directly.

What are your next projects and autumn plans?
Maybe Gioia (an 8C+ in Varraze). It depends if I will get a holiday. And Imothep sit start, a project in Fontainebleau

Flatanger is a municipality in Norway with 1 100 inhabitants and also the name of one of the most impressive climbing caves in the world which the locals call, Hansehelleren. The first time it appeared in the 8a news was in July 2010 and then through a blog request in august. The first 8a interview with Adam Ondra at the site was done in 2012. Gudmund Grønhaug, who did his a Ph.D. studies on chronic injuries in climbing and has written two books on injuries and training, played a big part in putting Flatanger on the map and has written the story of Flatanger's pioneers. (c) Firnenburgbrothers

"The first routes in the cave were established in 1996 by a group from Trondheim with Thomas Vekve and Pål Reiten as driving forces in the development. From the beginning and until early 2000 there was a steady development of routes on both sides of the cave and around the valley. Someone psyched and visionary had bolted what would later become Nordic Flower L1 (8b+). The original start was further down in the cave and I'm not sure if anyone has done it yet. Otherwise, there was nothing inside the cave itself. At this time there was an annual gathering in Flatanger organized by the climbing club at the university of Trondheim. The information about routes and bouldering in the valley was lost during a storm which swept away the one lone book with the drawings of the routes.

I came to the cave for the first time myself around the year 2001 and immediately saw that it would be possible to climb in the cave and not only on the sidewalls. Several of the lines were completely obvious. I didn't want to ruin possible lines by putting bolts in the wrong places. I tried to persuade others with better bolting skills than I had at the time to come and help with the bolting. I tried for several years to get other Norwegian climbers to join me in developing the cave, but no one had any faith that it was possible to do something in the cave. They said it was too hard, too far away from other people, too much of this too little of that…. I also tried to get the Petzl Rock trip, but was refused by them as well!

In 2010 I convinced Runar Carlsen to sponsor someone to start bolting in the cave. We applied for money from surrounding municipalities and got enough to get started. Magnus Midtbø and Laurent Laporte bolted the first lines with this money.

In 2011 I received an email from Petr Pavlicek in which he wanted information about hard routes and projects for Adam Ondra on the occasion of a film he was working on. Petr got some pictures and showed them to Adam alongside information on the recent bolting. It was these images that convinced Adam to come to Norway (as Adam himself says in the first film from Flatanger). I helped Adam and Petr with everything from places and accommodation, to cheap flights, and bolts and tried to get them more money from the surrounding municipalities (without success). I actually ordered 150 or so bolts from a supplier without having the money to pay for them, but figured that if Adam needs more bolts he should have more bolts… The bill luckily got paid by the Norwegian climbing federation. After this, the rest of the story became history!"

Iris Matamoros Quero has done P con fin mas hulk extension 9a in , which adds an 8A sitstart to an 8c+. The 42-year-old did his second and last 8c+/9a in 2015. (c) Juan Puig Valls

"This summer we traveled to Rodellar the whole family, my wife and my two children aged 1 and 6. Alibaba is a good sector to climb with children, so I decided to try something there. I started remembering Hulk (8b+) that I climbed many years ago. Then I did the 8c extension, and to finish the summer I was able to climb Fin de Ali Hulk extension (8c+). I tried a bit entering through the sit start from the ground through "Proa" but it was too hot and I couldn't. The holidays were over and we returned home, there I planned a specific training and diet for the route. I came back a month later and everything went very well, I felt very very strong and the temperature had dropped 15 degrees, so I was able to do it on the first day of climbing."

Janja Garnbret and Luka Potocar both from Slovenia are the overall Lead World Cup winners in 2022. However, the team rankings are as follows:
1. Japan 21 355
2. Slovenia 18 274
3. USA 16 598
4. Germany 9 484
5. Italy 7 947
Complete results

1. Janja Garnet SLO 5 805
2. Chaehyun Seo KOR 4 405
3. Natalia Grossman USA 3 370
4. Laura Rogora ITA 3 345
5. Brooke Raboutou USA 3 250
6. Natsuki Tanii JPN 3 075
7. Mia Krampl SLO 2 385
8. Ryu Nakagawa JPN 2 320
9. Vita Lukan SLO 2 235
0. Jessica Pilz AUT 2 149
Complete result

The route setters decided to let the female and male categories share the same top portion of the Finals route. Unfortunately, no male climbers made it to the top headwall but this wasn't the case with women, as Janja Garnbret topped it in style. "Today, the route was not hard enough so it was basically about not making a mistake. I feel bad for Seo because she climbed suburb all the weekend.” Chaehyun Seo from Korea was the runner-up and she looked equally relaxed but fell on the second to last balancey move. Third place was claimed by Mia Krampl. Complete results