Choong Katherine, who last year finished IFSC comps after 16 years on the circuit, has done La Ramirole MP (8b) in Verdon. Previously the 30-year-old has done two 9a's and last year she did the MP, 6.4 sekunden 8b (+), meaning her route track record is one of the most impressive out there. (c) Julia Cassou

"I climbed all the pitches of the multi-pitch route La Ramirole in a perfect no fall ascent! But it wasn't a piece of cake! Each pitch was a long battle of endurance! I had been dreaming of climbing this route since I saw a picture of Nina Caprez many years ago. But it took me a while before I felt ready to tackle this impressive overhanging wall. Jim my partner was also close to sending the route, falling at the top of the 8b! Sharing this adventure with him, sharing the pressure, the fatigue, the difficulties, the disappointment when he fell but also the excitement, the mutual support and the moments of joy after each successful pitch made this climb an incredible experience!

This route is clearly in my style: there are no extreme moves, but it's a sequence of difficult moves on a very overhanging wall. So less difficult than 6.4 Sekunden which was very technical and bouldery. But it's clearly the second hardest multi-pitch route I've done. When I arrived to Verdon I had a lot of doubts about my ability to do it, my form is not the best right now. The first few days I couldn't do more than a few moves in a row and I ended the day completely exhausted. But my body gradually adapted to this environment and then my head, seeing that the end of the trip was approaching, took over to send this monster of endurance. I clearly didn't have the margin to be able to fall on the pitches and try them again, I absolutely had to climb them all without falling in order to be able to do them all on the same day. So it was a big mental battle!"

The second Euro Youth Boulder Cup took place last weekend in Soure in Portugal. The athletes report about a great competition with an almost perfect route setting. The new format is flash in the qualification and then in the finals, the Top-10 rotates on the four boulders. Only Sabina Van Essen won both the qualification and the finals. The Dutch is also the only one who also won the first Euro Cup 2022. Great Britain got the best result with one gold, one silver and one bronze. France, who got three golds in the first event of the season, did not take part.

03: Hannes Van Duysen BEL - Anne Ackre NOR
05: Jack Macdougall GBR - Sabina Van Essen NED
07: Lukas Mokrolusky CZE - Flora Oblasser AUT
Complete results

Noteworthy is that Hannes Van Duysen partly prepared in Fontainbleu, where the 17-year-old did his his first 8B and also Mécanique élémentaire (8B+).

Moritz Winkler has flashed in Frankenjura. The 26-year-old was pushing hard on rock and in comps as a teenager and had previously only done one 8c+.

"Short route, short story. On the fourth climbing day in a row, I wanted to support my girlfriend in her project, when an old friend from youth competitions showed up between the trees in the forest of Frankenjura, Hans Radetzki. He told me about a small wall I had never heard about with bouldery moves and a kneebar. My endurance level was basically at zero because I was bouldering in Spain in recent weeks. Exactly my business I thought since routes with kneebars are my favourites. I just wanted to have a look, but then somehow I took my harness, chalk and shoes. Hans had a good try, but unfortunately, he did not make it. He told me that he would have a 10 minutes rest before the next attempt and this was my chance to go for it, ... Thirty seconds later, I clipped the anchor.

Not expecting to climb or even try anything that difficult, I was really unprepared. I had forgotten to take my liquid chalk (my usual routine) and had not taped my finger with the pulley I damaged a year ago. Nevertheless, I felt confident and fortunately, I was able to borrow Hans’ kneepad. All in all, I spent a maximum of 10 minutes at the crack which gave my girlfriend just a short break before she was able to go back to her project again. ;-) In summary, it was a lucky shot for me, which is also really a good description of the attempt. Perfect moves which were completely my style and an important intuitively positioned foothold at the right time. With this foothold, Hans was also able to climb the route after a few more tries."

How has your climbing life been over the last few years?
After climbing many competitions and finally starting in my first lead WC, I spend too much time on Hangboarsd and plastic. I had enough of training and lead climbing for a long time and I just went on rocks, mostly fun bouldering and I also started really enjoying cleaning rocks and doing FAs. That's something good you can be proud of and maybe last a bit longer for posterity. This is also the reason, why I joined the DAV Felskader bw (DAV Rockteam, for bolting and doing "unnormal" stuff at the rocks). Sadly I had super bad Injuries to my foot. Then I had finger problems since last year. After this long time of getting a week, I felt a change in my body and I wanted to get a bit stronger and maybe climb some lead routes with my girlfriend again. So I sadly couldn't train for a long time and never really tried super hard in the past years...

Luca Bana has done the FA of Battle of Hearts (9a) in Paline. "It is basically a different end of "Abusive Love", a 9a link-up I freed in 2018 at Paline's crag. This 'new' one adds some physical moves which make the things a bit more tiring. After the send of "Stone War" 8c+/9a last week, I decided to give some tries to this connection and the process for the send turned out to be super fast, as I already climbed several times all the parts of this portion of rock for the other existing routes: just two sessions were enough to grab the first ascent of this pure stamina beast, where fatigue tolerance is crucial for success: probably one of the biggest challenge against the pump of the whole area!"

Joel Kinder has done yet another stunning hardcore FA, Mamajamma (9a+). "(Pronounced: ma'am-uh-jam-uh) Bolted during March 2020 as our pandemic crag where we could be alone. Likely 25-30 days of effort over the past two years. The perfect white face of clean rock that meets the flap and continues to connect with JoeXotic. Could be HARD as fuck 9a, but not sure as it's confusing with the bouldery-type-rigs. I hate grading this particular route for a number of reasons, but my personal, honest belief and feeling for ME is 9a+."

The 42-year-old has previously done 16 routes 9a and 9a+, out of which, nine FAs. He did his first 9a, in 2008 and his first 8c+ 20 years ago. On Insta he reports. "The route is a dime. Zero choss/amazing rock, hard as fuck sections, lots of fatigue and a relentless exit boulder problem. The entirety of the route is about 120’ long and has a rope transfer at the lip with a kneebar (see the video, actual send)."

Maho Normand, who did his first 8c+ at age 14, has during the last month done Bronx (8c+) and XXL (8c+) as well as six 8c's. Prior to that, the 16-year-old and 160 cm tall had not done anything harder than 8b during he last eight months. (c) Lactic Photography

How can you explain being back in peak performance the last month?
During the last two years, I have often injured myself (in my knees and hands) because of the diet in high school and the change in my body. So the motivation and the desire were at their lowest. After a recovery on the cliff in St-Léger a little over a month ago I re-chained an 8b, "Much suspend my flight", and after several discussions with friends related to food and management with high school, I re-motivated myself to start training well and eating well! And I immediately saw the change, and the crosses followed one another more quickly than expected!!

So it's been about two months since I regulated my diet and stopped eating in high school and it made me lose weight. In a few weeks, I lost five kilos, and I immediately felt it in my climbing!

How much do you train nowadays and what is your next plan?
I'm working Sachidananda 9a+ that a friend (Victor Guillermin) recently chained. I train at least ten hours a week without counting the days on the cliffs. I climb at least 4 to 5 times a week.

Allison Vest has, in just one session, done Dark Matter (8A+) in . "Amazing boulder. Twisty and pockety, just the way I like to climb. So many different betas on this thing too, and all hard. The move to the mono stack packs a punch just when you think you’re all done!" (c) Palmer Larsen

How was it possible to take it down in just one session?
Tried it on a rope a bit and then took a while to decide which beta I liked.

Allison has been an active competition climber since age ten and she has just focused on outdoors for a couple of years. In the female 8a ranking game, she is #2. Interesting is that she has also done two 8B's in single sessions and two months ago she did her first 8B+, which also was the first 8B+ she ever had tried.