Christof Rauch has done Walk the line (9a) in Zillertal. "This was intense! My longest route climbing project and the hardest route I climbed so far! Maybe it doesn’t fit my style perfectly but I think it sits on the upper end of the grade. After falling almost 10 times past the last kneebar it became mentally really hard! Psyched to grab the third ascent after the legends Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra. Thanks to everyone who supported me on this journey! Such a huge relief that it‘s finally over."

Christof is mainly a boulderer having done some 850 boulders 8A and harder out of which a dozen 8C's, although working full time. In the last two years, he has had some injury problems and this is why he has focused more on routes. This was the Austrian's fourth 9a the last year.

Are you fully recovered from your injuries now?
My elbow is not at 100%. I can not train one-arm pull-ups and no campus board but it‘s getting better slowly.

Oriane Bertone took silver in Meiringen last year and overall she was #3 in the Boulder World Cup. This was surprisingly not as sensational as it seemed as she had already dominated the youth scene for several years, while at the same time setting several female records outdoors, including doing an 8B (+) at age 12!

How are you feeling the day before Meiringen starts and how have you prepared?
I’m doing good, super excited for the season to start :) I’ve been working on my weak points for the past few months and I think I got a bit better 😝. Physical boulders, compressions style or anything where you have to use more muscles than usually.

Any outdoor climbing?
I’ve been concentrating on indoor climbing recently. I didn’t have much time to go climbing outside because of that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go to Font when I’ll be back from Meiringen.

What are your further plans for 2022?
For the moment I’ll be concentrating on this weekend WC, have loads of fun and enjoy the newly started season :)

What about schooling and how much do you train in a normal week?
Yeah I’m still in school :)) I’m homeschooling actually, so I can have more time to climb and organize my schedule :) I would say around 8 training sessions a week but it depends a lot!

TRAILER_ADAM ONDRA_PUSHING THE LIMITS.mp4 from Alice Tabery on Vimeo.

Yuji Hirayama did his last 9a, Peaceful Mountain in Mt Futago, just last month further confirming his status as a true climbing legend:

"Since 1986, when Yuji did Les Spécialistes 8b+, the now 52-year-old has been on the cutting edge. In 1991, he won his first World Cup and in 1998, as well as in 2000, he won overall. After his competition career, he made the FA of Flat Mountain 9a/+ in 2003 and the next year he onsighted White Zombie 8c. A few years later he did Cobra Crack 8c trad and the FA of an MP in Borneo including one 9a pitch. In his resume, being one of the best multi-discipline climbers in history, he has also climbed boulders up to 8B+, DWS up to 8b+, several big walls including also several times setting the Speed record on El Cap. Since 2010, he runs Climb Park Base Camp which over the years has organized several competitions. He has also been active in the Japanese Federation and helping out IFSC in getting climbing into the Olympics. Just over a year ago, he made the FA of Hanabi 8c+ also in Mt Futago."

Can you tell us about your weekly climbing life and what your ambition is nowadays?
Basically I train four days a week. Not so specific, I climb with friends and try my project once or twice a week. I climb and train both indoors and outdoors. I feel I need both. Now I don’t have my own line to make a FA but I would like to climb two routes. One is Shive light 8c+ from Sachi (Amma) and the other one is Daydream another 5.14 (8b+) trad route!! Both routes are very short and unique lines. I need to train and climb on the route a lot💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

How do you deal with getting older and still pushing to your max?
It is more delicate to prepare for example. I have to be careful to eat and drink. Less climbing volumes and good warm up😆 But human beings want to improve in life. And I’m the same and until die I guess 😆.

Why do you think Japanese climbers have dominated the boulder comp scene and what about the future?
I think because we have a lot of small bouldering gyms and I guess we’ve got a good community to grow up to be a good climber in this community. Now the US and European climbing scenes are having dynamic improvements so not easy to continue with the good results. But I think some of the Japanese climbers can have good results.

I think Japanese climbers gain the confidence during the last 30 years little by little. Today they are thinking always to be the winner of the comp. I guess not easy to be one of the best always. They need to improve in order to win and they need to feel and train what the route setters want to create and express.

Chris Sharma has bolted a “blank” 30-meter wall in Siurana with no routes within some 40 meters of either side. All the moves have been done and after some ten sessions of trying, he has started doing some good links reports photographer Ricardo Giancola, who shared this picture from the new project and who also captured Sharma’s 8c onsight.

“It was totally unexpected. We were filming his project on El Pati but the wind was so strong that we went to that route to be able to do something out of the wind and that's why I didn't have my rope on that one, ha ha :)

It was crazy. He started the onsight and in the middle of the route, he did not know which bolt line to follow and had to yell to the guy below with the topo. - Should I go left or right?

The guy opens the topo, finds the correct side and reads info about the route. Then Chris continued the route like in cruise control! At one point he had to rest for like two minutes as his fingers were freezing due to the strong wind. It was amazing to see and so inspiring.”

Chris Sharma reports on Insta, with a video, that he has onsighted V for Vendetta 8c in Siurana. The last time the 40-year-old legend onsighted an 8c was in 2015 and in total he has onsighted more than a handful. At age 14 he won the US bouldering nationals and the year after he made the FA of an 8c+ in the US. Since then he has been on the cutting edge, first mainly on the comp scene winning a Lead WC in 1997 and later making the podium in another six WCs including four in Boudering. In any case, he is most famous for his FA proficiency, most notably in 2001, he made the FA of Realization 9a+ in Céüse. He has since gone on to make 16 FAs 9a+ and harder, in Spain, and essentially all his FAs are classics and well repeated five-star routes. When looking through the 8a database for the highest star rated and most popular high-end routes in the world, Sharma's FAs stand out in an amazing way! (c) Ricardo Giancola

Lucie Hrozová has done Rustam SD (8A+) in Moravský kras. Video on her Insta where she also says, "almost add Rustam Direct 8B too, felt In last hard move, excited to come back there 👍👍."

How are you dealing with your compartment syndrome?
With the forearms, it depends, like now it hurts a lot and I don't climb since then. It is not always the same, but usually, I can only boulder one short session, like a few tries and then three rest days rest. Some days are a bit better and some are like really bad.


The 33-year-old has won 14 WC medals in Ice Climbing and she has also done one of the hardest mix routes in the world, Saphira M15-. This career came to a halt due to a serious shoulder injury. Then in 2019, she did an 8c but she had to stop due to Compartment syndrome. Instead, in May 2020 she started bouldering and within six months she did her first 8A+. More info on comparment syndrome from an 8a training article in 2010.

Abigail Humber has done the FFA of Trebuchet (8c) in New River Gorge (WV). (c) Karen Lane

”To my surprise, it only took me six days to send Trebuchet! I have been taking climbing seriously and competing for five years, but I didn’t really discover outdoor climbing until all of the gyms closed when Covid hit. I’m so grateful that I was forced to go outside though because climbing outdoors has become one of my favourite parts of my life. This is my second 5.14 since then, and I have no plans on stopping!

Could you tell us about your plans for 2022?
I’m planning on continuing to climb outside while also doing comps, and following the psych! I want to climb more hard routes at the New, and hopefully, I’ll get the chance to explore other areas as well.

Full interview from one of her sponsors. "I had superglued shut a large gash on my finger from slipping while cooking the night before, and had taken some pain medicine to block out the pain. Halfway up, I noticed the cut had reopened and was gushing blood everywhere. At the rest below the roof, I tried as hard as I could to wipe the blood off on my pants, but it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. With the fear of slipping on my own blood in the back of my mind to say the least, I made the decision that I was going to try anyway. I’m so glad I did."

Japan has dominated the boulder competition scene for several years, especially on the men's front. Last year Yoshiyuki Ogata won ahead of Kokoro Fujii. Among the women, Japan had four girls in the Top 10 overall WC ranking. In 2019, Japan had three males in the Top 5 and eight in the Top 18. Typically, all participating Japanese male competitors make the semifinal, and it is quite normal for 50% of the male finalists to be Japanese. As Adam Ondra is not participating and it seems some of the other top male competitors have focused more on outdoor bouldering, my guess is that Japan will dominate more than ever, especially among the males, both in Meiringen and overall. Here is a prediction for Meiringen:

1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Janja Garnbret SLO
2. Kokoro Fujii JPN - Natalia Grossman USA
3. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN - Miho Nonaka JPN
4. Jakob Schubert AUT - Brooke Raboutou USA
5. Sean Bailey USA - Oriane Bertone FRA
6. Keita Dohi JPN - Seo Chaehyun KOR
7. Alex Megos GER - Futaba Ito JPN
8. Nathaniel Coleman USA - Fanny Gibert FRA

Interesting is that Janja two days ago reported on Insta. "Verified Stupid of me to think La Dura Dura is just hard when obviously it’s hard hard 🤔" Meaning she has focused on trying a 9b+ endurance monster just the weeks before the Bouldering WC starts. On the other hand, on Sunday she won the first cup of the Slovenia Championship together with Jernej Kruder.

He has prepared mainly outdoors as usual and is always a dark horse since he won the Euro Championship in 2020. ”I'm just doing my thing...going on a few obligational and selectional trainings, the rest spending outside trying some hard stuff. I wish I can still show the kids that experience count.”