Andy Lamb has done The Story Of 2 Worlds (8C) in Cresciano. This is the third classical 8C he has done in 2022 after Dreamtime (8C) and The Big Island (8C). In the 8a ranking game, Andy is #3.

"I did the Dagger pretty fast, and then figured out the moves on The Story... so I thought I'd be able to send it. It became a bit of a battle for me though; I think I was going into each session impatient to send, which meant I wasn't focused on learning to flow through the moves and probably didn't rest enough between attempts/sessions.

We went to France for a few weeks, and it was good to climb on some other problems and regain psych. I felt close on Story though, and really wanted to finish it, so returned to Swizzy for a bit. I definitely felt better mentally and stronger in my upper body on it when I returned, but my left knee was pretty sore from all the heel hooking in Font. In my first session back there were some moves that I couldn't do consistently because it was hard to really engage the hooks, which was frustrating. The next days I warmed up my legs a lot and even brought a massage gun to the boulder, and it got my knees feeling good enough to do the moves well."

Niky Ceria reports on Insta that he has done La Revolutionnaire 8C+ in Fontainebleau. It was put up in 2017 by Charles Alber barefoot and it is a sit start to an 8C he established the year before. Niky says he had trouble, due to his size, managing to start properly without touching all the rocks around.

Niky has previously repeated a handful 8C's and one 8C+. He has also established many FAs but without proposing any grades.

Gearjunkie have put together a great article, written by Sam Anderson, that covers the history and controversy of first ascents and grade proposals. Interestingly, most of the new established cutting edge grades have either been up- or downgraded or were not even graded by the first ascensionist. This piece covers, Action Directe, Chilam Balam, Akira, La Rambla, Open Air and Biographie.

As accurately stated in the article, Chris Sharma never proposed a grade for Biographie, nor did Sylvain Millet, who did the first repeat. Patxi Usobiaga made the third ascent and he was the first climber to give it 9a+. Previously, the media had speculated that it was 9a+ due to the time and effort Chris put in. It later also states that everyone has confirmed the 9a+ grade, but this is not completely true. Ethan Pringle marked it, originally, as a hard 9a in his scorecard but then later changed it to 9a+. It's also worth noting that the start nowadays is harder in comparison to how it was first climbed, due to a hold breaking. As it stands, Biographie is one of the most repeated 9a+ in the world and arguably the benchmark for 9a+.

Noteworthy routes not covered in this article are, Hubble and Es Pontas. An upgrade for Hubble has been suggested and Es Pontas is another contender that was put up without a grade.

Hubble was put up by Ben Moon as the first 8c+ in 1990. Years later, repeaters and those that have attempted it have said it should be 9a, which would make it the first 9a in the world. Hubble has also only seen a handful of repeats but recently, a new kneebar was discovered which potentially makes it easier; thus, bringing it back to 8c+. The last repeater ,Toby Roberts, said: "Basically, if you’re short and can get the left kneebar in, it is probably 8c+ but I can’t say for certain."

When it comes to DWS and the cutting edge route, Es Pontas, Chris Sharma left it ungraded. The first 9b grade speculation came from the media. Jernej Kruder has said that it's definitely within the 9th grade of difficulty and Jan Hojer has suggested 9a+.

Time will tell if Ondra's, Silence (9c) will be added to the list of cutting edge climbs that were later either up- or downgraded. Feel free to cast your bet!

Audrey Miller, who did her first 8c last year, has done in Photos. With some 100 ascents in the 8a database it is one of the most repeated 8A+ in the USA. Some guys have called it 8A and Adam Ondra, who flashed it, actually said it might be 7C+.

"I first saw Lethal about a year ago and was way too intimidated by the tiny crimps, and the number of moves to give it any tries. Another year later I found myself back at the boulder, and got convinced to try it. After sussing the moves, I almost bailed on ever trying again because those holds are sharp as knives, but something about it drew me in. I came back a month later for spring break, and knew I wanted to try and take it down. I spent a couple days trying the moves and making links, and had a really close go that ended in a dry fire. After that, I knew I could do it. I only had one day left in my trip, so I felt a bit of pressure to do it, knowing I wouldn’t be back for maybe a year. Thankfully, the combination of a cool breeze and some great energy from my friends gave me the psych to fire off the boulder first try of the day!"

Andrea Locatelli, who did his first 8c last year, has onsighted Zonker L1+L2 (8a) in Valle dell'Opol. "My first 8a onsight. Not very hard but surely very nice. I easily got through the first part (7a), then I was lucky enough to immediately understand the crux. I made the most out of a good rest and climbed the last part well. When at last the carabiner was in the chain my heart started beating super-fast and I was so happy to be there! I really like onsight climbing because you never know what's coming next."

His father David gave us some info on Andrea's climbing background. "Since Andrea was very young, we got him used to spend a lot of time outdoors, often on the crag, close to home or around Europe. When he was three years old, he started to play in the small climbing gym we have in our garage, and he improved very fast. At the age of seven, he joined a climbing team and started to compete in regional and national competitions. He likes to climb in the climbing gym, where he trains twice or three times a week, but he also loves to climb outdoors.

So far, he has not dedicated many days to a project, and he likes onsight climbing. At the age of nine, he completed his first 8a and right afterwards his first 7c onsight. To reach the climbing areas, we often travel with the whole family in our camper, trying to offer him a variety of climbing styles, types of rocks, crags, and boulder areas. Soon, we would like to go to Fontainebleau and then Kalymnos!"

Adam Ondra has onsighted Prospettiva Nevski (8c), "Nice pumpy line, really proud to onsight this one! given 8c+, hard 8c is a good grade in my opinion." and Solitary Souls (8c+) in Arco. "Perfect flow on all of its 35 meters, unique line, unique to climb!"

In total, the 29-year-old has now 23 8c+ onsights recorded on his scorecard but it would be close to 30 without all his personal grades. His superiority is just amazing as no other has onsighted more than two. He was also the first to onsight a 9a but he lost that title as he downgraded it. Overall, Adam has been pretty much the best onsight climber in the world since 2005, when he at age 12, onsighted 19 8a+ and 8 8b's.

James Pearson has done his first 8C, Junero in Albarracin. The 36-year-old started out as a bold trad climber on the British scene, establishing and repeating cutting edge routes. Later he began doing both hard multi-pitch routes as well as Big Wall ascents, besides ticking 9a sport routes. and hard DWS. In other words, including this 8C boulder, he is one of the best multi-discipline climbers in the world.

“On the day I climbed Juneru Sit, I warmed up in my usual way and began to try the moves. I wanted to try the knee-bar in isolation yet again, to see if today was the day I might finally unlock the enigma, but I couldn’t even pull onto the crux from my ladder, my left middle fingers refusing to take the punishment of the tiny undercling pocket. I began to try the first moves in the hope that I’d find some forgotten courage, but slipped off early on… things were not looking good!

. A few tries later I fought desperately and made it to the knee-bar, I really wanted it and knew time was running out, so took extra care to work on my body position to give me every chance. The knee-bar stuck and I lifted my left hand, it was working, I was doing it, then boom, I hit the crash pads! My knuckles covered in blood, what once was my skin shining red and white still hanging on the first crimp.

I tried a few more times but felt empty and burnt out. When I fell on the first move, not even able to arm the first crimp, I decided that enough was enough, packed up my things, and started to walk back down to the van. I remembered the climbing heroes from the movies of my youth, people like Chris Sharma always sent their project on the last day, last try, when things were looking bleak. It had never worked for me before, but for some reason on this day I decided to go back for one final try." . I don’t think I've ever tried so hard on a boulder problem, and was sure I was going to fall on each and every move, somehow sticking it and moving on to the next. When I got to the knee-bar, it felt so bad that I didn’t even worry about trying to place myself well, instead just throwing for the next hold, totally lost in the moment. When I caught it and realised everything had stuck, I was suddenly transported back to the here and now, instantly aware of what I’d just done, but also how exhausted I was. The next 3 moves, normally much easier than the rest, have never felt so hard, but there was no way I was falling off or at least giving up without the fight of my life. I dragged myself over the top and just stood there looking down at the pads smiling. This one meant a lot!”

Hazel Findlay reports on Insta that she has done Esclatamasters (8c+/9a) in Perles. It was put up by Ramon Julian Puigblanque in 2006 and it has previously been repeated by five females. At one time it was considered as 8c+ but due to a break it is possibly back to 9a again. (c) Ezra Byrne

Hazel is one of the best female trad climbers out there and she has also done several multi-pitches as well as big walls. Previously, she has done a couple of 8c sport routes. Until age 16, her main focus was competitions and she was British junior champion six times.