Jorge Diaz-Rullo has been one of the best climbers in the world since 2019 and in total, the 22-year-old has done 47 routes 9a and harder including eight 9b's. Currently, he is #2 in the 8a ranking game after Adam Ondra. Even so, on Insta he says that he clearly feels in his best shape ever, after doing the FA of Ursus sit (9a) really quick. Interestingly, he is 170 cm tall and his ape-index is +12 cm.

Can you tell us a little bit about your climbing life?
Normally I live in my van. I chose one place to stay every season and I like a change of climbing areas and styles. This winter I have stayed in Siurana followed by Margalef. I have so many projects here. Sometimes when it is bad conditions for a lot of days I go to my home, in Madrid with my family. Since I have a car being 19-years-old I have been living like this.

What does a normal climbing week look like?
Normally I climb for three days and I rest one day. Usually, I climb with friends but if I don't find anyone I boulder or train. On my rest days, I like belaying friends also and staying relaxed in the mountains.

What are your plans for this spring and for the summer?
Margalef and Siurana until March. For the summer, I am not sure for now I will decide when the moment arrives.

How can you explain being in such good shape?
I have trained so much in Madrid for 1.5 months. Normally I don't train so much like this. Now in the rock and I feel better than ever. But I need to climb more volume and soon I will go for some big projects.

Do you have any specific goals as you are peaking?
Yes, some routes. But not goals about grade only routes that I dream to send.

Which are your Top-5 hard routes?
Planta de Shiva, Realization, First round first minute, El Bon Combat and Patanics.

Any advice to youngsters planning a road trip this spring?
I think is important if you travel outside don't be only obsessed with the goals. I think is very important to enjoy and climb a lot of routes/boulders if you are in another country and different style. Especially if is your first travels to one crag.

Miriam Borgstrom has done Double Pounder (8A) in Red Rock (NV). Video on her Insta. In total, the 18-year-old has done 19 7C+ and 4 8A's. (c) Quentin Borgstrom

"Double double, toiled and troubled my way through the satisfying and bicepy line Double Pounder 8A—a low start to Pounding Sand, a 7B I sent two years ago. Returning to this line with half the beta catalogued required only two sessions to send from the depths below. To unlock the send, I used a nearly impossible hyper-extended insert into a mail slot, creating a double-useful hand stack. After reaching the lip, it took another 20 seconds and a dozen finger crawls to secure the victory match. This was a very rewarding, ultra desperate, and somewhat ugly send."

Camille Coudert, who previously has done three 8C's including The Big Island, has repeated Simon Lorenzi's Soudain Seul 9A (8C+) in Fontainebleau. (c) Arthur Delicque

Fanatic Climbing has the interview where he says. "Hard to know the number of sessions I put in the boulder I would say twice a week on average for almost 8 months in all. Which must be between 70 and 100 sessions… On the other hand, I made more precise stats, I did “The Big Island” stand 43 times, 28 times in the last month and a half!"

Interestingly is that the 26-year-old began climbing at age 18. After 1.5 years he tried outdoors and got really hooked and has since, more or less, never climbed Indoor. His background prior to starting climbing was rugby, swimming and tennis but not being very sporty. It should also be mentioned that the 177 cm tall did not use a book under his knee pad as the FA did.

How was it mentally to have fallen so many times and what made you send finally?
Mentally, the last days, I was feeling better and better, because I was also in the boulder, so the physical played on the mental. In the end, what made the difference was that I was doing the standing start more and more easily. The last 3 sessions I had 100% success in standing.

What is next?
I would like to do classic boulder in Switzerland and in Fontainebleau less hard like "la rustica" "off the wagon" "dreamtime" "le pilier du dessert assis" ... And I also have an extreme project in Fontainebleau in mind that I'm going to try, but I still keep it to myself.

Giuseppe Nolasco has done Hakuna Matata (9a) in Cubo. The 37-year-old, 160 cm tall Italian, did his first 9a in 2019 and he's currently having his best year ever. Two days ago he also did L'ira (8c+). His previous peak was in 2010 when he did four 8c+ routes. (c) Samuele Negrato

"I started trying Hakuna Matata after my ascent of Ground zero (9a) at Tetto di Sarre in 2019. Immediately realized that despite being the same grade, the difference between the routes is considerable. In the autumn of 2019, I tried it for several weekends and after the first few days I started joining the sections, but when it was time to send it, the route got completely wet. Then between lockdown and restrictions, I did not try it for two years.

In October 2021, I had five days of attempts falling on the penultimate hold, then the whole route got wet and I couldn't try it again until now. After a further four days of work on the route I managed to do Hakuna Matata, a very hard 9a in my opinion."

In the video, Will Bosi reclimbs Voyager which he now thinks is 8B+ after a crucial holdbreak.

Why have you decided to not compete in the World Cup?
I have competed for GB Climbing for over 10 years now and after the Tokyo Olympic cycle I needed a break from competitions, so I have not put myself forward to compete in either discipline this year and instead focus on my outdoor climbing goals.

What are your 2022 outdoor plans?
I have learnt during the Pandemic to not make hard and fast plans but currently, I am keen to go and try some of Adam Ondra's desperately hard and awesome looking lines in the Czech Republic in the spring so let's see how that goes!

Christof Rauch, who previously has sent a dozen 8C's, has done Dreamtime 8B+/8C in Cresciano. In total, the 27-year-old has done some 850 boulder 8A and harder, in spite of working full time and having suffered from different injuries the last few years.

"Worldclass! Hard 8B+ or low-end 8C, who cares, it‘s Dreamtime! Can‘t describe how satisfying it was to top this Fred Nicole masterpiece after it became kind of a mindgame! It‘s always hard if you know you can do it but somehow you keep struggling with conditions, skin and bad days. The pressure I put on myself is gone! Onto the next!"

Can you tell us a little more about the process and your ascent?
I spent a session on the stand some years ago but couldn’t do it. Then, I did the stand last season and figured out the lower moves. I got really close to sending it, but then it snowed and didn't dry up until I had to leave. After that, it wasn‘t possible to come back due to Covid restrictions. This season I spent another four sessions on the boulder. So all together maybe ~9 sessions but it feels like I could have done it much faster.

Have you recovered from your previous injuries?
Still not fully recovered, I still struggle with my left elbow. I can‘t do a one-arm pullup with my left arm but it is getting better.

Jonathan Siegrist, who previously has done 18 routes 9a+ and 9b, has made the FA of Close Encounters (9a+) in La Madres. "It’s a really cool route in Southern Nevada. A blocky limestone kind of style so lots of underclings, a critical knee bar, very compression type of climbing. And some very powerful moves too. It took me a dozen or so full effort days to decipher the beta and climb it." (c) Nate Liles

Sebastien Biner has done the ultra classical The Story Of 2 Worlds (8C) in Cresciano. It was put up, as a sit start to The Dagger 8B (+), by David Graham in 2005 as "The New 8C standard". Dave referred to the different (inflated) gradings school at the time. Actually, in the media it was speculated to be 8C+ but later it became a benchmark 8C until some called it "soft" and also 8B+ has been suggested, due to better beta and the use of knee pads.

"First one. Dont know about the grade. really cool to climb there, want to try the other side of the block!” (c) Clement Lechaptois

How was the process taking it down?
I first tried Dagger at the beginning of the year and sent it after two sessions. It took me seven more sessions to do the sit start yesterday. I did it with a left kneebar at the beginning and head first for the end.

What is your climbing background and what is next?
I am from Valais in Switzerland and I've been climbing for ten years, mainly bouldering. My next goal is trying some more hard stuff in Switzerland, like Dreamtime or some boulders in Versasca.

Alizee Dufraisse, who previously has done five 8B's, has sent Heritage 8B/+ in Valle Bavona, video. "For sure the hardest boulder i have done. Amazing one 🤩."

On Insta she says she needed 12 sessions. "Yesterday I arrived at the rock and I felt very good. For the first time, I knew that if I reached the hold at the mantle I would go for it. I made a try, relax, listening to Bob Marley and surprised myself to make my way to the top. The thing I am the most proud of is that despite a lot of uncertainty I took advantage of this moment, without hesitation… I just climbed… peacefully… with the support of @dave_graham_ 🥰"

What is next?
Staying here and boulder! I tried a little «From dirt... » in Chironico and I like it! But as we are closer to Bavona I think I'll also try some of the projects here, the boulders are amazing and always hard so that’s cool 🙃🔥.