Adam Ondra has repeated Will Bosi's Furia de Jabali in Siurana confirming the 9a+ downgrade by Alex Megos and Jakob Schubert. "Checked the moves once, at the end of the day, next day (after trying King Capellla first) rechecked the crux move again and sent on my second go. Done with Wil's method, for the traverse completely different method and probably easier. Low-end 9a+ with my height and method, for shorter climbers can be a tiny bit harder, but not 9b."

Neighbouring routes La Capella and Kind Capella have also previously been downgraded and here is an old article discussing advanced grading theory, suggesting that Furia de Jabali is a soft 9a+ just like Adam says.

Ondra has also onsighted two 8a+' and giving it a personal 8b+ grade and in fact, he placed the draws and did it at the end of a climbing day. Adam has now done well over 100 onsights 8c and harder but in his scorecard, he has "only" 89 listed. The runner up in the world is Piotr Schab with eleven.

8a almost never publishes free solo climbs as we do not want to encourage youngsters to try their luck. At the same time, free solo climbs sometimes pop up on YouTube etc. However, people apply different ethics regarding what is considered legitimate free soloing. Personally, I do not think you can claim a free solo ascent if the route was equipped by quickdraws, especially if you were wearing a harness. In other cases, you can see somebody doing a highball with a rope next to the climb. Personally, I do not even think you can claim a scary trad ascent if you have a guy at the top ready to throw down a rope with knots pre-done.

Sure, you can bail out and save your life but with a harness and quickdraws in place, it is not the same thing as a clean free solo ascent. I have even heard about a guy who was tied into his harness and his friends were supposed to jump on the rope if he would fall. The only thing I sort of respect, for the guys who are soloing in order to get fame and sponsors etc, is the use of crash pads.

If you do not do it clean like Alex Honnold, do not put free solo and scary trad climbs in your resume. At the same time, you can free solo in any way you want, just do not leave out important details. In any case, 8a will continue our policy to not publish free solo climbs. Play it safe!

Valentina Chemyakina has done V for Vendetta (8A+) in Bafa Lake and there is a video on her Insta. She started climbing at age 15 but was still fighting doing 7a routes five years ago, when she was 20. Now she has done four 8A+.

"I'm from Belarus, currently based in Moscow. I work as a programmer, riding downhill and doing climbing. I love to climb outside and try to travel during these covid times. Now I’m in Turkey for some winter climbing (as well as working), because in Russia now soo cold 😅 It was my second trip to Bafa. Last year I send Golgotha 8A+, and V Vendetta was my specific goal this time (both FFA?). The climbing goal for this year - is 8B in bouldering. Really psyched to train hard and prepare well for a Rocklands trip (I was there first-time last summer but with a finger injury)."

What about all MTB and pink colour pictures all over the place on your Insta? Have you competed in MTB?
I haven’t participated in downhill competitions yet but planning to do it this year! In bike parks and mountains I ride black trails. I have had pink colour for almost three years (I think I coloured it because I love anime).

What is your climbing background?
Before I met my coach I was climbing around 6c+ in a gym. I was talented but lacked technique. When we started working on it my level got up to solid 7b (even 7c sometimes) in half a year! Then I broke a bone in my knee so I had to recover almost for a year. After this, I had a plateau. We all go through this during the climbing path. I had injury after injury, we didn’t know what to do, a lot of specialists didn’t help. After that, my coach started learning kinesiology and rehabilitation and finally find the right approach for me. It helped break my plato and I started climbing in eighth grade.

In 2012, Ramon Julian put up La Bongada in Margalef as an 8c. Then in 2014, Alex Megos repeated it and thought it was 9a. "When it was a project they thought it might be around 8c+/9a. Then Ramon did the first ascent of it calling it 8c. I repeated it and would definitely suggest 9a. It was nothing to do with 8c! Ramon might be just too strong ;-). When you compare it to some of the 8c+ in the same sector, it is a hard 9a. But for me it felt like a normal 9a."
Then Dani Fuertes thought 8c+/9a and later Laura Rogora confirmed Megos 9a proposal and it was considered 9a by all other media reporting her ascent. Then Adam Ondra, Alex Garriga and today also Dani Moreno have recorded it as 8c+ in their logbook. Interestingly, 8a has always presented it as 9a (8c+) since Megos ascent but now it seems this route should be called 8c+ (9a). I have mentioned it several times before but part of the grade inflation we have seen over the years is due to some media cherry-picking the grade in order to make the ascent more impressive.

It should be mentioned that there exist several examples of Ramon FA grades that others have considered as being sand-bagged. I do like that Megos is honest suggesting both personal up- and downgrades. La Bongada was possibly not his style and back in 2014 he was probably not using kneepads which according to Adam Ondra makes it "a little easier". Furthermore, the routes Megos was comparing La Bongada with was also Ramon FAs, which are all considered hard for their grade.

In any case, grades are subjective and possibly now La Bongada has become easier due to a break. It is natural that most climbers do not give personal grades and instead just report what is given to them in the topo or by friends at the crag. What is important is that the media not just take the highest given grade in order to make more impressive news. Although 8a, often present lower grades in comparison to other media, over the 20 years I have reported the news, my wild guess is that history shows that in at least 10 % of the cases, exaggerated grades have been presented. And one more time, the two-times world champion, the 159 cm tall Ramon Julian Puigblanque deserves more credit than his FA grades indicates.

Gabriele Moroni has done the FA of Trofeo Dell'Adriatico 9a+ in Arco. As reported on Insta, it was bolted by David Lama and he was the one telling Gabri to try it out some ten years ago. The Italian won his first Euro Youth Cup in 2001 and at age 16, he was #3 in the European Championship. After having been one of the best World Cup boulders for ten years he won his first WC in 2018. However, as he did not want to go for the Combined in the Olympics, he could not continue on the circuit. (c) Matteo Pavana

"Trofeo dell’Adriatico is a perfect 25 meters shield on a balcony over the Arco valley. It’s a very intense route with a first part with long and physical moves followed by a fingery boulder on small pinches and a resistance part on a tufa at the end. Around 40 moves without rests."

How was the process taking it down over almost two years?
It was a long process with cleaning finding the moves and eventually giving tries. But I rarely tried it for more than two days every trip. Some weekends and sometimes single day trips during the week. I think it took around 30 sessions.

What about taking up comps again?
I won’t do any comps this year. I have a full-time job as a head setter at Urban Wall Milano. But I will probably work as a coach for the Italian National team at some of the world cups like I did last year.

Ziheng Qui has set a new girl standard by doing China climb 8b+ in Yangshuo. It was bolted by Logan Barber and FA'ed by Rockabond in 2008 as an 8c. It is 31 meters long and although at least one hold broke and it has become polished it has been downgraded to 8b+. Interestingly, it does not seem to be an advantage to be short or have small fingers fitting in shallow pockets. The 9-year-old does not use any kneebars or knee dropping, instead, she just pushes hard from one open crimp to another including also some pinch moves. As can bee see in the video, she is wearing socks in her shoes that, furthermore, seems too big.

Austin Purdy, who previously has done 20 8B+ and two 8C's, has done Dreamtime 8C (8B+) in Cresciano. Last year, the 24-year-old did set some kind of record jumping from a 7c+ PB on routes to doing his first 9a.

"Dreamtime is such an iconic line and has inspired me for a very long time and really stuck with me when I first visited Ticino in 2019, but at the time I was focused on trying Story of 2 Worlds on the other side of the boulder. When I returned from my trip I constantly thought about wanting to go back to do Dreamtime, but shortly after the pandemic hit and it wasn't possible until now. Luckily I was able to return this year after finishing grad school and Dreamtime was the first thing I went to. I quickly realized that it felt well within my abilities, but it still didn't go down without a fight!"

Adam Ondra sends Absolutorium (9a) in Beckov. It was bolted by Tomáš Pilka in 1994 starting from an ledge 20meters above the ground. "Just wow, this line is amazing and exceptional in the region around. 30 meters of constantly hard climbing with massive exposition, with almost 50 meters below your feet while you are pumped out of your mind in the last slopers."