Although Laura Rogora focused on competitions and the Olympics in 2021, she managed to redpoint five routes 9a to 9b, onsight one 8b+ and bouldered five 8A and harder. In the 8a Climber of 2021, the 20-year-old Italian is #5. (c) Overchalked

Which were your best moments in 2021?
My best moments were: The Chamonix world cup where I got first place. In finals, I climbed really well, fast and precise and I topped the final route! The other was the ascent of Erebor 9b. On the first day, I tried it I couldn't do more than a few moves without falling. I couldn't imagine doing the route so fast.

How was your Olympic experience?
The competition was bad for me. I didn't expect to have so much pressure. Anyway, the experience was cool.
For the first time climbing was among many other sports so we can meet and interact with other athletes. The days before the competition I had no pressure but during the competition, I started feeling it. I climbed bad in bouldering, making a lot of useless attempts.

Lucy Mitchell has done Le fight du beau gosse intégrale (8c) in Luberon. (c) Eddie Cooper "It’s a tricky one to judge as it’s an extension. I had done the 8b part on a Halloween trip in a day. And then this week it took me 3 days and maybe 4/5 goes up it to try the top and link it… Iv got another 2 on the go so I can’t quite remember. I didn’t expect to do any that quick so I have just been getting on what’s free so haven’t kept too much of a count! Big surprise to do it!! Such a lovely route!"

Alexey Pinchuk has, like last year, put together a great 9a+ and harder analysis. As can be seen in the diagram, there has been steady progress for ten straight years which is interesting as you might think that Covid and the Olympics should have slowed down the progress the last two years. In 2020 and 2021, 44 respectively 50 climbers did 9a+ or harder which can be compared to the previous max 33 in 2018. Just nine years ago, only nine climbers did 9a+ and harder.

Here are the total number of climbers that have done the highest grades. (In brackets the 2021 numbers.)
9c : 1 (0 in 2021)
9b+ : 6 (2)
9b : 36 (14)
9a+ : 136 (49)

Here is the breakdown over the country with most routes 9a+ and harder. The total is 210.
Spain 78
France 39
Italy 18
USA 16
Germany and Norway 11

This can be compared with how many from each country that have done 9a+ or harder
USA 26
Spain 21
France 15
Italy and Germany 14
Austria and Great Britain 6

Climbing grades are subjective. How much harder one grade is something climbers have debated and suggested since the beginning of the grading scales. The bottom line is that it is the FAs that have added the upper grade to the scale, on different crags, who have decided how wide one grade is. On the other side, in many cases, the community have later said the FA was wrong, by upgrading or downgrading old routes.

From a practical mathematical point of view, it seems that a factor of six multiplying the number of routes and boulders for a lower grade, is one way of describing the width of a grade. Here are some rough estimations of how many climbs that exist of the highest five grades from 9c (routes) to 9A (boulders).

9c:1, 9b+:6, 9b:36, 9a+:130, 9a:700
9A:2, 8C+:10, 8C:60, 8B+:360, 8B:2000
(Note that these are just estimations. Grades vary and some climbs are just variations.)

Another way to analyse the width of a grade is to use Time Comparison Grading. The diagram suggests that if a climber could do an 8b on the 3rd go, the next climb that was done after two days of projecting could still be 8b. Basically, the TCG curve indicates how much more time and effort are needed to step up one grade no matter if we are talking a 7a or a 9c route. Obviously, the plotted curve is just a community theoretical average meaning that for most individuals it does not apply perfectly. In practice, there are many considerations like conditions, style and luck that play a major role in each ascent.

In any case, by comparing route and boulder scales, we can, in fact, assume that the width of the boulder grades are a bit more narrow up to 7C and then after 8B, they get wider again. Here is a recent article trying to explain this?

It should be underlined that I welcome suggestions on how to better describe how wide a grade is. The TCG and Factor analysis is basically just ideas on how to approach the subject.

Yannick Flohé, #3 in the Boulder World Championship in 2019, has done Off the wagon Low 8C+ in Valle Bavona. (c) Stefan Schmieg

"Took me three sessions for the stand start in 2020 and two more for the Low this trip. The trick was to have a rest day that helped a lot 😅 I think it must be said that the crimp you jump to got slightly better because a tiny bit of the crystal broke. The big move didn’t feel easier compared to last year but the campus move is much easier now due to more space for the thumb. I don't think it changes the grade because the crux is still to link the first move into the jump to the crimp. And there’s probably no boulder out there that suits my style better than this one so I can’t tell if it’s soft for the grade or I’m just strong. I will try to climb another 8C+ to compare the grades 😌."

Last year, Yannick participated in nine Lead and Boulder World Cups and his worst result was #23. In the World Championship, he was #9 in Boulder and #15 in Lead and in Combined he won!

What are your 2022 plans?
I’ll try to climb some hard boulders in Ticino and Bleau and maybe I’ll focus a little bit more on lead for the next comp season. Maybe I’ll skip some boulder WC's to prepare for the Lead comps. But I’m not sure. I’ll decide after the first boulder WCs.

Edu Marin is one of the best multi-discipline climbers in the world. This summer he will for the second time try to repeat the Huber brothers, Eternal flame which is a 650m 7c+ that tops out on the summit of the 6 286m Trango Tower. Included in the team is Edu's father, Novato, who now is 70-years-old. Nine years ago, he sent an 8b+ and here is a very nice mini-doc. Currently, Novato is climbing 7c's but that is due to a bad mountain bike accident this summer which made it impossible for him to climb for six weeks.

Based on that the qualification to Paris Olympics will take place in 2023, it is likely that several of the top competitors like Adam Ondra, Jakob Schubert and Alex Megos will focus more on rock climbing in 2022. This will probably mean that referring to grades, we will see a record number of hardcore ascents. Specifically, women like Janja Garnbret, Laura Rogora, Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman will probably reduce the gender gap. At the same time, there are many youngsters eager to start competing on the World Cup circuit. Most likely, we will see records in participant numbers, especially for the Youth Cups as the federations will receive more resources as climbing is part of the Olympic family.

Furthermore, also the kids that benefit from better and more gyms and coaches, will set new records and close the grade gap to the adults. Another trend is probably also that the local rock climbing communities will be strengthen developing, especially, more super easy routes and boulders. The reason for this is of course that many will hesitate to plan longer trips due to Covid and also that there will be more consideration of the environment.

Here are some predictions for 2022
Two females send 8C
Three females send 9b
Three males do 9A
Five males send 9b+
Adam Ondra onsights 9a+ (which he later downgrades)
Three kids (below age 13) send 9a
Three kids send 8B+

All these send in spite of a record number of downgrades (especially in Spain).

Alma Bestvater has done Frank's wild years (8A+) as well as Ponk (8A) in Ticino, Insta video.

The 25-year-old German is an active competition climber who had her best year in 2018 when she was #10 overall in the World Cup. Last year she was #9 in the Euro Combined Championship.