Adam Ondra made the FA of La Capella in 2011 but was very uncertain if it was 9b or 9a+ and finished his logbook comment with. "Time will tell." Now ten years later and with the recent quick repeats, in the sector, and personal grades by Alex Megos and Jakob Schubert, the Czech has added to his logbook comment. "Update 2021: changed the grade to 9a+."

Alex Megos has later made some grade comments on Insta in regards to his latest quick sends in Siurana. His personal opinion seems to be that La Capella is the hardest and that King Capella is roughly the same grade and that Furia de Jabali is a little bit easier. "All in all, I think it depends so much on the style and whether it suits you or not; it feels almost impossible to grade such short routes."

Furthermore, it seems that La Capella is harder for short climbers and that is probably the reason why the first repeaters, Daniel Woods and Stefano Ghisolfi (both 169 cm), confirmed Ondra's 9b FA suggestion. Then Will Bosi, (176 cm) repeated it and said it was soft and used that as a reference for giving his FAs Furia de Jabali 9b and King Capella 9b+. Alex Megos did the first repeats and then also Jakob Schubert did them rather quickly and suggested downgrades.

Downgradings are basically always based on Time Comparising Grading, i.e. if you send harder graded routes very quickly, it is an indication that they are not that hard. If we go into more advanced grading theory, it is not the consensus that should set the grades. It is instead the climbers that are best opted for the climb that should set the grades. In this case, if we take a very conservative approach and also take the grade inflation into consideration, one possibility is to say that all three routes are 9a+ and actually that Furia de Jabali is a soft one.

Kazuma Ise has made the FA of Hallucination 8C+ in Hourai, after the break. Dai Koyamada put it up as an 8B+ in 2003 and over the years many have tried to repeat it in the new much harder version. In the new crux you first make a dead point to a crimp from a one-finger sidpull and then another dead point to one more one-finger sidepull.

How much and How did you train for your project?
I only trained twice a week for five hours each. On my non-training days I work part-time, go to school and hang out with girlfriend. I did't train for anything other than the project. There was a possibility of getting a severe injury, so I decided that training twice a week was appropriate.
How do you train during the five-hour session?Warming up can be done in 15 minutes. Afterwards, crimp training, one finger training and weighted crimp pull-ups for two hours. The last two hours are free session time.


What are your next plan? Floatin 8C+ in Mt.Mizugaki and Epitaph (after the break) in Horai, probably also 8C+. These are my goals for 2022 and also to send 9A. Maybe Finland's BOD or a new 9A.

Luis Gerhardt has repeated Martin Keller's Der mit dem Fels tanzt (8C) in Chironico. "This one got on my nerves after falling twice at the mantle that day! After another silly foot slip close before the end I wanted to finish the session. I felt pretty exhausted but wanted to give one more try before it got dark! Not sure how but on the last try I found myself standing on top of the boulder!" (c) Nora Pailer

How many sessions did it take?
It took 8 - 10 sessions including the other variations (Insanity, Delusion, Einfisch) :)

David Graham and Clément Lechaptois report on their Insta (DG) and Insta (CL) that they have repeated Shawn Raboutou's Roadkill (8C) in Valle Bavona. (c) Kim Marschner

Dave and Clement worked the high-class problem mainly together and did finally a team ascent and Dave's Insta is as always full of intense details. "After 5 sessions I was confident I could climb through the crux down low; two very low percentage moves with my method, a tripped out ghost kneebar into a low percentage jump. I had rehearsed the top section many times, but felt extremely anxious about the technical mantel moves at around 8 meters followed by the last 10 meters of slab climbing which is not particularly hard, but revolves around trusting your feet and climbing very confidently in a true no-fall zone." He continues by saying that Lechaptois had a much scarier ascent with a headlamp.

Adam Ondra has done the FA of Kout pikle (9a+) in Moravský kras. "Really hard to grade, could be 9b for sure. Amazing 8Cish boulder to start in a dihedral (!!), then power endurance of 8c to the top. I love this line. Such a cool style, ultra technical and ultra physical too."

More pics on his Insta where he also says. "The grade is somewhere between 9a+ and 9b, but let's be on the safe side with 9a+😅"

As was mentioned in an editorial grade article yesterday, "If it had not been for guys like Adam Ondra and Alex Honnold etc giving their honest opinions, the grade inflation had been much stronger. My personal recommendation is that whenever you are in grade doubt of a FA, go for the lower one."

It is probably a well-known fact that Adam Ondra is the one among the top climbers suggesting most personal grades, including also some upgrades. As an example, Adam made the first 9a onsight which he thought was 8c+ and if he had not suggested so many personal downgrades, he would have done well over 200 routes 9a and harder instead of the 194 he has logged.

However, if we include everyone who regularly sends 8c+, Alex Honnold is the #1 when it comes to personal grades. In November he did his second 9a, The Eggporkalypse, calling it 8c+ and possibly for around 20 % of his hardest routes he has suggested a personal grade, including many also in Kalymnos.

From a historic perspective, we can see that grade inflation is a dilemma for the media as the difficulty of many of the reported ascents were not correct. If it had not been for guys like Adam Ondra and Alex Honnold etc giving their honest opinions, the grade inflation had been much stronger. My personal recommendation is that whenever you are in grade doubt of a FA, go for the lower grade. The hardcore climbers known for giving the hardest FA grades are Alex Huber and Ramon Julian Puigblanque.

Stefano Ghisolfi has done the FA of The Lonely Mountain (9b) in Arco. It is a direct and harder version of Ghisoli's Erebor 9b and also the original line he bolted 18 months ago. (c) Sara Grippo

Full story at his Insta. "It felt very hard at the beginning, then I changed almost all the betas in every section and finally climbed it today. And it's even harder to grade it, so I can suggest a symbolic 9b, even if it is harder than Erebor."

What are your 2022 plans?
I'll do both competitions and rock climbing, maybe fewer comps than the previous years and a trip to Flatanger in August.