Jesús Muñoz (Chuchi) has done El lado oscuro de la fuerza (8B+) and Entropía (8C) in Castillo de Bayuela. "Entropía" was the first 8C boulder proposal in Spain, by @nacho_boulder. I focused on doing "El Lado Oscuro de la Fuerza", which shares the most difficult movement with "Entropia". After send this one, I decided to start trying the harder line. I try it from the bottom and i did "Entropía" too!

What are your 2022 plans?
In 2022 I want to go to Ticino during march and Rocklands in the summer. But before that, I have planned to try "Lemento" the first 8C of La Pedriza😉.

Olympic Bronze Medallist Jakob Schubert reports on Insta that he has done the third ascent of Will Bosi's King Capella (9b+) in Siurana giving it a personal 9b grade. It only took the Austrian only four days of projecting and later the same day he did Adam Ondra's La Capella, which is a completely separate line, for which he proposes 9a+. In the 8a draft Climber of the 2021, he moves up from #6 to #2 behind Janja Garnbret. (c) Alfons Dornauer

How much did you try La Capella?
I briefly tried it on a day where I decided I had to give King Capella a break due to skin issues and then I did it 2nd try on the same day I sent King Capella (yesterday). So 5th tries in total.

What is next?
I‘ll try the other routes from Will in the Capella sector on the last days and cheer on Alfons on Furia 😉. I just have a few days left, leaving back home on the 16th. Then some training at home and maybe a short Switzerland bouldering trip, then we will see, going with the flow 😜.

How have your climbing life been since the Olympics?
I spent almost the whole of October in Mallorca (for DWS), took a week of break and then started to prepare mostly for this trip + climbed outside at home. I just wanted to spend as much time on rock as possible after the Olympics since there wasn‘t so much time for earlier.

What about 2022, focus on outdoors and the go full-on the Olympics again in 2023?
Yes, exactly, in 2022 I want to focus a bit more on rock for sure, but still do some comps to stay in business when it gets very serious again in 2023 😉 Not sure about all my plans but I dream of getting back to Flatanger and travelling to La Ramirole for the first time 🙏

As 8a started publishing articles and interviews with a focus on the environment, we were told that Jonathan Siegrist had interesting thoughts. So we simply asked for some comments in regards to his background and how he has changed his life based on his environmental thoughts. (c) Corey Rich

"Right around the time when I started climbing, in 2004 or so, I also started my bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies at Naropa University in Boulder, CO. This was the first time that I heard of phrases like ‘Ecological Footprint’, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Not in my Backyard’, and so on. Being young, impressionable, and also passionate about the outdoors, I changed big parts of my lifestyle based on what I was learning. This is when I began eating vegetarian (I have since remained a vegetarian or occasionally a pescatarian or vegan). It’s also when I started to think critically of the waste I created, and my energy consumption among other things. These days I am still learning how to balance quality of life with environmental impact. I feel grateful to be able to afford a large solar system on my small home in Las Vegas that powers my electric car to the local crags, as well as covers our air conditioning needs during the summer. I offset all of my airline travel and donate monthly to rewilding projects (but still, undoubtedly, airline travel is my personal largest impact). I try to consider critically every buying decision and wasting decision that I make. Truly, sustainability permeates nearly all of my choices big or small.

Sadly, no matter how much we change our behaviours and choices as individuals, governmental policy is the best chance at overcoming the environmental challenges we face. Therefore I have and will consistently vote with the environment as my principal concern. I encourage that every person finds their unique path to a more sustainable way of living. It’s hard to make real change when the results can be quite nebulous, so I think it’s best to start with the low hanging fruit and work your way up to big changes. There are several good sources online to examine your own footprint, and while they can be flawed I think that regardless, it is a great thought exercise and a good place to start.

Lastly, we are all learning - the evolution never stops - including me. I by no means have this entirely sorted out, and every single person no matter how disciplined is not perfect. However, don’t let one tough aspect of your life prevent you from changing a different one!"

Alex Garriga has done La Bongada (9a) (giving it a personal 8c+ grade) and Wild Publico (9a) in Margalef. In total, the 23-year-old has now done 31 routes 8c+ and harder in 2021 and he is #1 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Esteban Lahoz

How was the process taking them down?
I travelled to Margalef for six days and climbed five days and could do the two routes and some easier ones. I tried Bongada two times during the first day and did it on the second day, on my first try. Then I tried Wild Público for two days, rested one day and did it the day after.

How has your last climbing month been?
I have spent the last month studying and training at home. I am preparing for the competitive firefighter exams.

How much and How have you been training lately?
I always train on my board and do physical training (pull-ups, weights and rings) besides climbing outside. Normally I train six days a week but depends, some weeks five and some weeks all seven.

How often do you go to a big public gym?
In the last month I have been to the climbing wall in my city once. For 1.5 years I have had a steep big climbing board in our confinement.

Could it be that this new board at home is the reason for your great progress lately?
Yes, yes!

What about going for a 9b?
I have to learn to be more patient with the routes or get stronger. 🤣🤣 I find it difficult to focus on a single route.

Google Trends is a simple tool where you can compare Google searches. This diagram compares the searches since 2004 for the names Chris Sharma, Adam Ondra, Janja Garnbret and Alex Megos. Surprisingly, the old numbers for Chris Sharma were higher than for the Olympians and also looking at the last three months, only the search for the name Adam Ondra is more popular.

It should be mentioned that if Alex Honnold's number would have been included in the diagram, all the other percentages, including the Olympics, would have been below 17 %. If we would have made a comparison based on the last 90 days and would have compared everyone to Honnold's 100 %, Ondra had been runner up with some 33 %, followed by Sharma 25 %, Garnbret 15 % and Megos 5 %. Note that these numbers as well as the presented diagrams estimations on the athletes' popularity on Google. The diagrams actually differ a bit based on working on a mobile or a computer.

A working group in IFSC has suggested that the one getting the highest point sum in Bouldering and Lead will be rewarded the Combined gold in Paris 2024. The maximum score will be 200 points, based on getting 25 for a Top in Bouldering and 100 points for topping the Lead route. This sounds good in theory but there are big risks for unfairness, due to the lack of consistency in the route setting, as well as no drama on the Lead route.

One good (bad) example of this is the Olympic male final where the seven finalists only made a total of seven tops. If combined points would have been given out in Tokyo, the bouldering results would have had very little impact overall and the medal ranking would have been the same as the ranking in Lead; Schubert, Ondra and Duffy.

If we look at the four Boulder World Cups in 2021, we see the opposite problem. The difference average point-scoring in between #1 and #6 is too big, i.e. around 80 respectively 20 points. History shows that routes and boulders often are too hard or too easy. This could mean that we would have unfair Combined results in Paris. Another problem could be that there could be little drama and excitement in the Lead final as the medals more or less could already have been set after the Boulder event. Below is the female results in Meiringen in 2021 converted to an estimation of points.

1. Janja Garnbret 99.7 points
2. Oriane Bertone 59.78 points
3. Natalia Grossman 59.67 points
4. Akiyo Noguchi 14.79 points

In theory, Noguchi could still get a medal and Janja could lose the gold. However, by looking at the statistics, we can that in practice, the only excitement in the Lead event would have been to see who would get the silver. Remember that the very much criticised, and totally opposite ranking method in Tokyo, at least created extreme drama to the very last climber out.

Adam Ondra Beyond Focus 2/4 and his Olympic preparation. In the great video, Ondra says that Speed training is better than expected. Then after the Olympics he said this was not really the truth but something he had to tell himself to keep the psyche high.