Will Bosi has made the FA of the long standing project, Brandenburg Gate (9a+) at Raven Tor. “The climb is very similar to Hubble in a sense but the sequence of moves are a lot more complex and technically demanding. I was stuck for a while on the lower section but once I was able to unlock a sequence, the route came together really quickly for me”.

Overall, it took Will eight sessions to unlock the sequence on Brandenburg and 7 redpoint attempts to finally complete the chains. The route was widely assumed to be graded 9b due to its perceived difficulty and being an open project on such a popular sport climbing destination however Bosi settled on 9a+.

“My view is that Brandenburg was a soft end 9a+, in comparison to Mutation which I regard as solid 9a+. The climbing was harder than other 9a’s I have done in the past but not by a large degree so I feel it just about deserves 9a+. However, again I look forward to seeing the route get more ascents so the grade can settle one way or the other”.

The ascent is another milestone in a breakout year for Bosi on rock where he has climbed 9b+ and claimed multiple first ascents in Spain, rapid ascents of hard boulders out in Switzerland alongside his recent exploits at Raven Tor which places him at the vanguard of the new generation of strong British talent and alongside the true elite of world sport climbing.

Back in the days, I have personally seen and heard about many top-climbers repeating routes with 3 to 11 pre-clipped carabiners. The rationale behind this related mainly to that it was possible to downclimb from the position, that others had done the same or it was due to safety reasons. This made me publish pre-clipping ethics suggesting that one quickdraw pre-clipped is OK if it is for safety reasons. Having two or three pre-clipped, although due to safety reasons, means ethical dilemma = yellow card.

The big controversy is created once the repeaters do not use the same pre-clipping FA ethics and it goes beyond the "two or three, although due to safety reasons". Then they have not redpointed it but instead done a valid five pre-clipped ascent. It is also important to say that any climber can make an ascent in any way they want as long as they are open with how they did it.

When it comes to down climbing ethics in order to have pre-clipped carabiners I am OK with that as long as you do not untie from the rope, and if you fall, you have to do the down climbing again. I have personally seen a hardcore climber do a route with three pre-clipped. Later, he started to project the downclimb of it and realised that it was possible including a jump, meaning he claimed the redpoint. This might seem utterly stupid but back in the days, prior to the published pre-clipping ethics and also that it was discussed a lot on 8a, it was quite common.

8a will not start name-dropping guys that have created and are using the pre-clipping inflation but I would like to encourage climbers to go for the full redpoint challenge whatever that means. Even if the local community or some top climbers have created some "special inflated pre-clipping ethics" for specific routes, a redpoint ascent should respect the FA ethics and not systematically push or go beyond, "two or three pre-clipped, although due to safety reasons."

Overall, the pre-clipping inflation obviously also partly could explain why there is grade inflation. It is easier to repeat a route if you have five pre-clipped compared to the FA which most probably had fewer pre-clipped quickdraws. It should be noted that when it comes to bouldering, we could also say that crash pad inflation also exist. As an example, most of the FAs in Fontainebleau have been done without starting on top of a crash pad. At the same time, it is quite common that once shorter boulderers do not reach the normal starting holds, they start on top of stacked crash pads.

In the same way, as with pre-clipping on routes, you can of course start a boulder with as many crash pads stacked as you want as long as you are open with how you did it. However, possibly you should give your multiple stacking pad variation a new name and grade?

Natalia Grossman, the gold and silver medalist at the world championship in September, has done . During just four climbing days in Joe's Valley (UT), the 20-year-old has done 14 boulders 7C+ and harder and there is a video coming up,
Insta teaser.

William Bosi just did the first repeat of Steve McClures's 9a Mutation at Raven Tor from 1998. Bosi has recorded it as a 9a+ although media has speculated it to be 9b.

What grade would you have given Mutation if it was your FA?
So when you make a first ascent it’s always much harder to grade than just repeating a route. The most useful thing you can do is compare it to the other routes at the crag. I haven’t actually tried a lot of the other hard routes at Ravens Tor. However, if I was able to send them not too bad I would definitely be grading it (Mutation) at least 9a+ as skipping 9a would seem reasonable. If I were to give it the 9b as FA when I’m not sure I have the best beta/it doesn’t suit me perfectly I would need the other 8c+s at the crag to go down in a day/couple attempts. So I reckon I would have gone with 9a+.

How would you rank Mutation among the hardest route you have ever done?
King Capella 9b+ FA
La Capella 9b
Mutation 9a+
Furia de jubali 9b FA
First ley 9a+

So personally that order makes sense to me as La Furia suited my style really well and although the climbing was technically more difficult, I felt I could power through the moves when I was feeling good. On Mutation, 'powering through' was not an option, whilst the moves themselves were in themselves easier, each move had to be technically 100% correct and it all had to come together on one attempt which made the ascent more tricky for me.

This just goes to show the difficulties on grading at the top level where (a) it is completely subjective and (b) there as so many factors at play which go into your own individual experience of the route which goes back to one of my earlier comments that hopefully, further ascents will help to attain some consensus.

Gonzalo Larrocha has repeated Chris Sharma's Catxasa (9a+) in Santa Linya, giving it a personal 9a grade. In total, the 37-year-old has done 24 routes 9a and harder out of which five in 2021. (c) Jorge Diaz-Rullo from Victimes del Futur.

How was the process taking it down and what about knee pads?
I started trying the route just before the lockdown. I failed uncountable times because it's very hard to put my knees well so my feet don't slip. I climb with two kneepads but the most important is the one on the right leg. I found some betas using knees which made the crux section possible for me.

I was really grateful to share that day with Pol Ortiz, who give me a lot of motivation as he sent La novena puerta 8c+. He is one of the most important reasons I could do Catxasa.

Mathieu Bouyoud has done Papichulo (9a+) in Oliana. The 31-year-old has previously put up two 9a+ FAs and this was his first repeat of the grade. Full story at Fanatic Climbing (c) Toni Mas Bucacha

“My first check in Papichulo was in June 2019, just after my send of “Esclatamasters”. I did a second trip in November 2019, a week for Christmas 2019 and 10 days in Fébruary 2020, where I was close, falling in the loop. Unfortunately, Covid pandemia didn’t allow me to finish this project, so I stick a postcard of the crag on my fridge as a reminder, to keep the motivation high! Just having a talk about the projects with friends who were trying too as Axel Ballay gives me a lot of hope. “Papichulo” is one of the best 9a+ to climb, the place is incredible, this blue line perfect. A route that suits my style, fingery and sustained. I did the perfect try to conquer it.”