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.”

Camilla Moroni, who the last three weeks has done four 8As and one 8A+, has sent her first 8B, Fortunadrago in Varazze. In the last month 8a ranking game, she is runner-up behind Natalia Grossman which also where their result at the World Championship in Moscow in September.

"I had three sessions on this boulder, unlocking all the moves in the first and being very close to the send in the second. On the third day, the boulder was completely wet, we dried the holds and an hour later I was standing on the top after fighting with the terrible conditions. I don't have much experience as it's my first of the 8B grade but I think it could be a quite easy one."

Killian Chabrier, who just did Dreamtime 8B+ (C) in two sessions has done a likewise quick ascent of another Cresciano classic, The Story Of 2 Worlds (8C) giving it also a personal 8B+ grade. Video on his Insta.

How was the process taking it down?
So on my third day of climbing, I wanted to try The Dagger because I feel exhausted from my two previous days of climbing. I started warming up in it and did all the moves very quickly, and in one hour I send it. The line feels for me like an 8A+, not 8B or 8B+. At the end of the session, I tried a bit of the sit start (The Story of 2 Worlds) but I was too tired to do all the moves. In my second session, I did really quickly the moves to get to the stand. And on a try where I just wanted to try the first two moves, I did the start and arrived on the stand, the end is much easier so falling wasn’t an option and I sent it!

For the beta, I did exactly the same as Alex Megos. I decided to not use my kneepad because it wasn’t changing a lot for the start, maybe a little bit easier but it’s not significant and it’s more pleasant to climb without a kneepad. I decided to put 8B+ for the line because the recent beta that had been discovered is much easier than the original one, and for me, it feels a little bit easier than Dreamtime so 8B+ is logical for me!

It should be mentioned that the name of Dave Graham's classical testpiece from 2005 derived from "The Story of 2 Grading Worlds" back then. Dave talked about the grade inflation and called this, "The new 8C standard”. Some actually thought this was a sandbag grade and that 8C+ would be more appropriate. Basically, his strong statement, which was backed up by 8a, stopped the current grade inflation.

In 2010 Dai Koyamada did the second ascent but as he was told he had started too high, the 165cm tall came back in 2012 and did it from a lying position adding Low to the name and calling it 8C+. Later is was found out that he had started in the right position and also that his lying start actually did not add any difficulty.

Noteworthy is that Sebastian Cotting repeated Koyamada’s The Story... Low in 2018, also with the new beta going more feet first and called it 8B+, using a knee pad, video.

FA Pirmin Bertle comments, "Just noticed in Alex video that I climbed it entirely differently, 1,5m lower, with different holds and the left crux beta of Corona. For me it is definitely harder than Corona which is still solid as 9a+."

Do you not think the easiest sequence should be climbed and graded?
Well basically yes, but as my original intention was to find an unchipped way up there, I logically searched away without the obvious sika hold. Then I learned that even more holds are chipped, but I stuck to my beta if really nice moves and rocks. If you regard sport as an unnecessary way to fight human boredom in the age of fossil energies, it doesn't matter, which beta of which route at which crag you put up to challenge yourself.