Janja Garnbret reports on Insta that she has onsighted her second 8c, in Oliana. It was opened by Sam Elias in 2014, video of FA, and is located right to Fish Eyewhich she onsighted two days ago. (c) Toni Mas Buchaca

Fanatic Climbing was at the scene and reports that she worked and did the first crux of La Dura Dura 9b+ during her warm up. It should be mentioned American Hustle/ has only been recorded 20 times in the 8a database and is considered to be a benchmark 8c. The only other climber to have onsighted the two 8c neighbouring routes previously is Cedric Lachat.

Charlotte Durif onsighted her first 8b, out of 20, at age 14. Including also three 8b+ and some 60 8a+, the French is the female climber having done most hard onsights in the world, full list. Almost all of them she did being a teenager when she also won five Youth World Championships and competed intensively. At age 15, she won the Euro senior championship and one year later she was #2 in her first-ever Boulder WC. In 2010, being 18-years-old, she won the Chamonix World Cup and then on her 21st birthday, she became the second woman to do a 9a by repeating Adam Ondra's PPP in Verdon. Her last big win was the Arco Rock Master in 2014 and then she finished her competition career in 2016.

What have you been up to after getting that PhD in Chemistry?
Then I lived the dream of travelling around the World with Josh during our A World Less Traveled World Tour for almost 2 years. For the last 2,5 years, we settled in Salt Lake City, UT, USA because Josh (Larson) got the position of National Team Head Coach at USA Climbing. I kept a connection with the competition World by working for the IFSC for a bit over a year until COVID hit, and I'm still part of the Athlete Commission. More recently I was honoured to attend the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as a sport consultant for France TV which was a historical event for our sport in particular. Finally, amongst small missions using my Engineer and Doctor degrees, opportunities led me to now be working in the photo and video industry with our media company Cold House Media, and I use most of my free time to climb or bolt a new spot not far from home. (c) Selfie from, A World Less Travelled #8 - Peru

How come you focused so much on onsights being a teenager?
I guess it just happened this way! Part of why I love climbing is being up on the wall, in my own bubble with the square meter of rock in front of me. I loose track of time on that travel and I like to climb flawlessly, effortlessly and precisely. With that I've developed a good ability to rest, being aware of my body and being patient, which is ideal for onsight. Also, luckily my dad was my first supporter and did not care about belaying me for hours, which I'm very grateful for and makes a big difference!

How did you handle the pressure pushing hard in unknown terrain?
I've never really pushed myself to climb hard. I'm not addicted to the difficulty of the grade. I climb a lot at my level of the moment, which would naturally increase, so then I'd go on harder routes when it is time for the next step up. I just don't like trying routes over and over, so 4 or 5 tries per route would be a max before I moved on. With all the crags and routes existing in the world, for me it's more pleasing to sample a lot of climbs than to spend weeks-months-seasons on the same route.

Were you not scared being up there risking taking long falls up there as a kid? Do you remember taking any long shippers as a kid?
I never really thought about it on a regular basis, but I had some moments of fear for sure. I remember freezing into place and having to wait a few minutes to calm my nerves before being able to move up, but this would happen mostly in vertical or slabby terrain. Although I don't have specific memories of big terrifying whippers, I'm sure I may have taken some. To be honest, I still am scared nowadays when the fall looks weird or exposed.

How was the onsight when you combined the four pitches of Ultime démence (8a+, 8a, 8a+, 7c+) into a 100-meter monster 8b+ pitch?
Woah thanks for the travel back to time! I had to look at my archives for this one! I feel like I had a period where I loved being on the wall forever and would always look for the longest routes wherever I travelled, especially when they had extensions. I spent a lot of time in the Verdon then, including when the sector "la Ramirole" was seeing a lot of bolting from Graou and Antonin for single pitches. Naturally, I started linking up the first few pitches of the multipitch routes that already existed there. Few of these ascents later, I decided to try to link up the 4 first pitches of Ultime Demence and I guess it worked out great with some good quickdraws extending/unclipping to not have an insane rope drag at the end.

How has the onsight focus helped you in your climbing career?
It definitely helped me by being efficient, creative and developing a good instinct and body awareness when on the wall, whatever format it is (boulder to multipitch). Cause or consequence of this, I know very quickly if I'll be able to climb a route/boulder which is very necessary for me to enjoy the process of it and appreciate each climb. Obviously, it also helped tremendously in competitions as it is an onsight format and you have only one chance to understand the moves in front of you, which I was quite good at.

Janja Garnbret reports on Insta that she has onsighted Fish eye (8c) in Oliana which should be the first ever female 8c onsight.

Charlotte Durif, has previously onsighted an 8c which, however, later was downgraded. Chris Sharma's Fisheye is a well confirmed 50 meter long 8c with almost 100 ascents in the 8a database. Pierre Délas from Fanatic Climbing was at the scene and has the full report including more pictures.

"40 meters off the deck, just under the last, fingery, boulder, which has caused many a dispiriting heartache with this slopy two-finger pocket which inspired the name of the route. After hesitating in the said boulder where she misreads a sequence, the Slovenian climbs back down to the half-rest below, then, helped by the cheers, finally powers through the last section and clips the chains! Despite her impressive ease, Janja admitted being fairly pumped!"

Logan Zhang has onsighted three 7c+'s in Red River Gorge (KY) all of them in the same day. The 11-year-old's sports background is totally amazing. In 2017, he set the current standing long jump world record for 6-year-old's with 1.84, video. Later he got growth plate problems in his feet which made him start Ninja warriors, amazing video. Within two years, also including starting to climb, in order to improve grip strength, he became the Youth World Champion. Anyhow, climbing was more fun, although being rejected for the gym team near their house. Two years later, at age ten, he was the national champion for 12-year-olds.

"After a rest day I set a goal to try to onsight 40 ounces of justice 5.13a. It was a really long climb in the cave. There were a few big dead points that made me nervous, but I didn't fall. I rested a lot more than necessary toward the end because I kept expecting a hard crux, but it was just a jug haul to the top. My next climb of the day was Skinboat, also 5.13a. I wanted to onsigth that one too. The start was tricky, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I had to dyno off a crimp and pocket. I still rested at bad holds only to find a better hold later. The holds just kept getting better as I got closer to the top. I was really happy to get 2 onsigths. I wanted to try Hoofmaker 5.13a next, but it was taken so I went on Convicted 5.13a instead. It looked really confusing because there was chalk everywhere. I know I had some really wrong beta in a lot of parts. It felt so hard. After I watched the video I realized there were so many places I messed up, but I got lucky and still onsighted it. " Great pics and stories on his Insta and here is an amazing video from last year.

We asked his father Ocean about some comments in regards to Logan's amazing sports background. "The long jump age group record was just a combination of favourable genetics (my wife and I were both good jumpers early in life), good hip flexibility, and earlier than average motor-coordination development. Not much training went into it at all. We just found some local track meets he could compete in. He was above average in running events and really excelled in jumping. But I doubt he'd be jumping at an internationally elite level as a teenager. It was a cool title to own at the time, but achieving such a feat on talent alone, without working hard at it, wasn't the right lesson to teach our son.

Logan's Ninja warrior career started when he was sidelined with apophysitis, a condition that is similar to arthritis of the growth plates in his feet. He was unable to continue playing the sports he loved, so we found him a new outlet. He was a huge fan of the TV show, American Ninja Warrior. There was a local competition for kids, so we decided to enroll him, and he was hooked. Unfortunately there were no obstacle training gyms near our house at the time, so we built a ninja gym in our basement and over our swimming pool. He played on the obstacles at home after school and qualified for his first youth world championships when he was 8. He finished with a silver medal, far above expectations against older kids from big gyms who had professional coaches. By this time, climbing began to dominate his training. We dialed back his ninja training to once a week on the weekends, and usually included local kids who were looking for a ninja obstacle outlet. I would recruit athletic kids from playgrounds to come train with us on weekends just to surround Logan with talented athletes. He won the world championships for the kids division the following year.

With the climbing, we take him to practice 2 to 3x per week for 2 hours per session. We're usually let him stay after practice to do some off the wall training if he asks. His coach would love to see him go to all 4 practices, but we want to be very cautious about training volume for his mental and physical health. In addition to the team practices, we also take him to climb outside on Saturdays if the weather is nice. To prepare for our trip to the Red, Logan trained less with the team and focused more on long endurance training. One of his workouts was to climb every lead route in the entire gym without resting in between routes (except for the time it took to pull the rope through). I don't know if this was a proper way to train, but he was super psyched about the challenge. He completed the workout with 2 falls.

We've moved around a lot, so Logan has been with 5 youth teams in 4 years. We've always shied away from enrolling him on the most advanced levels of each team to ensure that his training volume wouldn't be so rigorous. On several of his former teams, I've requested that he not be part of any campus board workouts with the older kids. We're super paranoid about finger injuries.

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done the FA of Cafe Solo in Margalef which is an easier variant of Cafe Columbia bolted last summer by Colombian Anghelo Bernal Quintero. Instead of doing the 8A+/B boulder finish you go into easier terrain to the neighbouring route. (c) Adri Martinez

"Combination of Colombian coffee with R1 on the route on the left. Amazing short resistance line in where I can hardly breathe. A tough sequence at the entrance and a second one a little more resistance. But I still can't celebrate, the project has yet to be completed."

In total, the 22-year-old Spaniard has now recorded eight 9b's in his scorecard and he is currently #2 in the 8a ranking game.

Alex Megos reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Pirmin Bertle's Wunderheiler 9a/+ in Frankenjura. It is a new link up in between Corona and Burn4you. "I think I did it in 3 or 4 days. I always went there during my training weeks at home so didn't feel great every time I was there. Fun combination though." (c) Chris Hanke

Bertle comments. "I sent it 04/04 this year but never published something. For me, it was clearly harder than Corona and at least as hard as Hello Kitty. It adds three much harder moves directly to the crux of Corona, but shortens the difficulties leading to Burn4you. I chose these variants as I used only my bike for 95% of my climbing last year. Schneiderloch lies 13km from the old yurt spot. Thanks for confronting the hidden motorsport climbers with their karma :) There's no rock climbing on a dead planet...

What is the old yurt spot?
We are founding Germanys most sustainable company:) a yurt business here in Velden. I cut down to one day climbing in two weeks but could almost send 21 times day pain, 8c+, two weeks ago. We are covered in work as we, in addition, bought a big house in Frankenjura six months ago."

Allison Vest, who the last week sent her third 8B, has made in Joe's Valley (UT). "Woah. Single sesh. What just happened?? Kind of all of a sudden I was standing on top. Suited me so well. Such a cool line. This week has been nuts."

8B in one session. What about going for your first 8B+?
Hahahaha, I guess you could say I feel pretty strong right now? I think I’ve gotta tackle some more anti-style boulders of every grade up to 8B before I look for the next even bigger thing. Stoked to keep looking for the next thing that inspires me!

William Bosi has done Steve McClure's Mutation in Raven Tor and suggest an upgrade to 9a+. "Wow! So happy to get the first repeat, Steve sent this route two months before I was born so its taken 23 years for the repeat. World-class!" (c) Band of Birds

Mutation has been a long running project for Bosi who opened his account on the line 4 years and 40 sessions ago before finally sending the route late Sunday evening on 31st October. What makes the repeat so remarkable is that the route is at a popular sport climbing destination near Sheffield with a high proportion of strong elite level climbers and has still taken so long to see a repeat, despite attention, which attests to the difficulty of the line.

Will commented on his ascent of Mutation, "Finally! This was by far and away my longest project on a route and I am so happy to clip the chains on it. It is so typical of the redpointing game that the route went down on the last go of the day with little expectation that I would send it! Full credit to Steve McClure on an amazing first ascent and for establishing a climb with such amazing moves.""

McClure commented on the first repeat with, "My first reaction when I got the news was 'Awesome!' I was so psyched for Will that he had finally done Mutation. A few years ago, I was really worried that the route was going to gather dust and not see a repeat so it was great when Will opened his account on it. Obviously, I think he took probably longer than he would have wanted on it but for me, the route is at the absolute limit with no margin for error. You need to have the route dialled, be in great shape and have perfect conditions so I am really happy that it all came together for Will!""

On the subject of the grade, Will commented: "Honestly, I think I lost all concept of the grade on this one about 20 sessions ago! However, I do know it cannot be 9a as the first half of the route is Evolution and gets 8c+. I sent Evolution in three attempts in the middle of July, in contrast to send just the Mutation extension link took me around five days! So in my head the top half has to be at least 8c+ too…? Now 8c+ into 8c+ definitely doesn’t make 9a. Also to note, I reckon I must have sent Evolution hundreds of times by now which makes it even harder to grade, the bottom only takes about a minute to climb through now also! So is Mutation the world's first 9b? Maybe, time will tell with other ascensionists but I think I will go for 9a+ for now…".

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