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.

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!"