"My name is Staša Gejo, I am 23 years old, 175 cm tall, and I have won medals at the World level competitions when I weighed 67 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 65 kg, 69 kg and 67 kg again. I had lost 10 kg in my teenage years, making me lose my periods, get prone to injuries and fall down this deep hole of never-ending starving, which luckily came to an end in 2017. I won all the possible titles in the Junior category by eating 1200 kcal, running 4 times a week and climb 5 times a week, all while attending a difficult high school programme IB (International Baccalaureate). Didn’t last long until I burned out.

Mom and Dad took me to a nutritionist, a very respected doctor in the Serbian sports scene, dr. Marija Andjelković, who helped me rearrange my food intake, start eating more, and train harder. After a few years, I now have 50% muscle mass, 13% fat and a BMI of 22.2. I feel healthy, strong and confident.

Unfortunately, I have observed patterns of unforgivable behaviour of those in charge of young athletes, especially girls, when they reach puberty. Girls are being blinded by some 'role models that look like skeletons, in the hope to make them achieve it too. Luckily, I was not a victim of such systematic torture, I was my own victim, as is mostly the case;

Somebody's mother forced her to diet, otherwise, she is no good.
Somebody's coach said she can't compete so 'fat'.
'Look at ****, she runs 10 km every other day!'

I must admit, ripped muscular bodies look unrealistically good. We all drop the jaws when we see all those abs and small muscles we rarely get to see. It has a good reason to be a social media viral content and magazine cover page. But anybody who has been there hasn't felt alright. Perfection simply isn't sustainable.

Climbing is known to be the sport of the skinny, even though it doesn't have weight categories. As the sport has seen the increase of critically underweight athletes, the regulations were set. Weight and height measurements have been taken before almost every World Cup Semifinals. In the beginning, the critical values were 17,5 for women and 18.5 for men. As it was realised later on, this limit was too low to address most of the critical cases, therefore it was increased to 18 and 19 respectively. Does it still address the issue? Not really.

The consequences of beating this limit are rather… complicated. Or it depends on the national federation, I guess… Some take it seriously, ban the athlete from the competition, take action to help return to normal weight, help maintain it and return the athlete to healthy performance. One beautiful example of recovery took place in 2019, I have seen the girl this year, more beautiful than ever, looking strong and healthy. It made me so happy to see it.

However, things aren't always handled this nicely. Most of the super skinny cases we still see on the competitions somehow pass these regulations, not sure how exactly. The good old signature move of handwashing, I suppose. A friend and colleague confessed to me:˝Whenever I underperform in bouldering, I know that I need to work on my power, coordination, whatever… but in lead, my first thought is – if I lose 5 kg I can beat them all, no problem. It is impossible to think in any other way when you see abnormally skinny people still competing and climbing higher than you. Then I must be too heavy!˝(claimed at weight probably 55 kg, maybe less, my guess). This thought process is hunting almost everybody who competes in the female category.

During the BMI screenings some athletes even take a peek to see who weighs how much… I don't understand the point. But from such peeking, I heard a rumour (which might not be true) that someone (not to be named) weighs 34 kg. I really hope it isn't true."

Yves Gravelle, who the last week did his first ever 8C, has done the FA's of So What 8C and Turn & Burn 8B+ in Kanata Treblant.

How can you explain this extraordinary peak?
I’ve been focusing a lot on gaining power endurance. I think this was the key for me to reach that next level. I was always very strong on single moves but ran out of steam after a few seconds. Another keys factor was to improve my flexibility and mobility. I think I also gain a lot of confidence and motivation after sending Low Miall’s (8C).

So What 8C FA: "A dream came true today! The link-up of Thessalhydra into Miall’s ahead. I’ve been working on this line for 4 years now. Had to spend months training my shoulders, lats and mobility to be able to do the first moves and doing laps on Miall’s ahead to build the power endurance to link the 2 sections. Fells like V13 into V14.

Turn & Burn 8B+ FA: "Some of the craziest moves I’ve ever done outside and another boulder I never taught I would send. I’ve been playing on this thing for years and could never link more than one move. Sit start next! Definitely V15 (8C) or maybe even V16 (8C+). I feel it might add another V13/14 section into the stand.

Baptiste Dherbilly reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Fred Rouhling's Empreintes 9a (b) in Saint-Pierre en Faucigny. Interestingly, Dherbilly has previously also done the first repeats of two other very old Rouhling FAs: Mandallaz Drive 9a and Salamandre 9a. Noteworthy is that he has only done two more 9a's, the FA of La Horde Intégrale and the first repeat of Les Rats Sous Marins. (c) Leá Delacquis

So how was the process taking it down?
I had to find my beta because there was no video of the entire route, so it was really cool. On one of the cruxes, bolts are far away and it’s hard to work on the moves precisely. When you fall, you have to go up on the rope as there are only four bolts on 15 meters. I have talked about this with Fred. He wanted a hard-working route without hang-dogging bolts.

Why not taking the easier way repeating some popular 9a's?
I like to discover, brush, find the beta and all about the process! It’s more interesting for me! It is harder and not only consuming?

Do you know why Fred graded it 9a/b and how hard is it in comparison to the other 9a's you have done?
I think it’s easier than the other routes. I think I have found an easier beta than Fred. So maybe (I don’t know how Fred did it) with Fred's beta it’s 9a or 9b. I really don’t know why Fred has proposed 9a/b? Grades are not so important to me. I just want to climb the old route and take pleasure! I want to say a big thank to Fred for the vision and the bolting of these routes. Mandallaz is the hardest route I have ever tried.

Why this focus on Rouhling routes and what is next now when you have repeated all of his hard ones?
It’s not a focus on Fred's routes. I love forgotten lines. To rediscover these jewels. Fred opened some route near to my house so I tried these routes because there are hard for me. Next is some route of Laurent Laporte! Only he made the FA, so I want to brush and discover again!

IFSC has presented the 2022 Calender with 13 events distributed over 10 countries and three continents. There will be seven competitions in each discipline starting with Boulder in April and finishing in China with Lead in September. In June, Innsbruck will host the last Boulder event as well as the first Lead event. Interesting is that there will be a Lead/Speed event in Bali in September. The Youth World Championship will take place between 22-31 August in the USA.

Which are the most impressive ascents in the history of climbing? Here is my preliminary list. Only one ascent per climber? (Originally the "groundbreaking" was used instead of impressive.

1. Erebor 9b/+ Laura Rogora 2021
2. FA Silence 9c Adam Ondra 2017
3. La Planta de Shiva 9b Angela Eiter 2017
4. FA Meltdown 8c+ trad Beth Rodden 2008
5. FA Action Direct Wolfgang Gullich 1991

6. Bain de Sang 9a Josune Bereziartu 2002
7. Lucifer 8c+ Ashima Shiraishi (11) 2012
8. FA Es Pontas 9b DWS Chris Sharma 2008
9. OS Estado Critico 9a Alex Megos 2013
10. FA Hubble 9a (8c+) Ben Moon 1990, OS Le roi du pétrole 8c Charlotte Durif 2010, FA Open Air 9a+ by Alex Huber in 1996, La Rambla 9a+ Margo Hayes 2017

Big walls are not included but if so the FA of The Nose 8b+ by Lynn Hill in 1993, should be #1 and possibly #2, Magic Mushroom 8b+ by Babsi Zangerl in 2017. Also, the FA of The Dawn Wall 9a by Caldwell/Jorgeson in 2015 would have qualified to Top-10.

"My name is Staša Gejo, I am 23 years old, 175 cm tall, and I have won medals at the World level competitions when I weighed 67 kg, 57 kg, 62 kg, 65 kg, 69 kg and 67 kg again. I had lost 10 kg in my teenage years, making me lose my periods, get prone to injuries and fall down this deep hole of never-ending starving, which luckily came to an end in 2017. I won all the possible titles in the Junior category by eating 1200 kcal, running 4 times a week and climb 5 times a week, all while attending a difficult high school programme IB (International Baccalaureate). Didn’t last long until I burned out.

Mom and Dad took me to a nutritionist, a very respected doctor in the Serbian sports scene, dr. Marija Andjelković, who helped me rearrange my food intake, start eating more, and train harder. After a few years, I now have 50% muscle mass, 13% fat and a BMI of 22.2. I feel healthy, strong and confident.

I am pretty sure we all know that feeling when you are aware of all the scientific facts and experience with weight loss, you know exactly what the correct way to go is, just that the only little thing that is missing is your belief that it will work at all. We have all been there: googling the fastest or easiest way to lose weight, not even bothering to check sport science books on it, cutting carbs, sweets, following trendy diets, what not, only to achieve unsatisfying goals. This is the point where some people give up, some people stay consistent or find a normal long term diet, but some go all in – starving mode.

This is a form of punishment too, you ate 'so much' until now, well no meals deserved. I took out eating dinners and drastically reduced my caloric intake to 1200 kcal. Later I found out that pretty much everybody who was abnormally skinny did the same. Some big names too. What happens after half a year is 10 kilograms deficit, much lighter and very enjoyable climbing. After a year, fatigue happens, cuts and burns from volumes stop healing, the hormonal response in females shuts down followed by an absence of periods, shoulder injuries become more frequent… your body basically enters survival mode and cuts down all the other functions. Even climbing becomes hard, it becomes impossible to energetically follow up all the demands of the training. Besides, you are dizzy all the time and obviously hungry. But you lose the desire to eat anymore, you don't know what would even make you satisfied. So the circle goes on.

If such a trapped person has good family support, caring friends, and specialist doctors to help, this can be solved. Very easily. The person just needs to be convinced that any deepening of such habits may lead to death. At some point, at least. Such a shape is usually not sustainable. It may last for two years, but then something breaks – the psyche or the body, literally."

Joshua Ibbertson, who made his first 8a headlines at age 10 doing two 8a's, has done Batman 9a/+ at Malham. The was the 17-year-old's third 9a and harder and all of them with Steve McClure as the FA. (c) Marsha Balaeva

"Batman is hands down one of the coolest routes I’ve ever done. The sequence is just awesome. There are lots of deep drop knees and interesting body positions. I was inspired to try this route after I did Rainshadow last year. I got pretty close in the spring when I got on it after lockdown, but in the end it got too hot. I realised that I needed to work on my power endurance so that I would have enough left in the tank for the final boulder problem. So during the Summer, I got on lots of routes that would help with this.

Getting back on the route a few weeks ago I felt I’d made massive progress, especially my power-endurance. I was able to consistently have good burns into the crux. The send go was a really great experience, everything came together nicely. The route flowed well; the conditions were good. It ended up being much less of a fight than I expected. The crux, where I’d been spat of lots of times before felt so different! After I’d got through that it was just a matter of staying relaxed on the headwall. By comparison, the climbing is not as hard, but it’s still droppable if you lose concentration or are pumped out of your mind! This season has been so much fun, climbing with family and friends …trying hard, sharing beta, cheering each other on, having the crag banter…for me that’s it’s what it’s all about."

Molly Thompson-Smith has done her third 8B in 2021, Steppenwolf in Magic Wood. Interestingly, all her 8B's she has done on her second session. Video on her Insta, where she comments. "Unfortunately I hurt my pulley on this go so that could be the end of my climbing here🥲"

On which hold did you get that pulley injury and how were you able to continue?
I think it was after I matched the second hold… I caught the third one really badly on that try but somehow stayed on. Then there was a lot of intense full crimping afterwards.