Dan Mirsky has done his third 9a, out of which the second in 2021, Planet Garbage in Rifle. "My hardest route to date, in my opinion. Very bouldery, dynamic and sustained, a hard style for me. The real action is connecting two boulders. One is a huge and low percentage dyno V 10? (7C+) The second is a sustained and more technical section with bad feet V10? Last year I was 1 for 30??? on the jump from the ground. This year I stuck it 5 times and took it to the top on the 5th on a perfect afternoon supported by good people and belayed by one of my oldest buddies, Unbelievably psyched!!" (c) Dylan Alvarez

The day after you did Waka Flocka Flame 8c+. How have you been able to level up your game being 39-years-old?
Simply put, I have been eating better, drinking slightly less Hazy IPAs beer, meditating daily and frequently holding on to my hang board with my feet on the ground.🤪 I’m a pretty serious beer geek🤓 so I am always on the hunt for new and more delicious beers. Sometimes that doesn’t help the sending…

Hangboard with your feet on the ground?
The idea is you do the minimum amount of work to create the desired response. By doing less you recover faster and can “train” again sooner.

Laura Rogora reports on Insta, with a picture by Stefano Ghisolfi, that she has done the FA of Iron Man, 9a in Bus De Vela. Stefano comments, "I tried it a couple of time and I can say it's hard!"

When it comes to rock climbing, the 20-year-old is superior among the female having done 20 routes 8c+/9a and harder. When it comes to competitions, the Italian has won two Lead World Cups and in the last World Champion, she got the bronze.

Gio Placci, Italian Boulder and Lead winner in 2021, has done Coup de Grace in Ticino after just three days. "Coupe de grace has always inspired m. I watched a lot of videos of the route and it seemed amazing. After the finish of the world cups, I decided to try it. Two weeks ago I came there two days to check the route. For me, the harder part was the lower one because of the longs moves but the upper part felt easy. This weekend I returned. The temperatures were good and on the first day of the weekend, I sent it!"
18 months ago, you were #77 in the Italian Boulder Cup. How can you explain your amazing progress in the comp scene?
This year I trained a lot for the comp and I climbed less outside. The first part of the year I was focusing on boulder comps, but they didn’t go as expected. The last comp was the Italian championship in Bologna. I didn’t have any expectations. My training for the lead comps had already started and I did that comp just for fun. Sometimes to not have any pressure is good and somehow I managed to become the Italian boulder champion!

Then the lead season started and for me, this was my first year as a Senior, in the first World Cup I couldn’t show my potential, too much pressure. Then I worked a lot in my mindset and in the last one I managed to make the semifinal (Kranj) and after one week I managed to win my first Italian lead cup!

Yves Gravelle has done the FA of Low Miall's 8C at Kanata Tremblant. Video of the intense roof on his Insta, where you also can find some amzing training videos. ”3 months of battling conditions and psychological barriers on this line. The direct Sit start to Miall's ahead, Add a 4 moves V11 to the V14. The line is very physical, 15 moves long , a true power.”

Could you please say something about being a ”3x APL World Champion” as it says in your Insta?
The APL is the Armlifting world federation. I completed in the world championship in 2019 in St. Petersburg. I won gold in The rolling Thunder, Axle and Saxon bar in the 66kg weight class and established class WR in both the rolling thunder and Axle.

I think climbers would be amazing at armlifting and gripsport. Thats why I chose to compete a few years back and give climbers some exposure in the sport. I think climbers would do very well in pinch deadlift events (Saxon Bar) and the hub.

Most climbers have a preferred gripping position which is constantly trained. At the same time, the weak gripping position is avoided as much as possible meaning it is almost never trained. With some specific finger training of the weakest position, you can get 100 % stronger in 1 hour, i.e. 100 % more muscle fibres will be in use. The most effective way to recruit your muscle fibres is to just hang on your weak finger position and then gradually increase the load until you can do long campus moves. Here is a recipe on how to quickly get 100 % stronger in your weakest finger position, which is normally a 3-finger open crimp, using a campus board.

1. Start by hanging for less than a second 8 times and then rest for 15 seconds. Repeat 5 - 10 times.
2. Use your feet and jump up to rungs 4 times and hang for less than a second, with each hand, and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
3. Make moves upwards with both hands and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 times.
4. Make two double hand moves upwards and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 - 10 times.
5. Make two double hand moves downwards and then rest for 30 seconds. Repeat 5 times.

Once this session is finished, you will most probably have become 100 % stronger in your weakest position. If you continue to climb you will notice that you will suddenly start using your weakest position and in the long run, your muscle fibres will also grow and you will become much stronger. Note, campus board training should not be done until you are 18 years old and you are an experienced climber. It should also be mentioned that closed crimps are only for the advanced climbers and it is also the position most get an injury from.

Here are the results based on some 1 000 unique votes.

Niki Rusev, who last year did two 9a's, has done Hip Hop 8c+ in Karlukovo. The Bulgarian is also a very successful competition climber who in 2021 has won the Youth World Champion in Boulder and in the European Championship, he won in both Boulder and Speed. In Lead, he has gotten one silver and bronze in the European Cup. (c) Vladimir Pekov

"Hip-hop is a mega classic route in the Prohodna cave. The first I tried the route the weather was hot and humid, so I couldn’t send it in these conditions. I trained what I missed to feel comfortable on the route. I made a simulation of the main crux in the hometown wall and was more focused on fitness exercises. I don’t know, the feeling of being a winner again came back very quickly to my mind and the rocks are the closest to that feeling. The day was windy without sun, about 10 degrees. Perfect for sending. It was in my style for sure, climbed it in eight tries during three sessions. So happy to see it worked out so fast. There are three boulder problems in the route and after each crux there is a good rest and that helped me to figure out the whole fight up to the end!"

As you start trying a new climb, you often get set down by not being able to do a certain move although it is within your grade level. The reason for this is mainly that you have not recruited your maximum finger- and general muscular coordination strength for the move. Until you have spent 15 minutes trying it, there is no need to be frustrated. Just keep a positive mindset and you will see that once you are fully recruited, you can do the move.

Of course, you also might need to go through the same process trying moves you have already done before. If the hard move is a steep open hand challenge and you lately have done more vertical climbing on crimpers, the crux might seem impossible in the beginning. Stay calm and think positive and with some 15 minutes of recruiting, you will do it again with that big smile.

Here is a draft of who have been the best competition climbers in 2021. It should of course be mentioned that it is totally impossible to make an objective ranking combining all events especially when most have only done half of the competitions. The list is just my personal subjective opinion. Please feel free to comment in order to change the list.

1. Natalia Grossman USA
2. Janja Garnbret SLO
3. Jakob Schubert AUT
4. Tomoa Narasaki JPN
5. Brooke Raboutou USA
6. Alberto Gines Lopez ESP
7. Kokoro Fujii JPN
8. Miho Nonaka JPN
9. Laura Rogora ITA
10. Nathaniel Coleman USA

11. Chaehyun Seo KOR
12. Adam Ondra CZE
13. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
14. Sean Bailey USA
15. Akiyo Noguchi JPN
16. Alexey Rubtsov RUS
17. Jessica Pilz AUT
18. Alex Megos GER
19. Michael Mawem FRA
20. Vita Lukan SLO
21. Colin Duffy USA
22. Viktoriia Meshkova RUS
23. Martin Stranik CZE
24. Jan Hojer GER
25. Oriane Bertone FRA

Steve McClure, who did his first 9b at age 45, reports on Insta hat he has repeated Neil Gresham's recent FA Lexicon 8b+ R trad (E11 7a) in Pavey Park. "One of the best hard trad routes I’ve ever done. And certainly the scariest." E11 is the highest grade ever in the UK trad scale, which is based on how difficult and dangerous it is to onsight trad routes. Neil has said that it merits 8b+ difficulty and an R added means that it is dangerous. (c) Neil Gresham

Wow! So what did go through your mind falling and how many sessions did it take to send?
Reckon I had about 4 sessions on the line and a lot of info from Neil. And what went through my mind in that lob? Absolutely nothing!! It was SO quick, like an instant. Kind of unnerved me as I expected I’d have time to think or right myself.

Only 4 sessions, amazing! So you took that fall only on your third session?
This route was VERY my style, I could tell as soon as I saw it. Just off vertical, completely continuous, tiny holds and lots of them. Could not have been better. Plus, and for me at the moment, its in just the right place. CV19 obviously messed with travel, and The Lake District is so beautiful. That crag is way up there with a perfect view. I could not think of a better place to be climbing. I did try and lead it fairly quickly, but perhaps was a bit greedy. I knew I had a good chance, but also that I could still fall. I'd analysed the fall and felt it should be just OK.... it was, but only just really. Even the next day on lead, I didn't fall, but I was so close to falling even higher. I think I've a bit to learn!

How long was the fall and how close was it?
The fall was probably about 20-22m. I bounced just a meter or so above the belayer to rest maybe 3 meters above ledges. Fairly close...some margin... maybe plenty for the bold but not so much for a 51 yr old dad.

What about the 8b+ grade?
I think the grade of 8b+ is probably about right, to lead the whole thing placing the gear. There is a few moves I found really hard towards the start of the run-out section, a jump to a sloper, which taller climbers can easily reach... this may effect the grade, I can't tell for them... but maybe their bigger fingers would struggle in the crimps higher up.