David Firnenburg and Stefan Scarperi have done Pornographie 9a in Céüse. Alex Megos did the FA last year, commenting on Insta. "The guy who bolted it named it "Pornographie" and I'd say it felt like 9a. I only gave it 4 tries so I wouldn't be surprised if repeaters find new holds and betas and it ends up at 8c+."

Only in 2021, it has had eight repeats and most did not use a knee pad as Megos did not use it during the FA. We asked Scarperi, in the picture, why he thinks it has become so popular and what about the grade?"
I think it got so popular because it's the only short route (15 meters) of this grade in Céüse! With kneepad, it's 8c+ because it helps a lot, without it's 9a I would say!"

Firnenburg: "The way I climbed it felt like soft 9a in comparison to the other 8c and 8c+ I did here. I am close on Le Cadre 9a which feels slightly harder."

Joshua Ibbertson, who did his first 8b+ at age 12, has done his second 9a, Northern Lights at Kilnsey, after some 20 sessions. The historical route was bolted by Ben Moon some 25 years ago and then Steve McClure got the FA in 2000. Previously, it has only been repeated by Adam Ondra, Alex Megos and William Bosi.

"I first got on it in June, right after I did progress (8c+). It’s the line directly to the right so was the obvious next choice. The route is super sustained, so I saw it as a great opportunity to work on my power endurance (which was definitely one of my weaknesses). Obviously with it having so much history added to the motivation! Especially belaying Ben (Moon) and watching him get so close.

I didn’t do any specific training for the route apart from training on the route itself. Some days I would be too tired, or conditions wouldn’t be good enough to redpoint, so I’d just focus on doing links and laps on sections, for training. I fell agonisingly close a few weeks ago, after my foot got stuck round the rope! To add to the frustration the route got soaked a couple of days later. I had to leave it for a while to let it dry. Yesterday, it finally dried enough to redpoint from the ground. I was really happy with how the send go went I felt in control and relaxed meaning I could enjoy the climbing. I even surprised myself by shaking out on what was previously one of the crux moves for me!"

What is your next plan?
Go surfing for a few days. Then I need to get back to training. One of the things I really want to do next is try and find/bolt some routes of my own.

The route setting in the Youth World Championship in Voronezh, Russia, was excellent, at least from a difficult point of view. There were very few ties in the finals, almost all boulders, as well as most routes, were topped at the same time as very few climbers did score zero zones. The number of routes set must have been at least four times as many as were set in the Tokyo Olympics, where we saw several big mistakes in Bouldering. The main reason for this has probably to do that the route setters in Russia were as strong as the competitors and also that there was a female route setter. (c) Leo Zhukov

Gabriele Moroni has done Der heilige Gral 9a in Frankenjura. The Italian is a former successful competition climber who got the bronze in the Euro Boulder Championship in 2004 at age 16 and then he stopped competing in 2018 when he also won his first World Cup. Gabri is also a Frankenjura expert having previously done six 9a's and one 9a+ there.

How come you have developed into being a Frankenjura expert?
I spent a lot of time in the Frankenjura in the past that I got to know many of the crags and harder routes. This was my first trip after some years of absence and now I am very psyched to spend more time there again. It was a last-minute decision to spend the holidays in Germany. Once I got to the FJ I realized the route was pretty dry so I immediately started trying it. During our 10 day stay, we had the typical Franconian weather with several rainy days. But eventually, the route stayed more or less dry and I could finish it on probably the last 2 days window of decent weather!

You’re an olympic champion, how do you feel? (c) Lena Drapella
I'm very happy, still trying to assimilate it a bit better. We were all dreaming about the possibility of winning a gold medal when we thought about Tokyo but, honestly, I didn't see it possible at all. We came with the illusion and the objective of getting into the final. And once there, the goal was to enjoy ourselves. I don't really know how to explain the result. I think the key was that I knew how to manage the mental part well. I didn't think so much about the result or what I had to do to win, but I focused on climbing and doing my best.

How did you experience the last test of the final, the lead final?
When I finished my turn, I saw that 38+ put me first. I started to calculate to see what had to happen to win the gold, but when Jakob Schubert managed to overtake Adam Ondra, I didn't want to celebrate too much in case I had made a mistake in my calculations, I didn't want to celebrate anything too early. When I saw that it was gold, I was very happy. We are friends with Jakob, the Austrian climber, and it was very nice. It was an honour to compete against him, against Ondra and against all the climbers in the event. Just a few years ago I was watching videos and dreaming of being like them, they are legends of climbing.

Who did you think of when you saw that you won the gold?
In my family, who have always been cheering me on and supporting me, covering thousands of kilometres. And my coach, David Macià. We are a team, I couldn't do anything without him. He is 50% to blame for what we have done. I've been training with him since I was 11 years old and we understand each other very well.

Do you think this gold will help climbing to grow?
I think the fact that it is on the Olympic programme will help the community to grow a lot. It has been growing over the years and it is a very visual, very attractive sport that can get people excited. In terms of competition, what I and the rest of the guys on the Spanish national team need is a private facility so that we can work in peace and do our own training sessions and not depend on a commercial gym, where we train with clients who don't compete. It is complicated to prepare for competitions like this. Before the Games we had to go to Austria to train, for example.

Why do you like climbing?
I like climbing because it's what I've been doing since I was a little boy and, in the end, it's part of my life. Besides, I really like competing, that feeling of nerves and tension of only having one attempt and not being able to fail and the good atmosphere we have among all the climbers.

Adam Ondra is the best climber in the world. The discipline where he is most superior is onsight including 85 8c to 9a. The runner up has probably done a dozen 8c and harder! However, what anyhow sticks out, and what can be very important for coaches, parents and wonderkids to take in, is Adam's focus on onsight until he became a teenager. Being 12 years old, Adam onsighted 19 8a+ and 8 8b's. Such an amazing onsight ticklist would have placed him #1 in the 8a onsight ranking game most of the years since we started the scorecard in 2000.

At age 10, Adam onsighted five 8a's and had redpointed one 8a+! Being 8 years old, his maximum grade was 7b+ and out of seven such, he had onsighted four. In his first ever 8a interview, at age eleven, he said "I always try to climb as many routes of the grade OS (now, it is 8b). I usually don't try harder things for a long time."

Here are some comments from Adam from 2017 which have an important message to the youngsters, parents and coaches of today.
What are the changes you see on the scene in comparison to when you were like 13 years old? What advice could you give to the young climbers?
I think the scene of youngsters has changed as there are way more kids climbing pretty hard. More coaches, more scientific approach, but the problem for many remain the same - I often see too much pressure from the coaches and parents (which is even worse), not letting the kids be more independent in climbing and just having more fun in general. Kids should be motivated and psyched to climb themselves - if not, they will probably quit climbing sooner or later. It is important to be ambitious but not focusing too much on the performance. I think kids in general often climb only in certain areas and certain routes, which fit their style and they can push their limits very fast and high.

We know that grades are relative, most importantly for someone being only 130cm. It can be frustrating for the youngsters when they grow up, their bodies changing and they do not make any further progression, or not even maintain the level. I think it is very important to climb everything and everywhere when it comes to sport climbing, mostly onsighting but not all the time, and not onsighting in the usual areas suitable for onsights. That way one learns the most and you gain the experience to have fun in the future, because you will be capable of climbing well in any style.

Jonathan Flor reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Zeleputza 9a+ in La hoya de la leze, which was bolted by Iker Pou. "A amazing line of pure endurance, on an incredible wall full of great projects, so this has only just begun, over the next few days I will try to work on other lines I have pending together with a great team of motivated climbers. 🙌🏼" (c) Gorka Karapeto