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

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Vadim Timonov had an amzing trip to Rocklands this summer doing three 8C's, three 8B+' and a flash of The Guest List 8B.

Antoine Girard reports from his latest trip including a nice funny video. "Instead of the Rockland trip schedule for august 2021which was cancelled due to the COVID crisis, I spent one month in Switzerland. 2 weeks in Gottardo to discover this Wonderfull area and 2 weeks in Magicwood trying to succeed in the old project. I’ve planned to try all the classic boulders of Gottardo. Hazel Grace 8B+, Bonjour Finesse 8B and Stairway to Heaven 8B+ went pretty fast but The famous slab Kingda Ka never went. After these two first weeks I drove to Magicwood to try Power of Now 8B+/C but it was a little bit disappointing because the first mouv is morph and Simon’s beta is so much hard and painful. So I decided to change my plans and I tried Ill Trill which cost me 4 sessions. I enjoyed to did some 8Bs that I let last year and trying hard in Mystic Stylez. It will be necessary to come back in this magical place to finish old projects and trying some of the nicest 8Cs of this chaos when the conditions will be cooler."

Alex Garriga, who the last five months has done five 9a+, including a personal downgrade of a confirmed 9b, has done three more 9a's in Ilarduia; Harropuza, Escaqueo de Mulero and Celedon. The 22-year-old finished his University degree one month ago so there should be plenty of room for more and harder ascents. (c) Alfonso Martinez

"Ilarduia is one of the best crags in Spain. Celedon is possibly the best route, a perfect endurance route. Now I am trying to climb as much as I can. Let's see what happens in the next months 😂😂"

Japan and USA got three gold each in the Youth World Championship in Voronezh, Russia. If we give three points for gold, two for silver and one for bronze, this is the ranking; France 18, Japan 16, Slovenia 15 and USA 14. It should be mentioned that Japan, which totally dominated in 2019 with 29 points participated only with one athlete per category, more or less, in 2021.


Interestingly is that only Naile Meignan won both the semi and final in Bouldering. She was also the only one to flash all for problems in the semifinal. Hamish MacArthur (GBR) and Anastasia Sanders (USA) won in both Lead and Boulder. Noteworthy is also that Aleksandra Totkova and Mejdi Schalck, who have made podiums in Lead and Boulder respectively in the 2021 World Cup, did not make podiums in those disciplines in Youth A.