Great start of the Youth World Champion in Voronezh in Russia with perfect route setting for the youngest category where Anastasi Sanders from the USA topped out all four routes. Among the boys, Sorato Anraku from Japan won and he topped out all but the final. Interesting is that the USA got three out of the six medals and France two.

1. Anastasia Sanders USA Top : Sorato Anraku JPN 40+
2. Meije Lerondel FRA 49+ : Hugo Hoyer USA 39+
3. Mio Nukui JPN 45+ : Dillon Countryman USA 36
Complete results

Hamish McArthur from GBR, who got the silver in the Youth World Championship in 2019, won in the Junior category in Voronezh by topping out all four boulders in just eight tries. In the Top-8, France had three, Great Britain and Japan two boys. Among the Youth A, born -04 and -05, Hannes Van Duysen from Belgium won an extremely tight fight by doing three tops in eight attempts. It is interesting that Mejdi Schalck from France, who is #5 in the World Cup 2021, was #4 after having won both the qualification and the semi. Noteworthy is also that Germany had four guys Top-8.

1. Hamish McArthur GBR 44 (c) Leo Zhukov
2. Rei Kawamata JPN 34
3. Paul Jenft FRA 24

1. Hannes Van Duysen BEL 34 (8)
2. Emil Zimmerman GER 34 (9)
3. Thorben Perry Blom GER 34 (10)
Complete results

Choong Katherine, who previously has done two 9a's, has done Hélix au pays des merveilles 8c (+) in Pic St Loup. The 29-year-old has been an active competition climber for 15 years and in 2009, she won the Youth World Championship. (c) Pierre Delas

"Not having seen a ray of sunshine since this spring in Switzerland and a bit tired of freezing in Switzerland in the middle of July, the idea of enjoying the beautiful cliffs of the south of France motivated me right away. After the first two lead world cups which did not go well, I learned that I was not selected for the rest of the season. A bad thing for a good thing, the next day I was on the road to Le Pic St-Loup to meet some friends. Cédric Lachat had recommended me this cag which is not very frequented but which presents major routes, physically demanding in an impressive cave with tufas! Helix is in the heart of this cave. A long and very overhanging route, with a difficult bouldery move at the bottom, followed by a resistant part with a second crux at the 3/4 of the route before finishing on incredible tufas (where you can still fall). I liked the route right away, although at the beginning I was not strong enough to link the moves. It took me quite a while to figure out the first crux. Fortunately, I had Nina Caprez with me to help me find out the good beta for this crux and Pierre Délas for the rest of the route. The difficult section at the top was also a problem for me, not being able to use the usual beta with my T-Rex arms 😉

After falling on the last difficult move on the last day of my first stay, I had to come back in August for a few days to finish the route. With temperatures still around 30 degrees, I of course waited for the last day of my second stay to finally pass this second crux, fighting at every move and finally succeeding in the route thanks to a small saving wind. As always, the pressure of the last chance allowed me to give it my all!

About the grade, I heard that some climbers would downgrade it. I would say that it is a route of my style (endurance) but actually, it took me a lot of attempts (around 12 days). Maybe my judgement is a bit biased by the heat or because I'm just not that strong ;-) Really hard to say but I'd say the rating seems pretty accurate. Note that I didn't use a knee pad, not being essential with my methods. In short, as usual, a discussion that is not so important for me in view of the beauty of the line, the pleasure of having done a great physical and mental fight and the great moments spent at the cliff with a great team! Thanks to them for the encouragement and the good times, it helps so much in a difficult project to have the chance to be surrounded by a great team."

Stefano Ghisolfi, who previously has done two 9b+', reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Bibliographie 9c in Céüse. Ethan Pringle bolted it in 2009 and last year Alex Megos did the FA. "PLEASE DON'T WAKE ME UP, like in every fairy tails last day was actually the best day. I'm crying 😭😭😭" (c) Adri Martinez

Stefano has worked and documented the process the whole summer on his Youtube channel, in between competing in the World Cup. With just one event left in Kranj in three weeks, the Italian is in the lead. In the 8a ranking game, Stefano will be #2 after Adam Ondra, once he has logged it. More info to come.

Lukas Sager has done Yeah Man! 8b+ in Gastlosen. It is 300 meters long, has four pitches 8a to 8b+, out of which the second last pitch is the hardest. It was bolted in 1999 by François Studemann and Guy Scherrer. The individual pitches were freed in 2004 by Josune Bereziartu und Riker Otegi. The 1st redpoint all lead in a day happened in 2010 by Giovanni Quirici. This spring the 16-year-old spent four months in Margalef out of which half of the period by himself, following his school via the internet. Already then he said that once he was back home, he had some multi-pitch projects in mind. (c) Dor Roda

"Every summer I go to the Gastlosen area. I am a “local”. I know the best places to sleep, to eat and of course to climb over there. In 2019 I met Cedric Lachat in the parking lot. He was on his way to climb some hard multi-pitch routes in Switzerland. Later I saw him on Yeah man. I fell in love with the line immediately. It took us 2 years to organize ourselves and take this project really seriously. Last summer, in this first Covid summer, I went to the Gast just to climb on the usual crags at the bottom of the faces. Thanks to my father and Beal I managed to collect all the gear we need in 2020. My goal was always clear: climb in red point all the lengths in one day. It is really not easy to climb, to eat, to rest and sleep with your father. Ther was a lot of tensions between us. I quit the Gruyère area to catch up with my mother. I came back with her to do a 2 days session in the route. She is quieter. Dor Roda was also a precious help for this adventure. He came 2 times. At the beginning to set up the static ropes and the first days in the route and he came back for the last part as well.

Resting was also a part of the process. I am not used to work a route endlessly, every single day in the route count. I learned a lot how to jumar and belay down on static ropes. The first day I have climbed to 4 pitches, then I work on pitches 5, 6, 7. And so on… After only 5 days in the route and a lot of rest days in between, I decided to make an attempt for my 6th day.

On Saturday 21st of august, I stood at the top after an incredible day in the route. I needed to twice climb the 6th and 8th lengths. The 6th is not hard grading (8a) but it is in your head: sensations, foot work, jump, small crimps… The 8th is the 8b+, I felt right at the top, needed to come back at the belay, recompose myself and send it. I was so engaged that I skipped 2 quick draws. I am so glad to stand at the top with my father and Dor."

Cody Roth has done Puro Dreaming in Arco which he thinks is 8c+. It was bolted by Alfredo Webber and originally thought to be 9a but possibly due to better kneebar technics, some have started calling it 8c+.

"I’ve been living in Arco since October. I work full time for Vertical-Life, whose main office is just an hour and some change from Arco. I’m able to do a lot of my work from home and with there being so many options close to Arco, I’m able to climb after work a few days a week. On average I probably climb three days a week. I haven’t climbed in a gym in over a year, but that will probably change come winter. I hadn’t tried Pure Dreaming in probably a month prior to doing it first go last week. It had been too warm for Massone, and I like having multiple projects and also spending some days onsighting and just messing around. I think if you solely focus on one project at a time, your climbing narrows and you lose your mental sharpness.

I think I’ve done close 10 8c’s or harder since moving to Arco. On all but one, as soon as I’ve done what was the barrier move for me, I’ve gone on to send. So, I guess I’ve been doing an okay job of converting the chances I get! Reini’s Vibes felt harder than Pure Dreaming, which is why I wouldn’t claim it at 9a. It has one move that’s a bit riskier, but it has better rests and requires less resistance."

Pau Galofré has done his first 9a by repeating Alex Megos Pornographie in Céüse. "It was like a three weeks process. A lot of falls in the last part. There are two sections with a rest in the middle and then small and sharp holds. Very happy with the result finally." (c) Adri Martinez

Alex Garriga, who previously has done seven 9a+', has done the fifth repeat of Jonathan Flor's Ali Hulk extensión total sit start suggesting a personal 9a+ grade. In 2019, Alex did the stand start of the 30-meter long roof also graded 9a+. The sit start he just did adds a 15 moves 7B+ boulder but he says easier sequences and better rests due to the use of kneebars have made the original route easier.

"It is not the same route as Dani did." Originally, Dani Andrada opened most of the routes in the Ali Baba cave, without using knee pads. Insta

Michael Piccolruaz, #15 in the Olympics, has posted critical comments on his Insta in regards the boulder setting in the Olympics. "Talking to the other competitors ALL (I've talked to most of us 20) agreed that this was not enjoyable and that it's sad that this is the way bouldering is being presented on the biggest stage in climbing history!"

In the qualification, Alex Megos was #6 by doing 1 Top and 4 Zones. In the final, five out of seven flashed the first, just one did the second and all flashed the zone of the third. In spite of that poor results for the athletes, Michael's critic does not mention the difficulty but only the style. "Walking on volumes, pressing, jumping, pressing again, some weird upsidedown bat hanging and to finish it off a lucky punch throw into a crack. And where is the climbing???"

Do you have any thoughts on how this could be changed and improved in the future?
Well the setters should simply consider setting more powerful and proper climbing boulders where you actually get to do a few moves... I know this kind of boulder is often difficult for them to set because many setters don't have the physical level to test and climb the hard physical boulders. So setting technical and coordinative boulders is obviously easier for them to judge the difficulty. One way to improve this situation would be to allow more young setters into the international setting team. There are so many motivated and strong young setters out there who would love to set for a world cup and also learn. From the experienced setters. But the IFSC and the current setters make it so incredibly hard for new setters to join the team...

Do you think this is also the common understanding among the competitors?Well I'm sure some fellow competitors think like this. And I don't want to say that we should just get powerful boulders. For instance, I thought the final at the Olympics was great in regards to the styles they set.

But the difficulty of the final boulders was very bad, one being way too easy and one way too hard (with a useless bonus).