Iziar Martinez, who last year did five 8c's, has done her first in 2021, El hijo libre in Rodellar. "This summer has been crazy. I have been competing in a lot of competitions. I just needed a little rest from all that, so I went to Rodellar and I didn't know what to try, and I saw this incredible line that I wanted to try last year and I thought it would be nice to give it a try."

In total, the 16-year-old has done 13 IFSC comps in 2021 including getting a bronze in a Euro Youth Boulder Cup. Next up is the Youth World Championship in Russia.

Jonathan Flor, who previously has done 47 routes 8c+/9a and harder, reports on Insta that he has done two Dani Andrada 9a's in Rodellar, De Battre Mon Coeur S'Est Arrêté and Cosi se Arete. The Spaniard also did Cosi fan tutte 8c (+) on his second go after a good flash attempt. All three routes he did in just a couple of days. (c) Inga Patarcic

Céüse is often referred to as the best climbing crag in the world. Most think that the only setback is the one hour approach going up hill. Stefano Ghisolfi comes with the great news on Insta that E-bikes are now available.

Everett Sloane has done We can build you 8B+, video, as well as Variant 8C in Lincoln Lake. The latter should is possibly the second ascent of a Drew Ruana creation.

”I started with the original boulder "We Can build you" v14. Drew Ruana found some super good beta with some difficult opposing heel hooks that fit my style really well. So after 3 days of effort I was able to put down the higher start.

Drew put up the low start -Variant a few weeks back so I’d been wanting to try it since I saw it. I’mnot sure but I think this may be the second ascent. This start adds a pretty powerful crimpy 7C+ or 8A directly into "We can build you" with no rest. The whole climb ended up being 20 difficult moves in a row. The final sequence is a really technical slopey traverse that I had to work for a long time to get my beta just right. I sent Variant the session after "We can build you" so I guess it was 4 sessions total.”

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi has done his second 9a in 2021, Hades in Nassereith. "What a nice endurance rote! Could've done it 5th go, but slipped off the wet undercling twice. Surely a classic line out there! Would still say that it's easier than the Turkish Haircut (9a) in Turkey."

What is your next plan and what about comps?
Hopefully will go to Frankenjura in the middle of September and then to Turkey for November. Going to Voronezh and then I think I'm done for the comp season.

Jon Glassberg/Louder Than 11, 8a member and 8C boulderer, Daniel Gajda/IFSC and Leo Zhukov/IFSC have been shooting and sharing superb pictures from the Olympic Games, among others. They were also kind to share some of his experiences from behind the scene. Gajda and Zhukov are in the picture.

Zhukov: "The most thrilling moment was for sure the women’s podium when the girls stood together, and then at some moment put the heads on each other shoulders and started to cry!! When speaking not about competition - there was a very cute moment, when a Taxi driver (was special taxi for media) made a present for me and Dimitris (another IFSC photographer) - a Japanese paper fan with some origami on it and good wishes. The driver had a bag full of those little gifts for her passengers. At this moment I really felt, that at least part of the people is happy about this event, and they would love to share their happiness and hospitality with all other world!

As climbing is a ‘true’ sport, it fits pretty well into Olympics. F.e. curling 🥌 doesn’t fit. To my opinion, it’s a kind of game like billiard or darts, but not an Olympic sport ))) And climbing is very well-balanced between male and female performance, comparing f.e. to BMX freestyle, where the girls are riding way lower. But in this combined format it might be hard to watch, because of the duration. So, in Paris B+L competition will go at least one hour faster, because Speed is separated."

Glassberg: ”Most thrilling moment for me behind the scene was feeling the energy from the medalists. These guys worked so hard to earn this podium spot and hanging with Nathaniel after the event, the US climbing team and just soaking in Climbing’s big moment was a dream come true.

I was shocked at how many people were there combing the event as press. I would guess there were 100 photographers from all over the world and a variety of international reputable magazine and newspapers. There were very few endemic climbing photographers so I felt lucky to be a climber documenting this moment for climbers in an authentic way for our sport.

Overall the reaction seemed to be very positive from everyone. In the end, the IFSC and IOC put the best climbers of the night on a podium and hung medals around their necks so that’s a huge win for climbing as well as the winners of the competition.”

Gajda: ” I think the most thrilling moment behind the scenes for me were just all of the emotions involved in qualifying for the final and winning a medal. Emotions were for sure high this comp! I think climbing fit into the games very well! It’s an exciting sport and it’s visually amazing to watch. I think everyone is excited to have speed be a discipline of its own next time though!

From what I saw it definitely seemed like there was a lot of buzz around climbing being in the Olympics. The IOC President came and watched the final and the amount of media there was pretty crazy!”

What are the experiences from Tokyo you will remember the most?
Well, for sure what I remember the most at the moment and what I will remember the most is disappointment. It definitely feels hard, working harder than ever, sacrificing so much and coming back home empty-handed. On the other hand, it always feels good to do your best and climb well on the comp. From this perspective, I don't think I could have done any better on this set boulders and final lead route.

The most positive experience to remember is the speed final. I had been struggling with for so many months with speed, making very little progression and unable to move my body up the speedwall in the right way. In the last two runs, it was the first time in my life when I felt I was levitating while speed climbing. It was effortless, "fast", and so easy. We were always joking that climbing a speed route sub-7 is as hard as climbing 8a on lead (for guys). I think it is actually true. And I was going crazy that after 3 years of practice, I was not 8a speed climber. On my last run of speedclimbing career, I climbed an "8a" and I am happy to quit. But to be honest, on these speed runs, I thought that speed climbing was actually fun.

How was your feeling during the 20 seconds or so you had the gold when Schubert was climbing?
I had no idea it would be gold, but I knew I would be on the podium. I knew that Jakob was super fit and I was 100% sure it would fit Jakob's style. I was pretty sure Jakob wouldn't fall lower than me, but I thought it was possible that he falls in the same move as I did and I would have won due to faster time. But Jakob was just unstoppable, incredible display of endurance and it was painful but easy to admit that Jakob was better climber that day.
(c) Petr Chodura

Charlotte Frank has done her third 8c, Battle Cat in Frankenjura. "The route is sharing its first part with Cringer (8b+), which I climbed last year. So it made sense to do the top out of Battle Cat this year. Unfortunately, the projecting process got intermitted a couple of times by heavy rainfalls.

All in all, I see this route as one of my very favourites in Frankenjura. That's among other things because of its unusual length and the delicate movements it requires. "

Vadim Timonov, Irina Kuzmenko and Sergei Skorodumov showing strong fingers doing ten hard classics in Rocklands including Sergei’s flash of Moon Shadow 8B.