Analise Van Hoang, who did her second 8A+ two weeks ago in just 45 minutes, has done her first 8B, Chinese connection in Mortar Rock. "Psyched to have sent my first V13 and get the 2nd female ascent! Still fells quite far from my limit considering it only took 3 sessions. Stoked to see what I can do in the future!"

Daniel Woods, who has the best bouldering tick list in the world, with close to 40 8C and harder shares his story doing the FA of Return of the Sleepwalker 9A. The 31-year-old sent it after 70+ days projecting, out of which the last 16 days he was alone camping in the canyon. (c) Jon Glassberg / Louder Than 11

"The first 8 of the 16 days I was climbing on it 2 on 1 off. In the final 8, I was 1 on 1 off. Haha, rest days were boring. I’d either chill at camp and stretch a bit or go walk around to kill time before the next session. Was hard to motivate to do anything else. I was consumed by the line and distracted by it. I listened to a ton of music actually. I have a lot of DJ sets saved to my SoundCloud, so would just zone out and listen."

Amazingly, his friend Jon Glassberg did spontaneously show up at the scene as Woods was going for the 10 meters slabby top out."We rushed over when we heard him screaming and assisted him with chalk on the 30ft slabby top out that looks scary and slick. You definitely don't want to blow it after climbing V17 (9A) on the v2 exit slab! Daniel was in shock I think. I would imagine after 70+ days of effort on the worlds hardest boulder, sending feels pretty strange, like an out of body experience. We all celebrated at the base when he came down, chatted about the hardest climbs in the world and went climbing. There was something special in the air. I had climbed the Nest (8C) the day before and Daniel sent with no one around just his personal battle with what is likely the hardest 30 ft of stone on earth right now."

Daniel, could you please share your "Into the Wild" 9a experience. What was your daily routine being by yourself in the canyon?
I was going to bed at night at around 10 and would wake up at 3 30 every morning... try to fall back asleep but then would just be wide awake haha. Some days I would get to the Boulder, start sessioning, then just pass out on my pad or fall asleep sitting up for a bit haha. But anyway I wake up in the morning and make oats with PhysiVantage whey protein powder, peanut butter, blueberries, and bananas, make a matcha latte and then review some footy. Drive to the store and pick up supplies for the day then drive the 20 min slow ass dirt road to the parking. Do the 20 min hike in and start warming up. A session for about 5 hours sometimes more than bail. The beauty about this climb is that it is very skin-friendly... never split. Your muscles get fucked before anything else. It also sits in the shade all day.

At the end of the day I’d get sushi or a salmon, veggie, rice bowl for dinner then drive back to camp. After would watch footy and listen to music then try to sleep. Honestly, my days outside of projecting were super uneventful. I could have tried to do something else but nothing inspired me. I felt like I was possessed. I wasn’t drinking any alcohol, no weed, no tobacco, no coffee in the morning (just matcha). I got myself super clean which I hadn’t done in 10 years haha. This climb really woke me up to the importance of self-care. I wanted to turn myself into a machine. I take supplements such as turmeric, fish oil, vitamin D, B12 with methyl, lions mane mushrooms, reishi mushrooms, and collagen. This combined with a ton of water and no “harmful” substances allowed me to recover super fast and develop clarity in myself that I had not felt in years. Now I’m addicted to this feeling and honestly don’t want to go back to my previous lifestyle. I even tried drinking a small sake bottle after the send and got two shots in and couldn’t finish it haha. I like felt my body start to swell up from it. I got fuckin in TUNE with my body during this process.

Here his comments to 8a after his send one month ago talking about the insanity.

Meini Li from China has done China Climb 8b+ (c) at White Mountain, Yangshou, in China. The 10-year-old has previously won some 40 national titles, including in all disciplines the last two years. In total, she needed 37 attempts spread over five intense weekends over two months. Climbing has the full story including interviews with Meini and her mother Emma. "After Meini started climbing, we basically arranged our schedule around hers. We as parents have no excuses to slow down but to let her push us forward."

Jules Henry started climbing 20 months ago. After six months of climbing, at age seven, he did his first 7B+ boulder. Due to the pandemic, most of his training and climbing since then has occurred on their home wall. In March, this 124-cm-tall kid did his first 8a and last month, he did his first 8a+, Sacrilège in Saussois. This means that Jules is the youngest ever to have done an 8a+. On his latestInsta - Jules9a, he says he tried an 8b and did all the moves.

His father says he climbs five days a week out of which three outdoors. It is Jules who picks the routes and currently he is working on another 8a. During the lockdown, they were mainly climbing at their home wall where his father creates challenges for him.

What is your climbing background in the family?
I have two kids but we are only two who climb, Jules and me. When he was a child, he was not so interested in climbing but we have always done activities in the mountains. I climbed for years but I stopped to focus on long trails runs. After that, I restarted to climb and he was old enough to climb too. I climbed 20 years but no so focused on high grades (never trained, just climb). I sent a few 8a's but with a lot of projecting including dedicated little sessions of training and campus boarding.

How do you pick Jules' routes?
I always talk a lot with climbers to know which hard routes could be possible for him with his little size (1m24). Even so, Jules often tries many different routes to find one project and in the end, he has to find his own methods.

How much does he climb and who is he climbing together with?
Most of the time, he climbs twice indoors on our climbing wall and we try to climb outside 3 times in a week. We climb with other people, but it's always adults, climbers of the area or friends. He is not yet in a club. We always climb with the same people. He is not afraid to cheer them loud, which explain maybe his motivation to climb hard. Due to the fact he is not in a club and the global lockdown, he doesn't climb with other kids.

How can you explain his extreme progression?
The fact that he won his first competition counts a lot I think in his actual motivation and in the fact that he always wants to be the best. For example, when we climb in an adult group, he doesn't want extra holds for his size, even crimps. But for sure, the moves are sometimes too long for him. An important thing is we got the global lockdown in France. During this period, the only thing we could do, stuck at home, was playing on the climbing wall. In the beginning, it was playing, but it turned quick in a kind of training sessions, with dedicated movements for his size and his progression.

Michele Reusa, who has previously done three 8c', has done the FA of Up forever 8c+ in Falesia del ghëddo after just three sessions. "It is made up of two parts, a fairly easy first part of 8a to the fifth quickdraw and then there are long moves on small holds as you continue and you feel more and more pumped until the last crux which makes the grade. I hope someone comes to try it to find out their opinion. I think I just needed so few sessions because I feel very fit."

The 14-year-old was #6 in the European Youth Championship last week. Last month, his younger brother Matteo became the second in the family, after his father Iuri, to do an 8c+ by repeating Bucking Bronco. The whole family is developing Falesia del Ghëddo in Piedmont together. Currently, there are some ten routes but they aim for 30 routes almost 20 meters high.

Philipp Gaßner did the 27th repeat of Action Direct, generally considered the first 9a in the world, two weeks and commented. "Psyched to have finally climbed that one. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time but somehow I’ve only spent there a couple of days over the past few years. This spring I was super excited to give it a serious go. And on the fourth day of this season, I did it with great support from my friends. There is not much left to say about the route. This thing is just absolutely iconic and it‘s still a difficult test piece. Looking forward to moving on to the next projects!"

What was hardest for you redpointing it?
The hardest was to be that certain mental state to be able to climb the route because I knew I was strong enough to do so. Just focusing on the very next move and not trying to calculate if I can send it or not. And even though there was a little mistake during the send go I did not let go.

It is hard to transition from a static climber to a dynamic one. Your technical style is often set from the early days of your climbing and normally most climbers just become more static over the years. This means it is often very hard to start practicing dynos both physically as well as mentally.

The easy way around this is to start climbing easier routes faster indoors. Once you have done several hundred meters in this way, your brain and muscles will start to adapt and you will begin climbing more dynamically. This means that it will be easier to start practicing dynos.

Start each session indoors, after warming up, by doing some easier routes and bear this in mind whenever you train. Also ask your friends to remind you before and during your climb as it is very easy to go back to your normal static climbing routine. After some sessions, you will start surprising yourself climbing like the youngsters again.

The Combined result in the European Youth Championship in Russia last week was calculated by the rankings of everyone competing in the three disciplines. Slovenia won all three golds among the girls and Bulgaria won the two youngest boys categories. Lucia Tarkus got the overall best calculated result by being second in Boulder and then winning both Lead and Speed. (In reality she was #3 in Boulder, #1 in Lead and #10 in Speed, including the Speed specialist only doing that duscipline).

It should be mentioned that Paul Jenft, who won in both Lead and Boulder in the oldest boys categories, would have been Combined Champion, if he just had participated in Speed. Nikolay Rusev got the best overall results being #4 in Lead, #1 in Boulder and #2 in Speed. Noteworthy is that Alberto Gines Lopez, who has qualified to Tokyo, was just #3 among the oldest boys. Here are the winners with including their score.

02: Lucija Tarkus SLO - 2 : Lawrence Bogeschdorfer AUT - 9
04: Liza Novak SLO - 4 : Slav Kirov BUL - 4
06: Lina Funa SLO - 18 : Nikolay Rusev BUL - 3
Complete results

Irina Kuzmenko has done Eliksir molodosty natoshak which her boyfriend Vadim Timonov put up as an 8A+ in Triangular lake. "In my opinion that’s one more like 8B. Too hard for 8A+ but so nice one!" The Russian, who got the bronze in the Euro Championship in 2019, has previously done twelve boulders 8A to 8B.

"It took two very short and two quite long sessions. During the first two sessions, it was no chances to make one separate move and it felt like “hmmm what I am doing here, maybe I should try something different”. Then I came back again, did all the moves in 20 mins, and decided to rest for recovery. This boulder is crimpy and the hold is sharp and usually, you need two days to make skin good again. So after 2 days I just came back and did it very quickly! So happy :-)"

If you can do 8B so quickly, it should be possible to do at least 8B+?
I already did one session in an 8B+ and did all the moves in 40 mins 😅 so maybe you’re right!🥰

Projecting a hard route often means that you must spend several sessions just solving and learning all moves. In practice this means that you hang in the rope and just try different sequences. So how long should you work the crux sequences and links and how long should you rest in between tries?

In general, this is personal and also related to what kind of moves you are trying to solve. However, a rule that can be used is that once you stop feeling progress you should take longer rests and if you anyhow notice that you are getting weaker, you should come to the ground and rest for at least 20 minutes. It is better to have several runs, with a rest in between, instead of getting totally wasted during your first push. When it comes to longer steep sequences where you easily can get pumped you can probably just do a couple of tries before getting to the ground and make sure that you rest at least one minute in between tries.

If we are talking about the crux moves you can not solve, try to isolate them and do them one by one. This means you can try to do them over and over again, which will improve your max recruitment and coordination. Once all the moves are done you can choose the "safe option" to then work sequences and later also try to link the upper part and later start lower and lower. This will often mean you will not get that pumped so you can project the route several times during a day.

The other option is to start with redpoint attempts, meaning that you will either send it more quickly or you will pump out and need longer rest or even return another day. In the long run, the latter more risky approach is the best as each attempt will make you train you how to fight. If you instead choose the safe option, you will probably send it faster but you will not have learnt as much during the process, since you had more control. Note that all top climbers have taken the risky approach.