Solveig Korherr has done her ninth 8c the last year, Odd Fellows in Frankenjura. In the 8a ranking game, the 22-year-old is #2.

"Yippie! Two days this trip + a couple of tries from last year in spring. Fingers felt good on these tiny Frankenjura crimps! After getting heartbreakingly close on my second try already, I kept falling lower and lower. I’m glad I managed to keep calm and to clip the anchor today! :) Thanks Jon for belaying and sorry for the wobblers :D.

I will spend the next two weeks in Frankenjura, but without any specific goals. I‘m psyched to climb a lot and check out some new cliffs as there are so many options to choose from.”

Oriane Bertone got the silver in the Meiringen World Cup with two tops. In the picture, we can see how close she was to have been timed out, as it was taken when it was around 0.95 seconds left. Even so, she managed to, in less than a second, reach a "controlled position: with both hands matched on the Top Hold", according to the judge, before the 4 min were over.

I agree that this was a correct subjective decision, although she was just hanging with no foot on the wall when the 4 min was over. However, if she had topped it out just some split seconds later, it could have been questionable whether she had established a "controlled position" before the time was over.

One problem is that there is no clear definition of what a controlled position of a top means. If, for example, the top would have been less juggy or had involved a bigger swing, I do not think you could have said Oriane had reached a "controlled position" until she had put one foot on the wall or a hold. In such case, the judge and the jury president would have come into a subjective dilemma which most probably had ended in a protest either way. Imagine, this would have been the Olympics and the podium would have been decided by a subjective decision by referees with absolutely no knowledge of how it is to do such a dyno and reach a "controlled position". Furthermore, the judge has never felt or seen the top of the hold.

The solution for this potential anti-climax subjective situation in Tokyo is to change the rule to say that you just need to touch the last hold, with both hands, within the four minutes and then you have like five seconds to get a controlled position to be awarded the top. This would mean that the top decision could be made more objectively and fairer to everyone.

Stefano Ghisolfi made the first repeat of Silvio Reffo's The Ring of Life 9a/+ from 2014 in Covolo. The Italian did it in a quick three days trip and he has now done 40 routes 9a to 9b+.

Beatrice Colli, 16, from Italy won two Euro Cups in 2019. Later in 2020, she started to get pain in both her heels and she started to climb with larger, adjusted shoes with no pressure on the heel. Things were going quite well until she participated in the last Italian Cup where she used normal tight shoes and after many heel hooks, the problem got worse again. In this video, Bea and her trainer Fabio Palma talks about the problem.

Bea suffers from the Haglund deformity, which is caused by too much tension on the heel and creates inflammation and sometimes bone enlargement. If so, surgery is needed. Every time you jump down or make hard heel hooks, you are at risk. Climbing big overhangs mean less pressure on the heel while boulder dynos or even Speed climbing cause more pressure, assuming you are using the same shoes.

One month ago, I wrote an article talking about how to reduce the tension on the heels in kids' climbing shoes. By asking around, it now seems the Haglund deformity is a common problem, especially among younger climbers. Björn "Dr 8a" Alber will follow up with a longer article.

Philipp Gaßner has done Action Directe in Frankenjura which was put up by Wolfgang Gullich in 1990 and generally considered to be the first 9a in the world. In total, it has been repeated 27 times and interestingly, during the last 2.5 years, it had only been done twice, including Melissa Le Neve doing the first female ascent last year. (c) Basti Scheibel

"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.

The first time Philipp made 8a headlines was in 2014, being 14-years-old doing his first 8c+, Reality Check. In total, the German has now done 15 routes 8c+ and 9a. This year, he has also done his first 8C boulder.

Please take a few minutes and take part in this interesting survey by Sports Master student Julian Hentz:

The study would like to learn about climbers’ preferences when choosing routes and boulders in the gym. The survey is completely anonymous and takes around 10 minutes to complete. It’s available in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The findings will be published in the next issue of Route Setter Magazine.

Stefano Carnati, who previously has done four 9a+, has done his 16th 9a by Super circo abusivo 9a in Paline. "It went down after 10 tries over 4 days. It’s a really beautiful 40m line and it took quite some time to figure out all the sequences." The picture is from the FA of Collasso Gravitazionale 9a in Candalino.

Martin Stráník has done the FA of Black Panther 8C in Vesec, video. In total, the Czech has now done twelve 8C boulders out of which five FA's and he is #3 in the 8a ranking game. "Great athletic bouldering on 25 moves. Thought it would be a fast process, but pumpy hands were sending me down six days in total, exhausted body, destroyed fingers. Low 8C." (c) Jakub Fric

Eloi Peretti has done his first 9a, Ça chauffe in Seynes. (c) Aurele Bremond

The route is divided into 3 different parts: A nice 6b with a no hand rest at the anchor followed by 10 meters of technical climbing on very small edges. The last 5 moves of this part are the crux of the route, on very sharp crimps and small footholds. Even if the route is 35m long, it is in fact very bouldery.

Once the crux is passed, there is an incredible overhang on perfect rock with big moves on pretty good holds. It is not so hard, it would be around 8b or 8b+ maybe, but you have to commit in every move if you don't want to fall which makes the ascent so spicy!

I spent around 15 tries in this route and at the end the weather was becoming warmer and warmer and I was worried I would not have the chance to pass the crux before the season is over. But I returned a last time to this crag and finally sticked the last one finger pocket of the crux and made my way to the anchor.”