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.”

Eliot Stephens has done his third 8C, The Origin Sit in Dinas Rock. "Wales first 8C. Power fade climbing, and aggressive from the first single 8A move. Hardest so far." (c) Jacob Martin

"In 2019 I put up the 8B+ stand start, and wondered whether there could be a sit. This year I had a look, and found a 5 move sequence that climbed into a position 2 moves into the stand. Those 5 moves of roughly 8A+ took me a good few sessions to link, and a handful more to link into the stand." More comments on his Insta.

As we probably will see many crowded crags this year, it might be a good thing to discuss queue ethics. There are absolutely new "rules" and ethics probably vary from crag to crag. In general, I think that if there are drawers or even a rope on a route that is not used, you could always ask if you could have a go. If they are kind to let you have a go, you should not start hand-dogging.

The dilemma is of course if the other party say that you are not allowed even if they do not climb on it or if they block the routes for several hours as many of them are having multiple tries. If we are talking about one of the easiest routes on the crag that many want to use for a warm-up, I do not think it is respectful to book it for several hours. Personally, I always say that anybody could have a go as long as it is done on my top rope. A quick top rope send just takes a couple minutes meanwhile starting to lead often take at least double as long time.