Simone Tentori, who previously has done eigth 8B+', has done the FA of Megalodonte 8C in Val Masino. (c) Maximiliano Piazza

"What a journey!! The longest battle to date. So many days practising these moves till perfection. Hard connection of Crazy snake 8B into Snake's bite 8A+. (Both done last November). First of the grade for me and for the valley, so proud of this ascent. Thanks to my friends and all the people who kept the psych high!"

How many sessions did it take in total, including the 8B and the 8A+ links you did last November?
I climbed in Val Masino almost every weekend from November till April, so almost 6 months. But I climbed other stuff and I had to stop one month for the snow in December that covered the boulder and a skin injury that required 1 month to heal. So in total, it was not more than 20-25 sessions I would say.

Killian Chabrier, who had just done one 8B+ prior to 2021, has now done six up to 8Cc+ trav. Fanatic Climbing has made an interview, where he thanks his new trainer Pierre Brebion.

"Pierre showed me a new vision of training based more on pure climbing and less training on specific exercices. It allowed me to quickly transition between my strength sessions and my climbing sessions in the forest or indoors. And I made enormous physical progress!""

Thomas Ballet, four times Top-6 in the World Cup, has done his first 9a+, Super Crackinette in St Léger. In 2016, the 31-year-old retired from the competition scene.

"When I was competing I almost never climbed outdoors. Six years ago I did Sankukai in Entraygues which has been downgraded to 8c+. After three years of a climbing break because of work, I started climbing again two years ago with no goals. I was missing climbing and I love our sport more than anything. Now I only climb on rocks, doing lots of different routes and styles, easy routes but "legends routes" for example La rose et le vampire in Buoux. In February, I decided to find something harder. I worked Super Crackinette for four weekends and finally sent it."

Jean-Baptiste Jourjon, who did his first 8c in 2002, has had his best week ever by doing Purée de ratatouille 8c and, in just three sessions, Tonnerre d'orage 8c+ in Col du marocaz.

"I belayed Mathieu Bouyoud when he tried and sent the route with 8c+ proposal in 2012. I just put my fingers once in it and I could not imagine having enough power endurance. I thought it would not be downgraded because he did quite a few tries which I'm not used to 😂. A few weeks ago I sent an 8b+ next to it and there were draws in the 8c+ so I thought "why not"? All the moves were ok quite quickly that time but I had no idea how it would be linking the 15 to 20 intense moves. I made few adjustments during the first tries and I quickly had optimized beta.

Covid restrictions forced us to climb nearby but fortunately, we have crags close to home. It's a chance but also a personal choice otherwise living in a big city would not allow climbing regularly outdoor with a full-time job and family who is my best sponsor. Maybe restrictions were positive in my case because I work a lot from home and I stopped nibbling as I always did at the office. 2-3kg less and regular route climbing made me progressing in that power endurance style. I hope I'll be able to confirm other such hard routes even if I still fail to climb a few 8b's around...

About the grade: Mathieu didn't use a knee pad. I don't know about other repetitors. For me, it helped resting before the intense section. On the other hand, some other repetitors didn't use a knee pad but were going far left on the undercling of the route to the left to get some rest, which is allowed but not so beautiful as you need to go back then to the right. The knee pad also helped improving friction on crux.

Grading is a never-ending story, the route I did the week before suggested 8c by Mathieu and I repeated a few hours later felt as hard as Tonnerre d'orage to me. So hard and beautiful that it almost feels like a better achievement than the 8c+. Now I probably need to send 9a at 50+ to make again a news on 8a.nu."

Could you please say something about peaking at age 42 and how come you had a 14 years break of doing 8c's?
Good shape periods are so strange and hard to manage for me. I remember being strong in my 30's: I had stopped climbing 4 to 6 months to focus on triathlon. Back to climbing, I had peak power like 3-4 months after, certainly thanks to the absence of climbing injuries (fingers...). Since then I have some peaks but shorter and shorter. It generally ended with small injuries because of bad rest management. I often focus on bouldering on cold days and switch to lead around summertime.

Spring 2019 in my 40's I had a peak shape in bouldering with problems like Vecchio Leone 8B in Brione. Generally, on routes, I have a lack of power endurance but that time I felt not so bad in 8a-8b's after only 2-3 weeks. Usually, in such a case I was thinking, "let's get more training before trying harder, I feel good but no chance for a long and steep route with so little pump training". This time I stopped thinking and jumped to a 14 years project and succeeded in a few sessions. It was a good option because right after I felt weaker due to a new injury leading to less intense training and regression (finger, shoulder, biceps... I don't remember).

Part of my success now is probably more long term focus on lead and capability to rest on less and less good holds because I don't feel physically stronger for the hardest moves. I also discovered the hang board routine from Emil Abrahamsson and was really impressed by the results he obtained on himself. I don't feel so much progress on hangs like him but I agree it might preserve joints and tendons. Need to find a similar routine for bigger muscle groups that also feel painful...

Gonzalo Larrocha, who just did his 18th 9a, has done Ramon Julian Puigblanque's Priorato de Sion 9a in Alquezar. In total, the 36-year-old has done seven routes 8b and harder the last week, out of which four FAs! Psicosis 8c/+ in the picture by Uri.

So how can you explain being in the best shape ever?
I don't know what is happening this week. It could be the vaccine's secondary effect. I have been trying this route for two months. This route is a different style of climbing. I used 16 different kneebars to climb the 15 meters route. On the other hand, a broken hold in the crux section could maintain the difficulty.

It should be mentioned that Ramonet graded it 8c+ but all repeaters have thought 9a fits better. Many of his FAs have later been upgraded.

Jonathan Flor reports on Insta that he has done Fin de alihulk extension sit start 9a+ in Rodellar. "Very happy to be able to climb this type of route again and return to our second home. Now looking forward to the many other projects I have here👀🤟." n(c) Javi Pec

Jonathan has previously done some 40 routes graded 8c+/9a and harder including the FA of Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension Total 9b, which has a harder intro boulder than the left variation he just did.

Max Bertone went to St Legér with his father Stefano while his sister Oriane got the silver in Meiringen. First he onsighted his first 8a+, Mélodie pour un ami ardéchois, and later he did La théorie des cordes 8c in his second session. "Special beta for short climbers :-). It felt easier than the 8c I climbed in Reunion Island but very interesting to climb !"

Stefano: I went 3 days in St Léger with Max during the WC because The French Minister of Foreign Affairs decided not to send the Youth B to the European Championship in Perm. Max was qualified in both Lead and Boulder and we had to find another challenge for him as he was so disappointed.

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Oriane Bertone, who has dominated the youth competition scene for several years at the same time being one of the best female boulderers, got the silver in her WC debut in Meiringen. The 16-year-old is from Reunion, a small island near Mauritius, east of Africa. Her father Stefano comments;

"We stay in France for the moment and travel for comps, training camps and outdoor projects. School for them and work for me are impacted by Covid anyway. Their lessons are given remotely, by computer. There is no real difference between doing these lessons by computer in Reunion Island or in France due to the lockdown situation. So we prefer to stay in France in order to avoid travels and to have better conditions for training."

Stefano: How did Oriane prepare for her first World Cup?
Oriane prepared for this WC by participating in selective competitions in France and in training camps with the french senior team in Paris and Voiron. It was hard for her being close to Fontainebleau and not have time to spend on boulders outdoors. The last days before Meiringen she trained at the "Pôle France" in Voiron. There, specific boulder circuits had been created for her. For the rest, she has not changed her training habits. In the end, she wasn't completely ready to endure so much waiting in the isolation zone. She struggled to start her competition in qualifying and to finish it in the final. Her best streak was in the semi-final, where she was not forced to wait for too long. She has to do further progress in her volume of climbing which will allow her to withstand three such intense stages of competition. We will see during the next WC how it progresses.

Oriane: How was it competing with the seniors for the first time?
I had already experienced the atmosphere of a senior competition two years ago in Stuttgart, but I was really young and I didn't have the same interaction with the other competitors. Meiringen was really different. I stayed in the isolation zone for a very long time since I was the last climber to start and I had the opportunity to talk with the other athletes and the ambience was much cooler than I thought :) I didn't see things the same way, and I'm glad I got to experience of the final stages (semis and finals) of a World Cup. The outcome of the competition was incredible, it was hard to tell myself that I belong here, and for almost two days I didn't seem to realize what was happening. Thanks a lot to IFSC, the organisation and the route setters who made that event possible and set these incredible boulders, and evidently the french national team for the incredible support that I had along with the comp. I heard my friends and coaches behind me screaming and supporting me and it gave me wings! More comments on her Insta.

Bouldering: 'Climbing, No Ropes Attached' is the title of the 240-page hardcover by Bernd Zangerl, one of the pioneers, who by the way still pushes up to 8C. Another name of the book could simply be 'Zangerl's Bouldering Bible' as it pretty much covers everything with a focus on Why, How and the development of the sport, including portraits of the best out there. Of course, there are great pictures but the unique thing is all outstanding stories. This is a new level of a bouldering coffee table book that will take weeks to read through. The only thing that is almost missing is more of the female perspective. Buy it on Amazon.