Fanatic Climbing have made an interview with Nico Pelorson after his send of Soudain Seul, aka The Big Island sit, where he says he also used a book under his kneepad and that grade-wise, 8C+ feels more consistent. "This is only my opinion and I respect Simon’s one too. Especially since it is not impossible that he had to give it even more effort with his beta for shorter climbers." Nico is 173 cm and FA Simon Lorenzi is 168 cm. (c) Arthur Delicque

Talking to Simon, he says it is cool that Nico also used a book and tells 8a that they partly used different sequences."For me we have to wait for more ascensions to decide the grade. Nico and I didn't try yet other boulders in this style and difficulty so it's hard to tell where is the truth, I think."

In the interview, Nico says he started working on it in 2019 and that he has been working it hard the two last winters. "At first, I was doing about 2 sessions per week on the boulder, with training sessions in between. Towards the end, between sessions I was working on my physiotherapy end-of-study internship in a rehabilitation center."

Andy "Peter" Lamb has made his second 8B flash, Butterfly effect in Clear Creek Canyon. "For both Blackout and Butterfly Effect, I watched videos of other people, and they looked like a style that would fit me well, and pretty straightforward, so I thought I should give it a good first try. On Blackout, I went there once before the day I tried it to look at the holds. I didn't do that much special preparation for them otherwise, just made sure I was warmed up well, the holds were brushed and ticked, and I knew the sequence I'd try.

Also, Butterfly Effect is a pretty new climb. Everyone else that did it said it was around 8b, but I don't know what the final consensus would be."

"In sport climbing, compared to most other sports, there are few written rules or use of referees. Instead, the climbing community creates and circulates its own Practice and Ethics. Beginners are sometimes struggling to understand what is "normal" behaviour and what's allowed and what's not. Over time, the general procedure has been modified and in different subcultures, different ethics apply."

In 2001, 8a started to discuss ethics and later the 8a Practice and Ethics article was presented. We did not include Trees but the practice of Le Cadafist 9a is a good example that could be shared.

In the picture, Mathieu Bouyoud is seen sitting on the "Le Cade". His thoughts are that the tree is right there and that it does not affect the grade whether you sit on it or not. Nobody has decided if it is ok or not to use it and climbing should not be about avoiding natural trees.

Alex Megos also just did the Le Cadafist and we asked him if he could share some thoughts in regards his ethics when the trees are in the line. "My personal opinion is definitely to leave the tree where it is. Cutting it down is not a very good option! Allowing people to use tree in general, though, is questionable in my eyes. It's still not healthy for the tree to have someone sitting on it 😂. Best would be to put the tree in the same category as a bolt. It's ok to touch it accidentally but it's not ok to pull on it. That's my opinion. But then again there will always be exceptions where the tree is part of the route (like Cadafist for example)."

It should be mentioned that some years ago, 8a reported an 8c onsight where it turned out that the climber had used a tree branch to the right of the route avoiding the crux. The climber, who had downgraded it to 8b+, said there were chalk all over the place so he thought that was the line. Later he said that his ascent was not valid. In other words, it is impossible to draw a strict line for when you can use a tree or not. Most of the times, it comes done to "yellow flag - ethical dilemma".

Possible, the guiding ethics could be that you should not use a tree when it is natural and easy to avoid it. On the other hand, a route that is a very cruxy 8a if you avoid it could possibly make a much better 7a if you use the tree? Furthermore, once you start using trees that could easily be avoided in hardcore climbs, it is better to make a comment about it.

In any case, cutting down trees should and must be avoided. Remember that in 2013, a climber cut down a juniper which created a big controversy. Later, the climber publically announced that he had made a big mistake.

Mathieu Bouyoud has done his 9a #25, Le Cadafist 9a in St Legér. It was bolted by Guillaume Lebret and Gérôme Pouvreau made the FA. The name come from the risk of hitting "Le Cade" which is the name of the tree, in the picture, in French. Up to the tree it is a short 8a which is hard to avoid so normally you end up sitting on it. Then the route just gets harder and harder. "Finally the top sequence is done. Superb impressive line."

Mathieu said he worked the route for two weeks and that he fell at the very top a couple of times. He is working full-time construction climbing gyms in France as well as running a family. The somewhat under-the-radar 31-year-old has also onsighted 81 routes between 8b to 8c.

Will Bosi, who has been in Spain since December, has done the FA of King Capella 9b+ in Siurana, bolted by David Brasco. In total it took ten sessions. On this trip he also did the FA of La Furia de Jabali 9b (bolted by Beto Rocasolano) and Last Night 9a (bolted by Dani Andrada), in the same area.

“King Capella has the same style of the area with a series of boulder problems stacked on top of one another however this route was another level for me. For comparison, it took me three sessions to complete La Capella (9b, last March), whereas it took me three sessions to unlock the first sequence on King Capella. “With powerful moves that don’t let up and having big all points off moves, King Capella was like I got to be Chris Sharma for a day, it was amazing!

After Moscow [European Championships and last Olympic qualification], the purpose of the training trip was to firstly reset after a long and tough Olympic campaign and secondly to put in a base level preparation for the upcoming IFSC World Cup lead season. Spain as the some of the highest concentration of hard sport climbing and I was also able to project first ascents in order to force myself to try unconventional beta to solve hard problems which is similar to what appears in World Cups.”

Alex Megos comments"I tried two of this FA's there and they are hard! Both of them 9b for sure. The one he thought was easier I couldn't do one move. On "King Capella" I did all the moves, but linking then will be very hard. I'd be super psyched to go and try to repeat his routes at some point! 😁 Very strong lad 💪🏼."

On top of Will’s first ascents, he amassed a staggering tick list with notable repeats including First Ley 9a+, Ley Indignata 9a and Estadio Critico 9a. Will kept his bouldering in check with establishing a new 8C boulder in Siurana (cleaned by Dave Graham) as well as repeating Bhai Bon 8B+, Bhai Po 8B+, Bhai Kakata 8B+/C and Bhai Ji 8B+.

Overall, only Adam Ondra and Alex Megos, in the history of climbing have made such amazing comparable tick lists on a climbing trip. In Moscow, Bosi qualified to the final as #3 after having won in Bouldering and in the final he was #8.

Almost all the best rock climbers have a wide grade pyramid, i.e. instead of just focusing on setting new grade PBs, they also enjoy climbing easier routes. In the long run, such an approach has shown to be the most successful in terms of long term improvement and making climbing your lifestyle.

Sure, quick progress is great, and in practice it is often quite productive to do some specific training and start a long term PB project. Lately, there are many great online coaches offering fast progress based on focusing on strength and endurance training. The dilemma is that such training focus could be counterproductive as your technical and tactical skill might not follow the same steep learning curve. Furthermore, if only focusing on progress, you might lose part of the climbing lifestyle where you also appreciate nature, friendship, travel, adrenaline etc.

One option for getting both sides could be to focus on creating a grade pyramid based on a multiplication *4 while you also follow a training regime. In other words, if your personal best is 7c+, make sure you have done four 7c+ and/or 16 7c's before starting to project an 8a. The good news is that such an approach is that your 8a project will be done much quicker, in comparison to if you just have a couple of 7c's in the bag.

Nico Pelorson reports on Insta that he has done the second ascent of Simon Lorenzi's Soudain Seul 9a in Fontainebleau. No grade comment by the 23-year-old who previously has done the second ascent of another 9A, No Kpote only giving it 8C as his personal grade. (c) Denis Si

Nico did The Big Island 8C, the stand start of Soudain Seul, in 2018 and has been working it from the sit during this winter. He has previously done more than a handful 9a's and previously commented to 8a, "I prefer route climbing but maybe I am a better boulderer."

Lucie Hrozová has done her second 8A+ in Petrohrad in just a week,
Ramínka v prázdný skříni, and this time it just took 40 min. It was put up by Rosta Stefanek and has been repeated a handful of times. " I was so surprised :D, I even had not tried or cleaned the upper part. I didn't plan to go to the top, but it is only hard first moves and since I did the start I was like okay, I will try to climb it to the top 😅."

The 14 times Ice WC medalist does not want to comment and says, "I also stop writing hard or soft because I really just don't want to think so much about grades and analyse that much ;) but for me personally obviously relatively easy."