Moritz Welt has done his sixth 9a in the last 12 months, Martin Krpan in Osp/Misja Pec, uncut video. "Kind of a mental battle, after doing Konec mira quickly I thought it would be not that hard, but the first part got me more pumped than expected and the polished footholds made every try quite unpredictable - relieved to finally put it down today!"

During the last three weeks in Osp/Misja Pec, the 19-year-old has also onsighted five 7c+'s and 8a's. In the 8a ranking game, Moritz is #9. "I'm still in Slovenia and already checked out some more hard routes in Osp and Mišja Peč. So I'll go for those next."

Great discussion between the possible two most known climbers out there: Honnold with 2.2 million followers on Insta and Ondra with 664' on Insta. Interesting is that there are not so many similarities. As a sidenote, Alex Honnold this Saturday did Ghost Fire in Mt Potosi. "Ghost Meat (8b/+) into Hold Your Fire (8c), Andy's link up, not sure if other folks have done it? Maybe 8c? But tried it a bunch last year and didn't do it, who knows. I really enjoyed it either way."

Leah Dempsey has done her fourth 8A+, Bumpy Boys in Nowra, in just three sessions. Picture from Monkey Grip 7C at the same crag.

How has Covid affected the climbing scene in Australia and please say something about the boulder?
We're so fortunate here in Australia that covid really hasn't had much of an impact on us when it comes to access of climbing gyms and crags. Travel between states has been largely restricted until recent months, but luckily we have some amazing crags within a couple of hours drive here in NSW.

Nowra is most renowned for sport climbing, but it also houses some of Australia's most historically significant boulders. Bumpy Boys is an eliminate boulder with some burly moves between pockets and slopey holds, which is the epitome of Nowra!

Sébastien Berthe, one of the best big wall climbers in the world, reports on Insta that he has flashed Mind Control 8c (+) in Oliana. It was originally graded 8c+, but later more and more climbers have, just like Seb, considered it 8c. One year ago, the Masters in Physical Education's PB was 8c+ but now he has done a 9a+ and is working on Fight or Flight 9b. (c) Toni Mas Buchaca

"When I had my first trip to Oliana last year, I knew that 'Mind Control' would be a good candidate for a flash attempt... During this first trip, however, I decided not to try... I did not feel ready and strong enough (I was right because looking back today, I am sure I was not strong enough 😅).

Last Tuesday, I gave a go in my project of the moment, but it felt bad and got my ass kicked... The motivation was not there. Then I decided to totally change my goal for this day: that could be the day for an attempt in Mind Control. I spent the whole afternoon studying the betas with the local climber Arnau Terribas and went for it an hour before it got dark.

At the beginning of the route, I felt terrible and nervous and was not climbing at my best. Then I could put myself into the good warrior mode. Completely pumped, fighting at each section, I could find my way to the anchor. Was really happy and relieved!"

Martina Demmel has onsighted Picos Pardos 8b and done American Hastle 8c on her second go in Oliana.

American Hastle: "No way, did this really happened!? Quite an untypical style for Oliana but a true king line in the middle of the cliff! For me about 8 boulders mostly with tensiony shoulder- & undercling moves separated by good rests all the way to a spicy slab at 50m where I totally forgot my beta... windy condis, lots of cheering from the crew & low expectations made it possible:) one of the closest battles I ever had!"

Picos Pardos: "When the rest day gets out of control and your other projects aren't free! Sending train at the cliff today with two other ascents at the same time; the Spanish guys were cheering soo loud that it even helped me passing the crux with thousands of drop knees! Perfect 5star bubble tufas in the upper part:)”

Could you please tell us something about your onsight flow/strategy?
If there would be a strategy...;) honestly I mostly decide which route I'm gonna try in the last seconds before starting to climb which probably doesn't leave space for any expectations🙈🤷‍♀️ and what I love about onsighting is that you automatically fall into a deep state of flow because you're always searching for the best possible beta for only the next move and therefor you're pretty close to only thinking intuitivly in the present.

Compared to redpointing, I still have to learn a lot to properly stay in the moment and don't think about how a certain section felt last time or what is still in front of me but that's mostly because my body already knows what to do and my thoughts have got time to go crazy🤯🔥😜💭!

In the last 12 months, the 19-year-old has onsighted 54 routes 8a and harder. In the 8a Top-50 onsight ranking game, she is #1 ahead of Solveig Korherr and Moritz Welt.

Nicolai Užnik, #7 in the Euro Championship last year, and Jakob Schubert, the best male competitor the last ten years, have been on a three days trip to Ticino and Valle Bavona where they in just one session each did two 8C's, Primitivo and The Kingdom. The latter they did quickly enough to think it was more like an 8B+.

How have you been training lately and what is the next plan?
Užnik: I moved to Innsbruck last summer so I basically trained there almost the whole winter until now. I definitely want to do some more short trips to Switzerland in the near future especially since it‘s not that far from Innsbruck. In a few weeks, the competition season is kicking off with the European cup in Klagenfurt and the World Cup in Meiringen. So I‘m also really psyched to finally compete again and hopefully make good use of my current shape! (c) Michael Piccolruaz

Iker Pou, one of the very best rock climbers in the world in the last 20 years, has made the FA of Guggenhell 9a+/b in Mallorca. In the video you can see that the 50-meter route is super steep and that he also had to do a figure-four move, i.e. putting the knee on top of the hand to reach as high as possible.

"A big part of the route is the same of "Gran Guggenheim" 9A+ but different end, harder. I took more or less another 8 to 10 days to make the new exit.😅😅. I fall many times in the last crux.

In 2000, Iker did Action Directe 9a and overall he has done around 30 routes up to 9b (+). As a matter of fact, this 44-year-old's hardest ascents have occurred during the last six years. In 2015, he also onsighted his first 8c. In any case, the Spaniard is most known for establishing many of the hardest multi-pitches and Big Walls and in this discipline, he is a contender for being #1 in the world.

"We will continue trying important climbs close to home as long as travelling is not an option, but the truth is that we would love to be able to go out to the Andes or the Himalayas in the summer."