How did you warm and keep warm during the send?
I had a self-made fingerboard and I tried to do a few single moves to kinda get warm. The go where I sent it was actually the „warm-up go“ 😅 At the two crimps just before jumping out to the edge, my fingers were so cold that I didn’t feel anything.

"As for questions, it would be good to cover where the idea for 8a.nu came from, how the site has evolved over the years, what your day-to-day role looks like as the editor in chief, and some of the most rewarding/challenging aspects of managing the website/community." More info on Tenaya. Tune in at 9 pm Euro Time - Tenayaclimbing

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi, 15, who lately has been living in Turkey where he has done 17 routes 8b+ and harder, tells us about a Citdibi 8a database, a potential new hardcore Mecca. (c) Pim Shaitosa

"Citdibi is near Antalya. The place is almost like a quarantine zone itself. No people or shops around, just a tiny village which has not more than 10-20 houses. Complete peace resides here, so it's really nice during and after Covid-19.

For a long time being Turkey and its Geyikbayiri obtained the title of an "amateur climbing crag". No hard and confirmed routes and a huge load of easy climbs made it an ultimate area for beginners and pre-pro dudes with seemingly no potential for hard grades. Even though it could be called my home crag and the place had a major influence on my climbing evolution, it starts to seemingly run out of its potential for progression.

That's when I discovered a magnificent crag of Cidtibi, which was mainly developed and discovered by Tobias and Duygu Haug and some other locals for quite a while now. It's an enormously huge, slightly overhanging wall full of beautiful tufa strips and crimp sections. The tick list already has more than fifty routes starting with 8a and harder, not counting all the unclimbed projects and potential routes. And developing here gets faster and faster! Numerous new FA's in 8c and higher grade, hard routes that start to border with the mythical 9a's and projects that are seemingly much harder than that! The "new" route that already had two ascents but no grading is supposed to be one of those bordering ones.

One of the shortest and hardest lines in Chidtibi, which goes solely on crimps and doesn't have any proper rest. It could be described as a hardcore non-stop finger killer with a stretchy dyno at the very end, which kept shutting me down for almost ten goes! In my opinion, this route, with a bunch of other not-climbed harder projects on the Chidtibi wall will slowly lead us to Turkey's climbing evolution."

Christian Bindhammer, who did his last out 14 8c+/9a and harder in 2012, has done his second 8c+ in 2020, Perfect Link in Pinswang-Schloss. The 44-year-old was one of the best competition climber in the world in between 1997 and 2005. He is working as an IFSC route setter so he has had more time going outdoors creating a nice peak in 2020. (c) Dominik Bösch All together a quite "complete" climb, as holds are also quite mixed up from supersmall crimps to slopers and some pockets climbing meters around 30 to 35m Was already close last year but as it is a winter area, you have to wait for cold but sunny days. Did several 8c‘s this year - much easier - so the route could check in with 8c+ in my opinion. ...and as it‘s another lockdown here - I had a bit more time than normal for climbing😉😁 which makes it a lot easier to try hard when conditions are good.

Natalia Grossman, who previously this summer did four 8B's, has done six boulders 7C+ and harder including a very impressive 2nd go ascent of Lethal design 8A (+) in Red Rock. (c) Ross Fulkerson

"We started climbing in one area but it was too hot so we went into the canyon where Lethal Design is located. On my first try, I had to drop off since I didn’t know where I was going but then I sent the boulder next try after getting beta! The past month I have been climbing at the US Team centre in Utah and I think climbing with other strong females has helped me be in shape. Currently, I climb outside about once a month due to school:("

She is studying Psychology and business at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Katie Lamb, who did five 8B's this summer, has done her third 8A+ during the last two weeks, Power Slave in Red Rocks. In the 8a ranking game, she is #5.

"This climb was meant to be a training step toward my big rig goal. After a session of being blown off the climb by a demon wind, I came back to bring the heat. The boundless energy of life and death was speaking through my every motion that told me to toe hook through the move I fell on previously. It was the piece of me I wish I didn’t need, chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don’t know why. Next time I crimp instead of using my hook."

Jacopo Larcher, one of the very best multi-discipline climbers in the world, has done the FA of Sprengstoff in Lorünser Wändle. (c) Babsi Zangerl

"The route was a project bolted by Beat almost 25 years ago and it has been tried a lot by many climbers during the last decades (the route got a little bit harder since Beat bolted it, as several holds broke off). It’s a really cool power endurance route with a really weird shoulder move at the 3rd bolt, which is probably the crux of the route. I checked it out and tried it a bit in the past. Last fall I tried it more seriously for some days, but I always got stopped by the crux move. Last month I started working on the route again, focusing mostly on the shoulder move; luckily this year I felt more solid on that move and after a couple of more days of trying I could finish it off. I was super happy because it’s such a cool climb and a route which is somehow special for the local climbing community.

The crag is located next to a quarry, which now got the permission to extend its property and which could potentially decide to blast all the sectors :( We will get to know more about all that in the next weeks, but I really hope the local climbing comunity will find a way to preserve this beautiful and historical crag!"

Alexey Rubtsov, Boulder World Champion in 2009, made his best Lead performance of his lifetime in the Combined Lead final in Moscow. Even so, it looked like he was just going to get the bronze but then all results went his way and he got the Olympic ticket. Actually, without COVID-19 he would not have had any chance. Asking him about his training recipe and how much in percentage he did train the different disciplines and the Olympic training preparation, he most certainly come up with some interesting answers finishing with, “My dream 100% focus on rocks.”On Insta his first words were, “Guys, we are a team and we did it together! Thanks!!!”

“Due to a shoulder injury last year I missed the World Championship in Japan but tried to recover to Toulouse. I started my rehabilitation very intensively and 6 weeks after the surgery I had already climbed 8a onsight on the rocks in Ceuse. Three months after the injury, I returned to the competition to qualify for Toulouse, and I was even able to do it :). But I lost in Toulouse, my shape was still not good.

After Toulouse, I decided to stop concentrating on the combined, as I realized that even in March I still would not be in perfect shape, and I just started bouldering. I did a couple of trips to the rocks and a couple of commercial competitions. On the first dates of the European Championship in March, I was not ready and I am sure that I would have lost it. But due quarantine, all events were canceled and I went to the village. For almost 2 months I did not climb and for a couple of weeks I didn't train at all Then I started doing exercises on the board. In mid-May I was able to go to the rocks. During the quarantine, my shoulder fully recovered, and when I returned to climbing in May, I finally had no more pain.

I spent the summer on short trips to the rocks, explored the new Mega promising bouldering area, Dzhan Tugan, and climbed 9a with a rope. In the fall, I returned to training in the gym. In September we had the combined championship of Russia. I didn't know how I would perform. After Toulouse, I did not practice speed at all, and did not even touch the holds on this wall. Honestly, in qualifying for that championship, I climbed speed with a chalk bag, used it, and climbed the wall in 21,5 seconds, became the last one.

It was a joke but the coaching staff did not understand it and they scolded me a lot :) They even wanted to punish me. I got to the final very uncertainly :). But in the final I decided to pull myself and won Lead and Bouldering, taking the 1st place in the end. Then I realized that at the European Championship I would be in the team and decided that why not try again to play in the combined. I even did 2 speed sessions but I had not enjoy it as always, and I stoped. I started to hope to win bouldering and lead. Although I didn't train lead either :).

How did I prepare in principle?) It's interesting. For the all year, I did strength training, hangs, pull-ups only few weeks on quarantine in April and early May. After that, I did not do this type of training at all, maybe about 2-3% of what I usually did. As a result, a week before the European Championship, I tried to pull up (no extra weight) and did only 20 times :) then for another 3 days my body ached. Although at the beginning of 2019, 100 times was not a problem for me. I focused on improving the body, not strengthening it. I did a lot of stretching, mobility exercises, balance exercises. I climbed 3-4 times a week, only bouldering. But always in the company of strong guys: with Kolya and Sergei, we motivate each other and make us work to the maximum in climbing.

As a result, they also earned medals at the European Championships, Kolya in bouldering, and Sergei in bouldering and combined. I can say that for the last year I completely left training system in climbing, based on the big volume of physical training. Of course, I became weaker, and on the power boulders I am very uncertain now. But I improved other skills. I endure new trainings more easily and feel healthier and better. In general, I am a fan of changing training methods and always looking for new solutions. Sometimes they bring positive results, sometimes negative ones, but in any case it increases my experience and knowledge.

I think I will continue with my current method. I have not done everything here yet and I see weak points. In the meantime, I plan to bring back some strength training. Maybe 1-2 times a week if I don't have a problem with the shoulder. I'm not sure if I will do speed. Perhaps once a week - several races, but no more. I think that the period of focus on victories in competitions has shifted to general development through training. I want to finally learn to climb perfectly to show the beauty of climbing:). Whether I will win at the same time is not as much important for me now.”

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