Laura Rogora reports on Insta that she has done the first repeat of Stefano Ghisolfis's The Bow 9a+ in Padaro. "Quite impressive, probably one of the best female achievements ever, I think the route is extremely hard. I think, she used similar beta on the crux with some adjustments for her height. I also gave her some advice and betas."

The 19-year-old did move from Rome to Arco in the beginning of the year in order to have better training and outdoor possibilities. In total, she has done eleven routes 8c+ to 9b previously, meaning she has one of the best track records in the world in 2020 also including the male. In July, she won the Briancon World Cup ahead of Janja Garnbret.

Super drama when Viktoria Meshkova secured her European title, one attempt to zone less than Caulier Chloe. Jernej Kruder had won before he going for the last boulder but instead of saving his skin for the Olympic quest his auto-pilot kicked and he gave his best during ten tries creating the best show he could. Noteworthy is also that both the winners also won the semifinal. (c) Vladek Zumr

1. Jernej Kruder SLO 23 - Viktoria Meshkova 44 (6,5)
2. Sergei Luzhetskii RUS 13 - Caulier Chloe BEL 44 (6,6)
3. Nikolai Iarilovets RUS 13 - Stasa Gejo SRB 24
Complete results

Liam A Biscuit, who had 8B as a personal best coming into 2020, has done his first 8C, The Nest at First Creek. Amazingly he took it down in just two sessions. "The first day I did the stand start which is the hardest part by far, and then the second day I warmed up on the moves and managed to send the whole thing on my first real try from the bottom.

I’m not even sure I’m in better shape than ever or if this particular climb just somehow suited me perfectly! That being said, ever since my friend Stick Nugent got taken into a math cult I have wanted to climb in his honour and make his memory proud, so this fall I trained with rage in my heart and life in my soul and love in my brain to become the climber he would want me to be."
How can you explain your great progress in 2020 having done 13 boulders 8B and harder?
Graduating college and getting my own car made a difference, but more importantly starting a vlog with my BFF Kai and wanting to provide it with good content has lit a fire under my ass.

Jonathan Hörst (18) and big brother Cameron (20) have done Southern Smoke 8c+ in Red River Gorge. Jonathan: "What a day! Undoubtedly my best day of climbing ever and a milestone for me. First of the grade and the first 8c+ I’ve worked on. After many beta burns in undesirable conditions and pumpy redpoint goes I acquired the fitness to knock it off. Fell off the top crimp move the go before and sent unexpectedly after (then Sugar Magnolia 8b). These moves will be forever engrained in my brain. Classic!

My endurance is the best it’s ever been and my capacity to climb while pumped is also better than it has been. I was training endurance burns with hard climbing separated by jug rests. This was my first time spending over a week at the red so I managed to get the Red river gorge fitness. So psyched!"

Picture by his father Eric Hörst, who is a famous coach and auther. "Jonathan played America football for 10 years, while only climbing part-time. He climbed his first 8b+ at age 10 (a record at the time), but just now is he climbing more, since he's in college...and only climbing (no more football). So he did both his first 8c climbs this summer, and his first 8c+ last week! He's often in the shadow of his older brother, but Jon is very talented too! 🙂"

Jernej Kruder, the male favourite to get an Olympic ticket, was the only athlete to top all four boulders. As in the qually, Russia performed the best getting four guys into Top-8. Also Israel had good results with five male Top-16. Among the female, Viktoria Meshkova scored 34 in six tries just ahead of Chloe Caulier using one attempt more. Complete results.

Ekaterina Barashchuk of Russia and Danyil Boldyrev of Ukraine won two extremely tight battles, getting the 2020 European Speed titles. Among the non-Speed specialists, Sascha Lehmann and Petra Klingler were best at #12 with 7.29 respectively #7 with 8.59. This was a new PB by Petra and she is now second after Miho Nonaka (8.43) among the non-Speed specialists. Complete results.

Aleksei Rubtsov won the qualification in the Europan Bouldering Championship scoring 35 in six tries. (c) Nikita Tsarev

Anze Peharc and Vadim Timonov had the same scoring using seven respectively eight tries. In total, there were five Russian on Top-11. Complete results

In total, there were 43 guys competing with the Speed qually and final winners shared the last position scoring nothing. The semi starts tomorrow at 8 am. It will be very interesting to see if all guys focusing on Tokyo 2021, will do as many tries as they use to or if they will make less attempts in order to save their skin?

Fred Rouhling put up Akira at Le Périgord in 1995 suggesting 9b for it. At that time there existed no 9a+ and actually, Alex Huber did not believe him and this was spread around. Jean-Baptiste Tribout and Andrada had tried it and they did not think it was 9b even if they never did it. 8a did always back him up and in 2004, Climbing published and article leaving no doubt that he could have done it. In regards the grade, Rouhling has told 8a that possibly it would have been better to call it 8C+ as it, in practice, is a 12-meter boulder roof where you later tie in and do an 8a route.

Now Rouhling reports on Insta that Seb Bouin and Lucien Martinez have made the first two repeats, saying it is as hards as Rouhling's 9a, Hugh. They think the starting boulder is rather 7C instead of the 8B, Fred has said. "I don’t know but limestone cracks. Perhaps the holds became bigger. When Yuji Hirayama and Dai Koyamada came to try. They thought there was a very big difference between Akira and Hugh...😭.

Fred has done a total of six FA 9a or harder including Salamandre 9a+ and the three unrepeated; l’autre côté du ciel 9a, Mandallaz drive 9a and Empreintes 9a+. Here is a 13-year-old video when he is playing around in the roof.

In a previous 8a interview he said, "I was quite obsessed with the limit between the possible and the impossible. It’s only in the first ascent that we can have this sensation. It is not funny to have detractors but on the other hand to have done things that others consider impossible it’s a consecration especially if these climbers are supposed to be among the best." (c) Julien Nadiras

Stephan Rest has done his first 8C, Das Schwert in Hammerhöhle after some 18 sessions spread out over five months. It was put up by Klem Loskot. "

Projecting this boulder was pretty hard due to its location on the corner of a cave. You never knew if it would be dry or wet. As it got colder and colder I got closer to sending the boulder but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to send it this year. When the temperature were low and the boulder was completely dry I knew I had to send it. And I did. It is 12 moves to the top and the hardest move is to a slopy crimp and then bumping into a bad undercling and placing your foot to the same height as the hand."

Loic Zehani, who previously has done 23 routes 9a and harder, has made the FA of Demon 9a+/b in Orgon. The 18-year-old did his first 9a five years ago and has done a total of 13 FAs, 9a and harder.

"A great line that starts in "Sachidananda" then joins the "Bronx" with a new hard and natural hard link-up. A big fight and great conditions were necessary to send this 55 movements monster of resistance. The first 20 movements are ultra powerful (7C+ boulder in "Sachi" and 8A boulder connecting with Bronx). For the difficulty I suggest 9a+/b because it is still significantly harder than Sachidananda 9a+, 😜😉."