Alex Puccio has done her 8A+ #70, Halfway Krooks Direct in Clear Creek Canyon. The 31-year-old former successful competition climber is #1 in the 8a ranking game which she has been for almost 10 years straight. (c) Robin O'Leary

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi, who did his first 9a at age 13, has done the FA of Phantastica in Citdibi but he is not sure if it could be the first 9a in Turkey or if it is the fourth 8c+/9a. "A really long king line with a crimpy crux on the very top and a really weird rest in between, so it's hard to grade properly. The third pitch after Phantasia 8b, a super classic and pure climb."

The way he elaborates the difficulty of FA grading is certainly at the 9a level and should make his home school teachers (the parents) pleased. For the last years, the Ukrainian IT working family have been living abroad but mainly in Turkey.
"Grade harder or grade lower? Have you ever thought of how difficult it actually is to grade a brand-new route? After buying a guidebook and going out exploring the crag it seems to be quite easy, the grade written in there jumps in your head and sticks as an initially correct statement. But what if you were given a totally new wall, that has only bolts on it. Before trying, you can't even guess how hard it might be. Instead of using the path that was already found by previous athletes, you are forced to find a new one that was created by nature a long time ago. This fun and long process contain a bunch of additional steps before starting to actually project and give send tries on the route. After some time, when you finally send the line and everything is seemingly over, a new load of responsibility and questions fall upon you.

Was that the easiest way possible? Would it be easier/harder for shorter/taller people? What if that crucial kneebar rest works only for me? And how should I give a proper grade after all those unanswered questions?

Since grades are all really subjective and differ from one person to another, there's no way to make a system which could help to solve this problem. After making this kind of statement, it seems that a FAer shouldn't worry too much and the proper grade will come on its own with time and bigger amount of ascents, but it would be quite a disaster if your grand project that you were proud of would be downgraded. Then your reputation as a bolter or grade-giver would befall. As well, I want to add that since Switzerland two years ago, I just couldn't possibly visit Europe and climb some classic routes of the magic 9 grade(last year because my visa was all used up for the comps and training camps, and this year because of covid-19). That's why I can't consider myself confident and experienced enough to properly grade a route that is harder then 8c or 8c+, especially if it's potentially the first proper 9a of the country, which the new "Phantastica" 8c+/9a surely might be."

Julia Chanourdie, who has qualified to Tokyo Olympics, reports on her Insta story that has done Eagle-4 9b in St Léger. It was put up by Adam Ondra in 2018 (video) and this spring Hugo Parmentier did the first repeat after projecting it for 23 days. “To me 8B boulder good hold to clip then 8A+ boulder really good rest and 8b route.”

The first female to reach 9b was Angy Eiter with La Planta de Shiva in 2017 and this summer Laura Rogora did the hybrid boulder route, Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension Total. Julia has previously done two 9a’s and this spring she did Supercrackinette 9a+, commenting to Fanatic climbing: “I don’t think this route represents the limit of my abilities. Having successfully clipped these anchors just makes me want to go see further.” Last week, she did her first 8b onsight, La barre à un million d’annees.

The 24-year-old qualified to Tokyo being #2 in Toulouse. In between 2015 and 2018, she was Top-14 in 21 straight IFSC Lead events.

Moritz Welt has done his fifth 9a during the last five months, The Elder Statesman in Frankenjura. (c) Lars Decker

"3 sessions, 6 tries. For sure more a low end 9a. Quite a vertical one with very small crimps." In the 8a ranking game, the 19-year-old is #6.

Stefano Ghisolfi reports via Insta that the Italians are not going to the Euro Championship in Moscow. "I think it is a good choice and I'm proud that our federation cares about athletes and coaches health and safety more than just competition results, even if this could worth an Olympic qualification for some women." Mia Krampl from Slovenia has also reported via Insta that she will personally not go.

Francesco Castellano skips 9a and does Goldrake 9a+ in Cornalba in just five days. Adam Ondra did the FA in 2010 and it has six repeats in the 8a database. It should be mentioned that Ondra hesitated in between 9a and 9a+ and all but two have called it "soft" after having done it relatively quickly. In other words, it might just be a hard 9a? More info in Italian on PlanetMountain.

Camilla Moroni, who was #7 at the Euro Championship in 2019, has done her fourth 8A in 2020, Bogaboo rider and her first 8A+, L'avenir nous réserve rien de bon both in Val Daone. Amazingly, both got done during one session. (c) Pietro Biagini

"Sending my first boulder of this grade was really cool because this boulder is a beautiful crimpy line of Val Daone and because now I feel in a good shape. I usually try boulders and routes that I can send in two days at most because when I make a climbing trip I like to try as many boulders as possible. Maybe the next time I will try something harder 😉"