Martina Demmel has done her tenth 8c in 2020 by the FA of Formiert 8c in Kochel. Interesting is that she started climbin in 2017 when she reached 7a and now the 18-year-old is #2 in the 8a ranking game.

"I've been "Voi miad" after clipping the chains of this old forgotten project/combi (from Markus Meier; thx Toni L. for motivating me to give it a try) at Afrikawand within 4 tries but with knowing some sections pretty well already, which makes the grading even harder;) no possibilities to rest during this 38 moves resistance beast! The direct and more logical version of "Ratzfatz..." Biggest thanks Isi for all the belays including the sending one. More infos on Insta:).

Just barely possible to chalk up a few times which means that it's maybe the one longest continious sequence I've done so far as I normally find some hidden rests to shake out which unfortunately didn't happenend in this one...👐😅"

Federations put in a lot of money and effort in their national teams competing abroad. In 2020, a lot of money were saved for the federations due to all the cancelled competitions. At the same time most athletes have been training with a focus on indoor hoping for the international competition scene to open up soon again. As it stands, I think the federations should begin to also focus on outdoors in order to give their athletes new motivation as we do not know how the scene will look like in 2021.

Hopefully it will be more normal with many international comps for both seniors and juniors but possibly they might not be considered as World Cups or Championships etc as long as all climbers can travel without any restrictions. If this is true, it might be wise for the federations to also start a focus on outdoors especially for the youth as otherwise, they just might loose their motivation being part of a team only training indoors.

Further more, instead of sending few of the best athletes to international comps, it might also be wise for the federations to take some of this money to try to arrange more national competitions. The Austria Federation did, as an example, a great job setting up their summer series in order to give their competition climbers some more local competition to train for and get challenged by. In the long run, it is maybe a good idea for the federations, at least for the youth, to also set up national rock climbing teams?

What is the hardest to achieve, an 8A boulder or an 8b route? Over the years, we have a couple of times published some diagrams trying to compare route and boulder grades. Interesting is that a 6A boulder is possible as hard as 6C = six grades discrepancy. Then the closer we get to 8A, the discrepancy reduces until it starts to increase again and 9A is possibly as hard as a 9c route = six grades discrepancy again.

Jan-Luca Posch has done his first 8C, Sierra Madre in Zillertal. Video on his Insta. Until ten months ago, his hardest boulder was an 8A flash and later he has done six 8B and harder. The picture is from Agnet 8A+ in Flatanger.

Do you think your progress relate from you previously focusing on comps and seldom going outdoors? And what is next?
I think it's a combination of both. For sure the hard training in the gym and the comps, but also rockclimbing, where you also learn a lot about trying really hard. I won the european championships in bouldering in the juniors in 2017, also I got 3rd at the junior world championships in bouldering 2017. I didn't reach the top level in the seniors yet. My best international result in the seniors was this year at the studio bloc masters, where I could reach the finals among many top world cup climbers.

This fall I will focus on rockclimbing. There are so many world class boulders and routes I want to climb here in austria. Around Nov/Dec I will start to prepare for the next worldcup season in lead and bouldering, and hopefully reach my goals there. Also, I have many projects on rock that I want to send :)

Some ten years ago, we seldom saw climbers using knee-pads. Meanwhile today almost all top climbers have a pair of "down graders", making it possible to find new easier sequences as well as better resting positions. Potentially, a poor rest in the middle of a 9a is turned into a no-hands rest just because of wearing a knee-pad. In other words, if the knee-pads have made the route easier to do, the consequence of this could be to down grade them accordingly. It should be mentioned that it takes a lot of of both technical and muscular training to get the full advantage of using knee pads, meaning we are just in the beginning of this "knee pad down grading" era. Within ten years, probably at least 10 % of all steeper knee pad routes have been down graded in order to fit how hard climbs without knee pads possibilities.

In the same way as knee pads have made many steep routes easier, also developed heel-hooks on climbing shoes have made it easier to take better advantage of climbing with the heels above the head. This is a technique we especially see by smaller and lighter girls have started to use, which have created better beta bouldering almost straight up over lips and edges. Within a couple of years, this technique will be much more popular and efficient meaning some climbs, mainly boulders, need to also get down graded.

As the climbing grading scale is based on comparing the difficulty on climbs, the consequence of better knee-pads and heel-hooks are that the climbs have been made easier, i.e. they have to be down graded. As Action Direct is still 9a a steep 9a route should be equally hard to do, meaning potentially a 9a+ before the knee-pad era is now as hard as Action Direct to send. One dilemma is of course that a downgrade is not fair to the FA who, without the knee-pad, had to fight a much harder climb.

It should also be mentioned that as we are probably just in the beginning of the knee-pad and heel-hook era, most possibly the climbers technical skill to use them will be improved. In other words, knee-pad and heel-hook routes and boulders should be even less difficult to do in the near future.

Daniel Woods is the best boulderer in the world having done some 30 8C's and a handful 8C+' since 2008. However, comparing annual tick lists, Daniel or any other boulder, are not close to what Drew Ruana has done during the last 12 months; 3 8C+', 9 8C's and 20 8B+'. Amazingly, last October he had only done one 8B+ and he was still doing World Cups in Japan trying to make it to Tokyo. Then there was the the Covid-19 lockdown and in September he started Chemical engineering at Colorado School of Mines. (c) Alton Richardsson from Drew's Insta, where you can find many videos of his hardest sends.

How was this amazing progress possible?
I don’t know, I think it’s just the way I pick climbs. I like to build a base before trying a hard hard project and then it makes climbing feel easier. An 8C now feels like 8B+ did in February. I don’t train at all right now, I feel way physically weaker than I was before. Just better at linking stuff together. I also went vegetarian in July , and that’s when I started sending a lot of stuff fast haha. (His father says, "He was so stressed out on the World Cup and was miserable. I think climbing outside with friends and in nature has really rejuvenated him.")

Which has been the hardest boulder and the most beautiful you have done? Echalo 8C (+) was the hardest of the recent ones. It took me nine days. (Most beautiful) Probably White noise or Dicktopia (8C's).

What is next? There’s probably 15 other 8B+ to 8C+ boulders I got really close on but never sent too 🤷‍♂️. There’s also a few more 8C and 8C+ boulders around here I wanna do but I’m not sure yet gotta see what looks cool.

How much how you been climbing outdoors lately?
4-5x a week. My normal amount. I just go by myself to whatever I’m psyched on or I get one friend to come with. But I have to be focused to get al my school done.

It should be mentioned that Drew was #13 in the Combined World Championsip last year, missing to qualify to Tokyo by one spot. Later the 21-year-old skipped the last chance to qualify in the Continental. During the years, Drew has made the headlines some 20 times mainly as a route climber. His first appearance was in 2012 when he as age 12 did his first 8b+. Being 16-years-old he did his first 9a. Here is an 84 minutes podcast with Thundercling from September and here is one from May with The Nugget.

Most climbers are using the figure 8 knot at the same time more experienced climbers often use the bowline as they say it is easier to untie after multiple falls. In the Hard is Easy 17 minutes video, Ben come to the conclusion that if you tighten your figure 8 knot correctly, there is never a problem untying it. This means you should tighten it as hard as possible before climbing. It is also better that the tie has no overlap and that your load line goes in the middle of the knot. Video explaining the best way to tie in with a figure 8.

Marine Thevenet reports on Insta that she has done New Base Line 8B+ in Magic Wood. (c) Clement Lechaptois

"I think it took me 7 sessions! I tried it for the first time at easter 2019! Not sure if there was only one key 😂 I believe that the last months I earned a lot of expérience by trying harder boulders; I did a lot of moon board and smartboard training; and... I am on holidays so it is easier to climb when the conditions are good and when I am rested!"

In total, the #7 in the World Cup in 2014, has now done 56 boulders 8A and harder out which 14 only in 2020. The 31-year-old lawyer retired from the competition scene in 2016 being #19 in the World Championship.

Nico Pelorson, who previously has done one 8C, reports on Insta that he has done the third ascent of No kpote only in Fontainebleau. It was put up as a 9A by Charles Albert, who climbed it without shoes and has later been repeated by Ryohei Kameyama who suggested 8C+/9A. Now Nico says that after finding better beta and using climbing shoes he calls it a "solid 8C"!

Comparing the videos we can see that the biggest difference is that Nico using two heal hooks, creating different beta also for the hands. In the picture by Hugo Parmentier, we can see part of the the new beta.

"It took me about eight sessions, seven last year and one this year. I did a super hard training of biceps and triceps with Lucien Martinez. I saw Rhyohei pass with a heel instead of a toe like Charles in a photo. So I tested this beta and it was much easier. In fact, in all the boulder, I did only one move common with Charles."

The 23-yer-old has previoulsy done six 9a's out of which four FA's. This summer he did a 9a FA in Céüse but beside working an extreme boulder project not tried any hard boulders."I prefer route climbing but maybe I am a better boulderer ."