Jakob Schubert, the best male competition climber the last ten years who did his first 9b+ last year, reported on Insta that he had tried Alex Megos Bibliographie 9c in Céüse. We asked him for some further comments and surpricingly he could quickly do all moves. (c) Katha Saurwein

"I spent three tries on Alex Megos’ Bibliographie right after the competition in Briancon and it’s an amazing route actually. Alex was there himself, so he shared all his precious beta with me, which was obviously very helpful. In contrast to many other routes in Céüse Bibliographie doesn’t have only pockets but also some crimps which I definitely prefer. Alex’ description of the route might be pretty accurate when he says it‘s an 8b+ route into a hard 8A+ boulder; from there you have a really bad rest and then you have a 9a to the top.

I’m really happy I could do all the moves on it, so that was actually kind of surprising. I thought in a 9c I might have to work on the moves a lot more. Besides one at the very end with which I’m still kind of struggling with, the moves are all pretty ok. Connecting all these moves is obviously a different story but I’m psyched to return at some point. This year the season will be over quite soon, but I hope there’ll be time next year."

Martina Demmel, who was #24 in Briancon, has done her ninth 8c in 2020, Dures limites in Céüse. On Insta she says it was her probably hardest 8c as the others did not fully test her limit. In the 8a ranking game, the 18-year-old is #2. (c) Malik Schirawski

"Was a 100 percent sure to fall on these for me low percentage moves right before the top many times, but surprised myself by actually never missing any of these pockets🙈... It was like this one magic go when everything suddenly is feeling so flow almost effortless, even though it still was a big battle😻💭!"

Triglav the Rock Ljubljana run the final over the river in the city center in Speed mode footless. The format idea was Jernej Kruder's who also won among the male on a route that should have been at least 8a. "Actually, I am the ambassador of this comp and the whole idea for the finals was mine. When campusing it's hard to grade- big holds, big moves. Water was OK, maybe the air got a bit colder later in the night. It was good to compete again and that people actually stopped by and cheering up...it was also good to climb over the water again 😊"

There were 150 participants in the street edition qualification that should have climbed on different buildings, but bad weather forced them to go indoors. Among the female, climbing on extra holds in different colors, Vita Lukan won. More info to come.

Mejdi Schalck, who was #7 in Briancon, and Paul Jenft, who was #10, have done their first 9a, Shortcut in La Balme. Schalck (c) Aurele Bremond comments, "Very pleased to have done this route. I was going crazy as I kept falling 6/7 times in the final part."

Gonzalo Larrocha, has done the 60 meter route XL 9a in Baltzola, after 7 or 8 days of projecting. In total, the 36-year-old has now 18 routes 9a and harder out of which six the last 12 months. "Good end of the summer, sending it on the penultimate day. I fell twice in the White Zombie area."

Mina Markovic, who has won 22 World Cups, has done her third 9a, the 55 m Waterworld in Osp which was put up by Kleman Becan. Interview with Mina from July when she did her second 9a, Halupca with new pics from Luka Fonda. Starting from 2010, she was 2 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 1, in the overall World Cup. Last year, she had her worst season although finishing #4 in the European Championship. After the lockdown with cancelled competitions, workshops, and psychology lectures, she has had more free time to spend outside and go climbing.

" The first time I tried Waterworld was like six weeks ago. Honestly, it really 'shut me down' as I didn't understand anything at my 1st go 😣. I know the route is quite 'famous' for its complicated sequences, so it wasn't such a 'shock' after all. Anyhow, I did not try it for two weeks but somehow, (on the shooting of Halupca 9a), I still wanted to climb more. This time, I somehow understood some moves (in theory!), but I was still far from doing them individually. At that time, I realized, that even if I do all of them, a fair amount of biceps strength would be the need for connection. It has, by far, been the longest project I have ever had. I stopped counting after 21 tries but all in all, I guess almost 30 tries over ten days.

I did it on my fourth day climbing in a row on my 3rd go. Yes, my life would be easier if I sometimes know how to more rest 😆 but, (un)fortunately, I just love climbing too much... "

Did you do any special indoor training as a preparation? No 🙈🙈🙈, actually in last three months I have maybe spent 3-4 days indoors per month. I am climbing 5-6 days per week.