NEWS

 Florida 8c by Iziar Martinez (15)
Iziar Martinez, who did her first 8b+ ten days ago, has done her first 8c, Florida in Rodellar and it just took five sessions. (c) Pablo Beni "I climb since I was a kid with my parents, as I grew I started to train seriously three years ago. Now I train un Geko Aventuras, my father's rocodromo. My motivation is being the best climber that I can be and my family and trainer help me to reach this goal. One project I have is to do an 8a onsight."

Mathieu Bouyoud has done his 22nd 9a, via the FA of Je vais bien tout va bien exit 9a in La Balme. In the 8a ranking game, the French is #11. "It starts by Je vais bien 8c+ and finish by the exit of Tout va bien exit 8b. It's 50 m long route in a big overhang on the left part of the cave. Now I would like to do the extension by Tout va bien 8c, maybe in total 9a+. I bolted this routes 5 years ago."

Here is the All Time High Female ranking
based on the Top-10 hardest flashes.
1. Alex Puccio 10 330 2. Megan Mascarenas 10 230 3. Karoline Sinnhuber 9 930 4. Nina Williams 9 680 5. Oriane Bertone 9 480.

Blade Runner 8C by Matt Fultz
Matt Fult, who had 8B+ as personal best until 15 months ago, has done his eleventh 8C, Blade Runner in RMNP. In the 8a ranking game, the 29-year-old is the new #3. (c) Kevin Takahashi Smith

"12 sessions from start to finish. The physical difficulty is only one aspect of what made Blade Runner so tough for me. Weather, humidity, and skin all played huge roles in coming together for the send. The crux โ€œbuttonโ€ hold would either feel amazing or impossible, all based on those factors!" As reported on Insta he sometimes did have to set the alarm at 3am in order to get better conditions.

The rankings page have been updated and there are now many more options to choose from. In the list, by selecting All Time Top-100 flashed boulders, we can see that James Webb is quite superior. In total, he has flashed 117 boulders 8A to 8B and that is based on his stiff personal grading. The 32-year-old has flashed at least two 8B+ that he thought and recorded as 8B. Furthermore, Mark Heal should be mentioned as he should be the person with the smallest difference in between redpoint and flashing as he only has done two 8B+, although having flashed 82 boulders 7C+ to 8A+.

1. James Webb 108 650 2. Daniel Woods 102 196 3. Matt Fultz 101 370 4. Fanny Dong 101 170 5. Mark Heal 100 750 6. Jan Hojer 98 800 7. Jernej Kruder 98 055 8. Jon Glassberg 96 575

8b+  and 8a+ (b) onsights by Laura Rogora (19)
Laura Rogora, who did her first 9b yesterday, celebrated by onsighting Ixeia 8b+ and Esperit rebeld 8a+ (b). This should be a female onsight new standard day as there are only a handfull female that previously have onsighted an 8b+. (c) Marco Iacono

So how what that experience taking down your first 9b?
Still unbelievable. I booked only for one week here in rodellar because I only wanted to check if it was a possible long term project. I would never thought it was enough for the send.

Phat Camp 9a FA by Jonathan Siegrist
Jonathan Siegrist has done the FA of Phat Camp 9a in Wicked Cave. In total, the 32-year-old has now done 50 routes 9a to 9b, which means he is #6 in that list overall in the world. In the 8a ranking game, he is #4. (c) Dru Mack

"It's a connection between two awesome 8c+'; Fat camp and Bad girls club both 8c+, without the good rests on either and a new boulder problem in between as well. I climbed them some years ago. The route is just long, very steep and physical throughout. Usually I hate kneebar centric climbing but occasionally it's a good challenge for me."

The Wheel direct 8B (+) by Alex Puccio
Alex Puccio has done The Wheel direct 8B (+) in RMNP. "1st try 3rd day on it. To me it definitely felt harder than the wheel of chaos! The end was a harder end and DEFINITELY harder the shorter you are. I say low end V14?? I have done a lot of v13โ€™s and especially for all the v13โ€™s I have done recently and have repeated recently this is deff a step up! Fun climb regardless and glad I sent before the rain settled in! :) Oh, no knee bars and with the big bump shoulder move out left in the crux." (c) Robin O'Leary

The former very successful competition climber is #1 in the female annual ranking game as she has been for more or less ten years straight. This in spite of having been unlucky with several bad injuries. As reported on her Insta, she had a close call for one more the other day as she had an almost 100 kg rock rolling over her foot.