Charlotte Andre, who earlier this summer flashed an 8A+ in Fontainebleau, reports on Insta that she during a hot and rainy 10 days trip to Magic Wood has done seven 8A's including Foxy Lady 8A, 2nd Go, and Jack's broken heart 8A+. Furthermore, the medical school student flashed four 7C's and The Right Hand of Darkness 7C+ (8A). (c) Vladek Zumr

"My trip was really nice! I managed to tick a lot of classic boulders. Next time I have to find a harder project ;-) but this time I wanted to discover the forest and all the « jam » so I didn’t try a really hard problem. Nevertheless I had a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a loooooot. I met many awesome people. That’s why I love climbing to. Right now I have to switch to comp mode for the Tout à bloc. If there are some comps I will do the bouldering season."

Your flash record is really impressive. Any special strategy?
I most of the time try to make a good flash attempt but I'm not preparing myself really. I check one or two videos or sometimes I just ask the beta from the people who are trying the problem. I really take it easy and cool. If it’s work it’s cool, if not, no big deal.

You seem easy going?
Outside yes but in comps I’m really stressed. Climbing outside is just climbing for "pleasure" and fun. But as comps are my "main goal", it’s harder for me to take a step back and just enjoy and do what I’m capable of.

What is your training background
Three years ago I had to stop the comps because the first year of medicine school is really hard in France. I studied almost 12h/day from September to May. I could climb once a week for maximum 45min and that was all. Then I succeed my exams and the year after I started to train again and during the last two years I have been training very hard also during the lockdown. I’ve done a lot of physical training because it’s a big weakness for me :-). I’m doing a lot of super short training session like 30 minutes. I train mostly alone because where I live there is not a lot of strong climbers. I was super excited for the World Cups. I was ready and super motivated but unfortunaltey all the comps were cancelled because of the COVID. Consequently I started to climb outside. I went a bit to the local crag and then one week in Font and now the Magic Wood trip.

Lukas Mayerhofer has during eight climbing days in Silvretta done 19 boulders 8A and harder including Anam Cara 8B+, which he did on his second session. In the picture, is More Shining 8B. Several videos on his Insta. "I tried to climb as many of the classics as possible but the skin management is pretty hard to handle in this area."

Ella Adamovska, #2 in the Euro Youth Champ last year, reports on Insta that she has done two 8c's; Los Brňos in Višnové and Insomnia in Krpcovo. (c) Petr Piechowicz
"As I have been training for a very long time for the comp season, even more during the lockdown, I’ve decided to take a short break and spend some time in the crags nearby my country- in Slovakia. During four days I managed to send my longer term-roof project Los Brňos 8c and also the beautiful line Insomnia 8c which took me only 9 tries to complete. Both routes are very powerful, steep and not really my style so it makes me even happier. Also, if I am well informed, I did the FFAs. Now back to the gyms to finish the preparations for Briancon and next comps."

Brooke Raboutou, who has qualified to Tokyo 2021, has done her fifth 8B during the last five weeks, Freaks of the Industry in RMNP. The 19-year-old is #2 in the female ranking game. "Yay! Happy to put this one down! Felt easy when I did it but felt hard when I didn’t do it, classic. One of the rare climbs that I feel is perfect for the grade, felt like a solid 13 to me, not easier or harder!"

Mejdi Schalck, who was Top-4 in the three latest Euro Youth Cups he did, has done his first 8c+, La proue debridée in Roch de rame. "I started to climb outdoors three months ago and I went to Roch de rame, near Briancon, in between two comps. I needed six tries to do this very intense and bouldery route. In less than three weeks, I will be competing in my first World Cup in Briançon."

Adam Ondra is the best climber in the world and especially when it comes to onsights, he is totally superior. In 2005, the year he turned 12, he onsighted 8 routes 8b and 19 8a+. In order to stimulate and order to credit the youngsters focusing on onsight, here is the Top-10. Noteworthy is that Ondra's score being 12-years-old was 12 420, would have made him #3 in 2020! An onsight gives 147 bonus points, i.e. almost three grades extra.

1. Maho Normand 2005 - 11 614: #1 also based on Top-50, in the picture.
2. Tanguy Merard 2003 - 11 554
3. Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi 2005 - 11 458
4. Michele Reusa 2006 - 10 837
5. Pierre Marzullo 2007 - 10 702

6. Iziar Martinez 2005 - 10 606: #1 Female: #2 based on Top-50
7. Lucija Tarkuš 2003 - 10 550: #2 Female
8. Piotr Niznik 2005 - 10 250
9. Marketa Janosova 2004 - 10 162: #3 Female
10. David Cabanillas 2005 - 10 116

Gioele Piffer 2006 is #3 based on Top-50 followed by Liam Mayerhuber 2010. We will follow up the onsights ranking every month in order to challenge the youth the Ondra onsight style :)

Michele Reusa has done his first 8c, Une arquée pour le criquet in Fournel, after just three sessions. In 2017, his father Iuri made the headlines doing his first 8c+ at age 43. With two 8b+' this year he is tied #2 in the family with Matteo (12).

They train three times a week and on the weekends they are pushing it outdoors. The trainer of the youngsters is Daniele Martina. Next up is Tout a Bloc which which the brothers won respectively last year as they also did in the Italian Championship. In the picture is also big brother and boulderer Elia.

Nolwen Berthier, who did her first 8c+ in May, has done her fourth 8c in 2020, L’étau d’intérêt in Verdon. It was bolted last year by Antonin Rhodes and Nolwen made the third repeat. (c) Théo Cartier, from another route.

"It is a new kingline on a beautiful single tufa. Powerful and demanding, climbing this line has been a really nice process from finding the beta, breaking some foot and losing a lot of skin, to clip the chain."

In 2018, the French was #14 in the Briancon World Cup. "I always loved rockclimbing but I was more focused on competition until last year. This year I have the opportunity to spend most of my time outside so I take advantage of it as much as possible. For 2020, I’ll go with the flow to push my limit in hard project and travel to explore new amazing lines, while combining my passion for climbing with my working life as an engineer in sustainable development."