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.

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."

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 v13’s and especially for all the v13’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.

Adam Ondra has done the FA of another two 9a's; Mia in Vranjača and Genius Loci in Paklenica . The latter adds a cruxy start to Il Maratoneta, the famous 8b+ put up by Manolo in 1987, which Ondra had onsighted a couple days earlier. Mia: "Amazing 50m line in an amazing cave close to Paklenica. Hard to say about the grade, after 25m of 8a/a+ you get into resistant section with weird crux which I think suits my style, even though after having worked the moves it is max 8c+. Possibly 8c+/9a. 3rd go."

The 27-year-old has now done 167 routes 9a to 9c. The runner up is Alex Megos with around 75. When it comes to 8b+ or harder onsight, Adam has 175 and here he is even more superior. In the 8a data base, Patxi Usobiaga is #2 with 40 onsights 8b+ or harder.

Jan Hojer and Molly Thompson-Smith have had some great days in Frankenjura having done Der Heilige Gral 9a and Father and Son 8c, respectively.

Jan: ”It’s rare to find this route dry which added some pressure to finish it off this trip. In the end it took me 4 days. We are going back to Cologne now for a little bit before we drive to Ceuse.”

Molly: “The last few months on rock were great for me to get more familiar with my rock climbing level, and start to push myself to climb things quicker and try harder lines. After watching Jan on ‘Der Heiliger Gral, 9a’ I decided to check it out and could do all the moves so I hope it stays dry enough for a few more sessions this summer! My other new project is ‘Infinity, 8c+’ at Eldorado. I love how short and powerful this crag is and I’m not sure many women have climbed the harder routes here so it’s a nice challenge!“

Carlo Traversi, who previously has done eight 8C's, has done his first 8C+, Creature from the black lagoon in RMNP. Previous years, he has done a couple of sessions on it before starting to try it this year, all by himself. Luckily he got it on video which will be released soon. "Weird day. Shitty conditions and wasn’t feeling great, then just randomly climbed it. Gave myself a month to do this thing and it only took 3 days. Gonna have to find some other things to try."

So what is your best explanation for this amazing quick send?
No real explanation. I’ve been mostly trying hard projects in CA this spring/summer and just failing on them. I’ve always believed that climbing on things that are outside of your range is the best way to improve. No hang boards, no weights, no structure, just real climbing with good motivation. It’s definitely my most surprising ascent. I don’t consider roof climbing to be my style, that was one of the reasons I wanted to try to climb this boulder. To improve. I actually almost never climb on horizontal roofs.

Laura Rogora, who has qualified to Tokyo 2021, reports on Insta that she has done Ali hulk sit start extension total 9b in Rodellar. It is a 15 move sit start link up to a 9a+ extension set up by Jonathan Flor. (c) Marco Iacono

The 153 cm and 19-year-old has previously done 13 routes 8c+/9a to 9a+, which means she has the most impressive female ticklist in the world. She did her first 9a at age 14. Being 15-years-old, she won her first Euro Youth Cup and two years later she was #6 in a World Cup. Overall, the Italian must be considered as a contender for the best female climber out there.

The Association of British Climbing Walls (ABC) report that they have been part of a study in regards chalk and Covid-19. "The presence of infectious virus on a plastic surface dusted with chalk was monitored over the course of one hour. The results indicated that the amount of infectious virus was reduced by around 99% immediately upon contact with the chalky surfaces."

It should be noted that no formal scientific report has been published yet and that there will be a full report published in early August. (For some reason the page can not be found any longer.

ABC has published a new article with the new headline - RESEARCH SHOWS CHALK COULD BE A CLIMBERS BEST FRIEND..” The first headline was - Chalk Deactivates The Virus on Holds.

Kim Marschner has done his first 9a, The Elder Statesman in Frankenjura and it just took him four tries over two days. "I had no plans or expectations going into the Frankenjura. I just wanted to try something hard. So I looked at that route an thought oh ja that looks pretty cool."

Interestingly is that Kim has been an active competition climber for several years but only once reached the semi out of 18 WC's. Last year he did not do any routes outdoors and his previous best was an 8c. (c) Nici Schall

It seems you are a more talented outdoor climber compared to comps?
Haha, yes but I think if I stop competing I won’t train that hard anymore and get weak. I‘m not in the best shape at the moment because I was a bit lazy the last months without any comps so I have no expectations.

Brooke Raboutou, who has qualified to Tokyo 2021, has done two 8B’s during one day up in Upper Chaos in RMNP at 3200 m altitude; Doppelgänger Poltergeist and The Wheel of Chaos. “So psyched!!! Sent it first try from the bottom! Spent about an hour working out the moves at the end of a long day and then came back and sent!” (c) Alex Puccio

In the monthly ranking game, the 19-year-old is #5 and as a matter of a fact this is he highest ranking ever for a female among the male since 8a started 2000! And, without personal down grading, she would have been #4.