Katherine Choong, who did her first 9a last year, has done So-Ya-Hé 8c in Soyhières. (c) Isabelle Bihr

” It's a route I had already tried last year between projects. But often, when the project is at home, I put less pressure on myself to finish it and I had left it aside. In fact, I haven't done any difficult routes in my area. But with the current situation, it was an opportunity to climb in the area next to my home. In my region, the routes are rather vertical, bouldery and short, but this one is a little more overhanging and less bouldery.

I've always enjoyed having outdoor projects next to competitions but this year is the opportunity to devote even more time to it. I have a few ideas but no fixed plan, as the restrictions linked to the Covid-19 have to be taken into account.

Martin Bergant, #4 in the European Championship, has done his first 9a, In Time in Sopota. It is a seldom repeated spectacular Jernej Kruder route with an 8A dyno followed with more hard boulders sequences. The 24-year-old has been an active competition climber for ten years who had his best year last year after previously having struggled to reach the semi.

”Since the start of the covid-19 pandemic all the competitions are postponed or cancelled, so now I am able to put all the focus on climbing in rock for the first time in my career. Like all the other climbers did a lot of fingerboard training and increased my finger strength during the lockdown. Obviously I can already see the progress I made and managed to send my first 9a, In Time. Now I want to stay in this flow and see how many hard routes i can climb until the competition season restarts.”

Jan Hojer, who has qualified for Tokyo 2021, has during the last two weeks done eleven 8c's in Frankenjura, out of which three second go.

Any thoughts of going for an 8c+ or even 9a :)?
Aren’t you the one that says building a base to your pyramid is important?! :-) When I was younger I did a lot of 8b+‘s in the Frankenjura and then skipped all the nice 8c‘s and 8c+‘s and did AD. I haven’t been back in almost ten years and right now I’m enjoying climbing on different routes every day, rather than focusing on just one or two projects. But don’t worry. I will take advantage of all the free time and try a few hard routes as well this year. Maybe I’ll have a few trips where I focus on onsight climbing too... but who knows. I’m loving the freedom of my empty schedule right now.

What about indoor and competition training like Speed?
I haven’t been inside for almost three weeks. But I go home in two days to focus on training for a little while and also add a couple of speed sessions to the mix.

Since 2014 the annual CBJ Grip List survey has provided insights into the top climbing hold and volume brands from around the world. This year, they are adding a brand-new set of awards into the mix focused on the homewall setter. This year’s survey is open to any route setter, even if your only experience is on a homewall. In addition to voting on their favorite hold and volume brands in general, CBJ are asking route setters to vote on their favorite hold and volume brands specifically for homewalls. They will give away some random prizes to respondents, including holds, volumes and CBJ swag.

Alex Megos, who has qualiefied to Tokyo 2021, reports on Insta that he has spent five days in Allgäu having done seven routes 8c and harder including X-Hale 9a, Iron Dome 9a and Kreuzigung 8c+/9a. (c) Jenya Kazbekova

How could you train during lockdown and how has it been climbing after the lockdown? Really enjoying climbing outside at the moment. There were a few options for me to train during lockdown. The German alpine club had a deal with most gyms so national team members could still train most of the period. I do as well have a fingerboard at home so I was sorted. Going to Allgäu was my first trip since the pre lockdown trip to Sheffield for the CWIF.

IFSC inform that the Youth World Championship in August in Voronezh in Russia has been postponed to 2021. They also say that in 2022, it will take place in USA.

In the new 8a website, there are plenty of more ranking possibilities. Jan Hojer is #1 during the last month on Routes and Alex Puccio is ahead of all male in Bouldering.

Juniors: Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi & Oriane Bertone 40+: Rafael Puredski & Laurent Hogan

Niki Rusev comes out strong from the lockdown having done his second 8c, Nepobedim Ext. 8c in Karlukovo, Video.

Things started getting better with the pandemic and now we can climb outside again. Those two months I spent at home I realized I had to train. Every day after school I did intense training. This would take up to two hours and a half. I wanted to face my friends and coaches and show them I haven’t lost my form, but even better I have become stronger after all this hard work.

A forty-five meter 8c is pretty good. Before I had made the second part which is 8b. I wanted to run it so I could have the strength to the end, and that's exactly what happened. I didn't have a single unnecessary movement, it was all in my head. I didn't squeeze them much and so I climbed it quite fresh and I toped it at the sixth try."

Oriane Bertone has done the FA of Satan i helvete Low 8C in Fontainbleu after a broken hold. Dave Graham did the FA of the stand 8B and then Seb Frigault added the two moves low calling it 8B+ before the broken hold.

"A perfect ascent after 11 sessions, in which I did Fata Morgana bas and Fata I Helvete who share the low section with Satan I Helvete Bas. I psyched to climb harder and harder and manage to build this last ascent. First Ascent after a broken hold in 2013. The line was called 8C for stand start (Alban Levier in 2016), but I think that with my beta its 8C from low start now." Video with detailed info such as Charles Albert has repeated it barefoot calling it 8B+ hard or 8C.

Previously, three woman have done 8C; Ashima Shiraishi, Kaddi Lehmann and Mishka Ishi.

Natalia Grossman reports on Insta that she has done the route Positive Vibrations 8c and three hard boulders; Halfway Crooks 8A+, Jeremiah Low 8B and Wheel of Fortune 8B. The 18-year-old got two silver in the Youth World Championship last year and among the seniors, she was #7 in the Boulder World Cup in Vail.

Interestingly is that five years ago she made her whole family move from California to Boulder so she could start to train with Robin Erbesfield-Raboutouand the ABC team. As a matter of a fact, her dedication came already at age 4 when she for the first time did see a climbing wall but she had to wait for her sixth birthday when she for the very first time was allowed to start climbing. Until the lockdown of the gyms she has almost only focused on competitions.