Oriane Bertone has done her third and fourth 8B in Rocklands; Agamemnon and Ray of Light. "Proud to top this boulder! 4 sessions to send the crouch start version. 5 more sessions to send the sit start one. I had to add a pad to reach the holds, but I didn't want to start without the first movement which is really hard (I was still super stretched!) Nice end of stay in Rocklands! In the 8a ranking game, the 14-year-old and 161 cm tall, is #3. In total she has now done eleven 8B's and one 8B+. In the video, she is doing some other 8A's including one flash.

Gonzalo Larrocha has done his 15th 9a, Ciudad de Dios in Santa Linya. The picture shows a new kneebar rest which he found just before the crux. "I spend four seasons on it, I don´t know how many tries I did, perhaps more than one hundred. That´s by far my hardest 9a. There is a sequence of five 5 moves that I only could do some days. That route is a direct start to Fabela wich I did in 2014. In Ciudad de Nios start you should make an 8c+ instead of the 8a start of Fabela.

Tanguy MERARD 🦐, who has onsighted 12 8a's, has done his first 9a, Ça chauffe in Seynes. He comments to Fanatic Climbing, "This route required to me a lot of patience and perseverance (something like 10 days), it was a harder process compared to my 2 previous 8c+ sends (“Les grandes bouches du Rhône” and “San Ku Kai”) so I propose 9a." Interesting is that he started training hard less than two years ago and since then he has had extraordinary progress, although also doing easier routes. His pyramid base is solid with 60 routes 8a and harder the last 12 months. (c) Williams Belle

Fanatic Climbing reports that Cedric Lachat has done Pachamama 9a+ in Oliana. Here is a video from the upper crux. (c) Julia Cassou Cedric has done five 9a+' before and the big plan is to do Mami Chula 9b which is an Adam Ondra link up of Pachamama and Papichulo. "I wanted to try an 9b. After receiving some infos about the routes, I decided to try “Mami chula” because it’s long and less complicated with conditions. Finish “Pachamama” is the first step, Adam and Seb also completed this one before trying the 9b."

David Firnenburg, #4 in the Combined World Ch. in 2016, has done his third 9a+, Papichulo in Oliana after some 7-8 sessions. "Happy to reward the hard work I've invested with an ascent of this amazing line. Interesting process of projecting including up's and down's, warm weather conditions and bad skin. Kept believing in my abilities and stayed patient. Feeling relieved now. Oliana is prime!" The picture, (c) Andrea Kuemin is from his Insta, three days ago. "Finding my inner balance before the crucial try of my project.

Max Deelen has done his first 8C, The Big Island in Fontainbleau. At 193 cm tall, he is probably the second boulderer to have reached 8C after Tony Saxton also 193 cm. "I have been coming to Fontainebleau for 4 years now, and the big island was always a dream project for me. I waited until I felt I was fit enough to try it, and that time came April 2019. My first session was very promising, and I could do the boulder in two parts. From that point, I became obsessed with trying to send the boulder and I trained harder than ever before. This trip I went to the problem again, and it felt a lot better. I was able to send the island on my first session on this trip. This was a confidence boost, and after a good rest day I came back and on my first go, I reached the top jug but fell unexpectedly. From this point on I knew it could happen any attempt, and it became more of a mental than physic" battle. Luckily some attempts later, and with a lot of encouragement from my good friend Nathan de Groen, I completed the big island. This moment my dream became reality and all the hard training paid off. About my height, I think that in Fontainebleau I have an advantage most of the time, as by nature the problems here tend to be quite morpho."

Clément Lechaptois has done Dreamtime in Cresciano giving it a personal 8B+ grade. "Four sessions trying with a crimpy method, just one left crimp and big lock off to a good edge (did the stand like that). In the 5th session I tried the jump with that new position for the hands and did the move first try. Then I never missed it. I readjusted my foot sequence to reach the undercling, rested a while and climbed the boulder first try from that day." (It might have been Simon Lorenzi who first did this beta. video 9 min in. Dreamtime is one of the most famous boulders in the world. It was put up as the world's first 8C in 2000 but was later downgraded. Then a hold broke and it was upgraded again. This new beta seems to be not using that broken hold.

Oriane Bertone is like last year fighting high temperatures in Rocklands over 40 degrees. Amazingly she has anyhow done two impressive flashes; Light Saber suggesting it to be 8A and Horizon Gazer 7C+. Her father Stefano gives us further details. "The temperature is increasing. 40° and more in the afternoon the last 3 or 4 days. We only can climb between 6 and 8 AM and from 17h30 to 20h PM. We go to climb with bottles of iced water, especially to resist during the approach walks. We have to choose projects in the higher sectors (The Pass, Riverside...) and roofs to reduce the temperature. We keep the hardest projects for the mornings, which are cooler. In the evening, we rather work with medium boulders (7C+, 8A), which are less complicated and less affected by the conditions. We only have four days to stay in Rocklands and we still have a few projects to complete. I hope the conditions improve a bit, to achieve one or two more difficult ascents. Very complicated end of the trip."