Jennifer Wood has done Adventure Time (8c) in Kilnsey. The 29-year-old finished her competition career in 2023 and works nowadays as a coach. (c) Mario Grabinski

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
Honestly I only thought I’d try this one because I hadn’t got my last few quickdraws out of the top of epic adventures yet 😅 this route Adventure Time adds a 30m 8b to the epic adventures crux at the last 4 bolts. It’s really cool because you do a super techy crimpy 7c+, into a really burly 8b with big moves on undercuts , then blast out the crux of epic adventures straight through the roof making a really varied line with a lot more hard climbing than the original. I put the draws in and did it next go! Very surprised! I was screaming my way through the top crux but I think I just had it dialled in on muscle memory !

What is your next plan?
Hoping to keep working through the hard stuff at Kilnsey :) before heading back to Kalymnos in October.

Tyler Thompson, who has climbed ten routes graded 9a and above in the past two years, recently sent Moonshine (9a) at The Remuda. Just four days later, he followed it up with an ascent of Mutation (9a) at Wild Iris Main Wall.

Can you tell us more about your latest two 9a’s?
I had been climbing for a few weeks at Wolf point but, as the season got warmer, the decent days there have been harder to come by. Wild iris is over 1000 feet higher and good on warm days so I started trying Moonshine around two weeks ago. I made steady progress and on my fourth session I fell 5 times in a row on the crux dyno. The next climbing day I sent on my third try.

A few days later, after sending Sheep Eye at Wolf point, I went back to the rodeo wave to check out the ending section of Mutation, which climbs Genetic Drifter into an 8b+ route. I did the 8b+ right away after checking the moves and making sure I had good beta. I decided to try from the bottom, which is a bit complicated because it involves a rope and belay swap due to the huge traverse. My first try I fell in the last few moves of genetic and managed to get through that section on the second try. I rested well before the 8b+ and desperately pulled through the redpoint crux at the very end, much to the dismay of myself and my belayer(s)!

Lee Dohyun claimed his first Lead World Cup gold in Madrid, following three previous victories in Boulder events. It was a tense finish, with the five climbers who followed him each coming within just two holds of his top score.

”This feels unreal, I can't believe it. I'm just happy! When I finished my climb, I didn't think it was worth a gold medal, I would have expected fourth or fifth. It was a good experience for me. At the end of the Boulder season I was a bit confused, I was disappointed in myself for my results in finals. I started thinking about how to improve myself, everyday, also in Lead, I tried and did my best. Now I'm happy.”

Annie Sanders, who won a Boulder World Cup victory last year, was the only climber to top the semifinal as well as the final route, earning her first gold medal in Lead. Remarkably, the 17-year-old has reached the final in all but one of the 15 World Cups she has competed in over the past two years.
”I'm honestly still in shock right now, I'm super excited to have executed well enough to win the gold. I didn't know what to expect at the beginning of the season, but after the first Lead World Cup in China I know I was capable of doing this, and I'm glad it finally happened.”

Chris Frick, who did his first 8b+ in 1992, has done the first ascent of Chaîne de Markov (8b+) in Gorges de Court. In total, the 57-year-old has done almost 500 first ascents. "Incredible roof with tufas and tufa-blobs on immaculate limestone. Quasi a taste of Spanish-style 3D power climbing in the Swiss Jura. It's a gem, completely natural! One hold less an it'd be impossible. A gift to discover this climb, bolting and sending! Found the line in 2014, realized it's beauty but thought it would be 8c+ or beyond and therefore left it. Came back in 2023, had some ideas how to solve the moves. In 2024 I've struggled with the two cruxes but found the beta. This year everything is different. Now, at 57 I'm somehow in an amazing shape power- and weightwise. I've put in a lot of work to get there. The send was still challenging, but I'm hesitating to give more than 8b+ (maybe slash c?). Time will tell. A heartfelt thank you for the amazing support by Tina, Vero, Marianne, Sabrina, Julo, Gaspard, Gregoire, Sven and Matias. You guys rock!" (c) Veronika Sossau

How can you explain the amazing shape power?
I am absolutely aware that it is not given to still have this energy and drive at my age. But it doesn't come naturally, it's the result of hard work. After 43 years, climbing is in my DNA - so it's intrinsic motivation. For me, there is no question of whether I want to keep climbing - especially at my personal limit - or not. Every day that I do something well in climbing is like a gift. And then the willingness to invest in climbing - and ultimately in yourself - comes naturally. I would hate to stand still and stop developing. So it remains exciting to see what I can (still!) continue to change. Of course, it takes a lot of effort to define goals and then work on yourself. But sometimes I wonder why some people of the same age (50 to 60) give up, even though they are not permanently injured or suffer from other ailments. I mean, most of us over 50 have a hard job in addition to climbing - I work four days a week myself. But it also gets easier, for example for those with families, when the children have grown up and become independent. As long as the biological limitation due to advanced age has not yet set in, I see no reason to give up. I’m pretty sure it’s just a question of mental state. If that’s the case for some of you, it might help to ask yourself: Why do I THINK I can't do it anymore?

For my personal climbing, I proceed as follows: I usually set myself a climbing goal that is actually (almost) too difficult. These are routes outside on rock. I refer to these mega-projects as my ‘lighthouses’, which I can use as a guide and ask myself questions such as: what do I need, how should I proceed, what circumstances must be given, etc.? Then I actually know how to go on. It's not simply a question of training harder now. I don't even think that works like that. First of all, there are clear basic requirements to be met, especially to stay injury-free over 55+ (and not just at this age!)! Sufficient sleep, stress reduction and good nutrition are the basis. By good nutrition, I mean a vegan diet - although I know that this may cause controversial debates. But my own experience is valid. Here, too, I choose what I eat carefully in order to get enough proteins and other essential nutrients. Since switching to vegan ten years ago, I have been completely free of inflammations and have more power than I did as a young man who first ate meat and later went vegetarian. Another aspect is time management. It wasn't easy to manage everything so that I could create a good training environment and only train at times of the day when I’m awake and present. I have also learned to listen to my body. I've now even got to the point where, if I start a training session and the first few moves feel miserable, I cancel it and postpone it for a day or two. I no longer train according to training plans, but have over the decades learned what I need. This can even still be technical training. I invest a lot in stretching every day. Agility is a key word here.

It may sound paradoxical, but the now climbed power roof ‘Chaîne de Markov’ - at least 8b+ and thus the second in the grade this year - is not the ‘lighthouse’ project I spoke of earlier. This is just waiting for the cooler conditions in fall. It's a long-term project and the most difficult piece of rock I've ever tackled and that I find it extremely interesting. Everything before is just the necessary round to this one goal. And if it doesn't work out - because of the often not ideal conditions or I don't get strong enough - then it was the benchmark that made all the other routes possible. So I know for myself that it's worth investing. I get so much in return. And these are fantastic experiences that I can draw on for the rest of my life. I hope this sounds inspiring to some of you older girls and boys who are still hesitant. Let's go! Climbing at 55+ at the personal limit is so interesting and still possible!

Alizee Dufraisse, who sent her first 8B+ last month, has completed Tigris (8B) in Magic Wood.

Can you tell us more about the process behind the send?
I did the ascent pretty fast. One day I did the 7C ending and maybe 3/4 days in the 8B, I’m not sure. The goal is the 8B+ sit start so let s see if I can figure out the beginning, haha.

Alex Ventajas, with close to 20 routes 9a and beyound under his belt, has sent The famous gem (9a) in La Saume. (c) Crimp Films

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
A couple of weeks ago, I visited La Saume for the first time. After sending Beginning (9a+) in Arco a few months ago, I suffered a minor finger injury that lingered longer than expected. These days in La Saume marked the first time I truly felt the finger recovering — getting stronger again.

I didn’t have a clear plan, but my attention was quickly drawn to the hardest line in the sector: The Famous Gem. Since it was my first time in the area and everything was new, I decided to keep things open — mixing easier climbs with projecting each day.

The Famous Gem is a link-up of two existing routes: the 8c Marcellus Wallace and the 8c+ Pastis. I began by working them individually. The climbing style is quite bouldery, which doesn’t naturally suit me, so I needed a few sessions just to adapt to the wall. It was definitely a bit of a fight at first, with plenty of ups and downs. Each boulder section felt tough initially, but once I figured out the moves, I started to really enjoy the process. In the end, I sent both routes pretty quickly.

After ticking those off, linking them into the full 9a felt like a whole new challenge. You arrive at the same two small crimps as in Pastis, but from a completely different position after climbing Marcellus Wallace, which makes the crux feel entirely different. At first, it seemed extremely hard. But the next day, a few small adjustments — body position, heel placement — changed everything. I went from having no idea how to do the crux move to sticking it consistently, and finally clipped the chain.

The key to the send was really the focus on precision. Even small shifts in body tension or footwork made a huge difference, and I had to dial that in carefully. In total, it took me around 6–7 climbing days to send the full line, including time spent working the individual routes. Maybe it’s not a solid 9a, but I’m really happy to have done it fairly quickly — and more importantly, to finally feel like I’m getting back into shape.

What I’ll remember most is the atmosphere at La Saume — the energy, the people, and the strong sense of climbing community that made the experience so memorable.

Jonathan Hörst, standing at 190 cm and 85 kg, has completed Mutation (9a) at Wild Iris Main Wall. The 22-year-old did his first 8b+ at age 10.

Can you tell us more about the ascent and the process behind?
It was definitely a roller coaster ride. I first sent the 8b+ start when I was 11 but didn’t climb much on this wall until I was traveling over COVID. I remember watching BJ work this in the mid 2010s and it was such a crazy link to even imagine. Essentially this climb does the crux of almost every route on the wall climbing 100 feet diagonally, on a wall where all of the routes are 4 bolts tall. I progressed in the early 2020s doing some easier link ups on this wall, and in 2023 gave this 9a some serious effort, ultimately coming up short.

At the time I thought I was in the best shape of my life and fell off the last move (literally) at least 12 times and I took last year off from trying it to clear my head. Additionally, last year was a year off since finishing my undergrad and I got psyched to expand my styles of climbing.

This meant I put more emphasis on new objectives opposed to sport climbing with a lot of time trad climbing, up on big walls, up in the alpine or route developing. I haven’t trained in a gym since February and for most of the spring I was bolting at the Red River Gorge without climbing much on upper end difficulty. All of this contributed to me getting quite bulky and having a mental battle over how well I could climb after little specific focus on hard sending. Surprisingly I had a solid June of climbing at Wolf Point, and when that season closed I came back to the Rodeo Wave in Wild Iris to at least rage on Mutation.

My first day back I made a really good low point with some margin that 2 years ago was tough to make, and got pretty stoked. Another 2 days of working it and I got back to the same last move in 75% humidity and made a few beta tweaks. Then yesterday I came back, got blessed with perfect conditions and climbed better than I could’ve expected.

Its crazy to me not because I was convinced 9a was too much of a barrier but because so much felt like it wasn’t “perfect” especially compared to previous years (limited training, alot of non-limit climbing, sub optimal fitness, etc) which after falling off the end when all of these things were right, made this year feel like not much could happen. Evidently I was wrong! Moving forward since I’ll be moving to SLC I’m stoked to see how much more I can push my high end climbing, but I’ll also continue to put a lot of emphasis on the other styles I’ve become interested in. We’ll see how it plays out!

Niki Rusev, who sent his first 9a route at age 14, has had an amazing day in Rocklands sending Spray of Light (8C), Reverse Cowgirl (8B+), one 8A+ as well as an 8A. The 19-year-old Bulgarian was runner up at the European Youth Championship two months ago. (c) Daniel Gajda

”What a day! Didn’t know about this boulder until I came to Rocklands🇿🇦. First few days were rainy and went to check out that cave where it was possible to climb during the storm ☔️. I enjoyed the process of figuring out the moves but putting them all together at once seemed hard 🔥. Even if I thought I planned my climbing days well I struggled with recovery and also jumped on too many different blocks😮‍💨. I ended up exhausted and after I started to learn how to save some energy I decided to focus on one thing that I feel closer to send😏. I was still wondering which method I should use for that last part. I do usually like to use the most efficient way but this time I chose the more physical one. The toe hook (the less powerful beta) has more micro moves that pumped me even more and it just felt too technical for me🤔. After one day rest and slow warm up it went down from the first send attempt. This is my first 8C. To be honest right after I sent it some thoughts appeared in my mind about the grade but I would say I do feel very poor in terms of experiencing hard grades, specially in bouldering.”

Yannick Flohé, who has placed Top-10 in all the first four Lead World Cups in 2025, flashed Foundations Edge (8C) last week. ”When I sent I couldn’t really believe it and felt a big relief because I knew for years that this was the one 8C in the world to flash. But I also got some doubts about the difficulty cause I was trying hard but non of the moves was really on the limit but maybe that was one reason why I sent. It’s not just one crux so you have to keep it together all the way to the good jug in the roof.”