Noah Wheeler, who started 2025 by sending his first two 9A’s, has had an amazing day in Cascade, starting with a second go ascent of The Hero of Ages (8B+). ”14/15. Thinking a little harder than Final Empire? Would've flashed the stand but dabbed, then immediately fired the sit first go from start. Incredible to try hard climbs in my exact style!”

Later he flashed Inglorious Bastards (8B), giving it a personal 8A+ grade. ”Good one! Feels very consistent throughout.”, and redpointed Death's End (8C), ”Sent a few goes after Hero of Ages in one of my best days yet! Mostly a temp/light crux, where, as it was 80/90 degrees out during the day, I had to wait until 12:30 - 1am for good temps, upon which the darkness makes it difficult to light up the crux holds sufficiently. Undoubtedly a mega line on mega rock.”

How come you have not done any boulders the last six weeks and what about the night session?
Haven’t climbed outside in a while because its been so hot in CO! Summer is mostly just a period of training for me - board climbing over all else in order to ramp for Switzerland 2-3 months in the fall.

This trip to Idaho was a short vacation that happened to be near world-class bouldering, which we took advantage of. Since its so hot during the day, most of my sends came at 12-2am.

Jonathan Siegrist has done the first repeat of BJ Tilden’s Show Your Teeth (9a) at Wolf Point. ”Great punchy route with a variety of savage movement. Enormous stab to the pocket at the 4th bolt was my definitive crux and took me a while to figure out. So psyched to get it done just in time for deep summer to arrive!! Similar to Lion's Share in the grade, I think entry level 9a.” (c) Nate Liles

There are around 45 routes in total, with the longest reaching approximately 40 meters and nine of them graded 8c+ or harder. The topo can be find in the Vertical-Life App.

Can you tell us more about Wolf Point?
Wolf Point is a wild, remote crag near Lander, WY. It's a real Wyoming experience - 4x4 is mandatory for the road, there are rattlesnakes, bears and cougars around, and the hike is pretty brutal - being uphill both ways as you have to descend to a river crossing and then go back up the other side of the canyon. It was first found by Steve Bechtel and Todd Skinner many years ago, but it wasn't until 2012 and 2013 that the real motivation for developing the place began. In 2013 I spent the whole spring, summer, and fall in Lander - largely with the drive to develop routes at Wolf Point. It was an amazing time, lots of hard work from the crew and in the end we got a solid first round of hard routes put in.

Since then, BJ Tilden and prolific bolter Tom Rangitsch have mostly filled in the remaining walls. BJ has been a friend and an inspiration for many years. Because of his work - as a carpenter - and his family, he rarely gets to travel but instead puts a ton of energy into doing high level first ascents around Central Wyoming. He's the singular driving force for Wyoming being a true destination for very hard climbing in the USA. Wolf Point is maybe the most impressive of the crags he's helped develop but there are many other gems around the area too. This season at the Point was very special because of all the action - many folks teamed up and anchored into the June season in a serious way. It's for sure the most hard sending that the crag has ever seen. I was stoked to be a part of it!

Zach Galla, with four 8C+’ to his name, has completed The Singularity (8C) in Squamish. (c) Ryan Moon

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
At first glance this climb appears as a basic crimp ladder, but in classic Squamish fashion it requires a lot more subtlety and finesse than meets the eye. I spent a few sessions trying to sort the crux move last year with no luck. Coming back this time I managed to do the move twice on my first day back in town, and piece it all together my first try of my 2nd sesh. While i’m not entirely sure that I’ve gotten stronger in my time away, this climb has helped me realize that I’m still improving my climbing in other ways which feels pretty damn good.

David Bermudez Carbonell, with six 9a’s under his belt, has onsighted El excusómetro (8b) in Cueva del Arenal and Aluminosis (8a+) in Valdegobia. The 16-year-old started climbing in 2020 and already in 2021, he had done his first 8b. (c) Dario Rodriguez

Can you tell us more about these onsights?
Two weeks ago, I spent four days climbing in northern Spain with the Sputnik team. Before reaching our main destination, we stopped at Cueva del Arenal, where I managed to onsight Excusó metro. The route is very steep and features several kneebars, but I couldn't take advantage of them since I had forgotten my kneepads at home. I nearly fell on the upper section, but somehow I held it together and sent it. I think this might be my best onsight performance to date.

After that, we headed to Valdegobia, where I was able to onsight Aluminosis and managed to redpoint Kulu n'gelè (8c) in two days.

Han Seuran, who last autumn sent Puro Dreaming (8c+), has done Pura Vida (8A+) in Magic Wood. The Korean is a former competition climber who in 2011 three times made it to the final in the Lead World Cup.

Can you tell us more about the trip and Pura Vida?
I’ve been in Magic Wood for about 17 days and it’s my first time bouldering on European rock. Magic Wood was hotter than I expected. Interestingly, it was cooler by the rock side, and at first, I wanted to challenge One Summer in Paradise. I practiced a big move in the middle for over two hours, but it was hard to stick.

So, I ended up trying Pura Vida. The starting hold wasn’t good, so it was difficult to get a solid heel position. It was fun because the climb was made up of my favorite grips and moves.

However, during the last few moves, my balance collapsed, and I fell. I also slipped and fell because of the rain. Still, I really wanted to send it that day, so I focused more on the detailed moves and climbed it.💪🙂

What is next?
I have six days left on this trip, but unfortunately, there’s rain in the forecast every day. During the rest of my time here, I plan to work out the moves on a variety of difficult and interesting routes.

Nicholas Allan, who did his first 8C last summer at age 17, has done the first ascent of Whiplash (8C) in Topside. ”This is undoubtedly my proudest send to date and by far the hardest boulder I’ve ever done. So happy to have gotten the first ascent of this king line. What a crazy journey!” (c) Brendan Kuhnert

Can you give us more details about the ”crazy journey”?
I first tried this boulder in December 2023 and was blown away by how perfect it was. It had been a known project for a while and was definitely the next level for Cape Town bouldering and was (and still is) the hardest boulder I had ever tried. It’s a 12 move power endurance beast, with each move harder than the previous, that can be split into a 8A+ and a 8B+ with a low percentage dyno as the last move.

I spent the beginning of 2024 just trying to piece all the moves together but it was seeming out of my range at the time and I had to put the dream on hold to train for youth worlds and rocklands season.

The next time I went back to it at the end of 2024 I was feeling better than ever and was finally able to piece together all the moves. Season then came to an end and I was only able to get back to it at the beginning of this year were I was making promising links and started to give bottom rips. But then a fire came along and I wasn’t able to try it for a month.

On my first session back after the fire, while I was linking the crux to the top, I jumped to the lip but it broke and I landed head first on a rock, having to get stitches and take a little break from falling. After my head healed I then injured my toe and wasn’t able to put climbing shoes on for a couple of weeks. But as soon as I could fit my feet into my shoes I was back on the project and that session I managed to have a breakthrough and dropped the final move.

The next session all the pieces were finally able to align. As I pulled on for my first send burn of the day, I blinked and the next thing I knew I was standing on top of the boulder, exactly one and a half years, to the day, from when I first tried it.

Did you do any special training during the process and what about the landing?
I had to train lots of power endurance to get fit enough for the boulder, as you don’t get a good rest and I couldn’t imagine doing the last move from the ground. I didn’t build a better landing after the incident, just took more pads up for the next few sessions to be extra safe.

Sorato Anraku, 18, has now won all three Boulder World Cups he's entered. In 2025, he clinched the overall title ahead of the final round and stood on the podium at all six events.

Oriane Bertone becomes the first French woman since 2007 to win the Boulder World Cup. The 20-year-old has for several years been the best teenager in the world both outdoors and on the competition scene.

Jonathan Siegrist has made the first repeat of BJ Tilden’s The Hunted (9a) at Wolf Point. The 39-year-old has now logged 88 routes 9a to 9b and he is #3 in the annual ranking game. ”So much hard climbing on this thing. I fell in the top a number of times - Even in the end when I felt 99% at the final rest, the huge pulls in the last boulder still felt hard. 9a/+”

It seems you are having great time at Wolf Point having done six route 8c+ to 9a+ the last four weeks including The Hunted?
June has been so fun. I love the community and the vibes here around Lander - BJ is also one of the strongest climbers in the US and so there are always more hard routes from him to try. This season in particular there has been a lot of hard sends!

I finished ‘The Hunted’ a few days ago - it’s a long, slightly overhanging route with a very difficult opening boulder problem and another one guarding the end. Wolf Point is a great challenge for me because the moves are usually huge on the hard routes, with nothing in-between. It really forces me to be powerful.

What is next?
I have one more hard one I would love to finish before the season ends (too hot) next week. It’s called Show Your Teeth (9a) and for me the difficulty all comes down to one enormous accurate move to a pocket. I’ve tried it 3 days. Hoping I have the time and strength to finish!

Martina Cufar Potard, Lead World Champion in 2001, has done Parasite (8b+) in Foron, commenting it is probably 8b. The 48-year-old was the first Slovenian to win an IFSC senior competition, and since then, the country—with 2 million inhabitants—has won another 100 such golds.

Can you tell us more about the ascent?
It is a line that traverses the cliff of Foron from right to left, crossing six routes—about 120 moves—but none of them are extremely hard. You just need to deal with pumped forearms. There is definitely a crux just before joining the last route, but it's on crimps, and that suits me. I did it on my third day. I had to put much more effort into Bouffadou, a roughly 20-move-long 8b that I did last year—it took me more than 20 attempts, I think :-)

How is your daily climbing life nowadays?
I’m still really motivated, and I try to find time for climbing between the kids (who don’t really like climbing), my work as a massage therapist, and also as a climbing instructor. I manage to climb three to four times a week. I still have some 8b’s to do around Chamonix, but it’s often complicated with the conditions. First it’s wet, then it’s too hot... but in general, I prefer when it’s too hot rather than too cold—I have problems with cold fingers. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of easy multipitch climbing with friends. I enjoy it, and we’re often surprised by the grades from the ’80s... a 6a can be hard!

What is the biggest change on the comp scene since you were active?
Haha... it's much more dynamic now! I found a videotape of my victory in Chamonix in 2001. It’s so boring to watch—I was going up and down I don’t know how many times before deciding how to continue. I had 12 minutes for the route and almost ran out of time. You can’t do that nowadays on the huge slopers! And there were no coordination moves or jumps. I’m happy I competed 20 years ago and didn’t have to do risky jumps in the middle of a route!