Daniel Fuertes is in his best shape ever having done his fourth 9a this year, Siempre Libre in Rodellar. In the 8a ranking game, the 35-year-old is #7. (c) Iris Matamoros - I tried the route about one month, twenty five tries more or less. The route was bolted by Dani Andrada and Luis Penin, few years ago. Dani did it in June, and now it would be the first repetition. It's a cool route!!! Very hard and technical. I liked to did it!!

Ken Etzel reports with a great picture on Instagram that Alex Megos has done a great debut of hard trad climbing by flashing Sonnie Trotter's the Path 8b+R in Lake Louise. R stands for it being run out with risk of injury. Actually, it was a 20 year old project, where Sonnie chopped the bolts before making the FA. - At the base of the climb, we had to teach him how to place a cam. With Sonnie belaying and relaying beta, Alex embarked on the most inspiring piece of rock climbing I've ever seen. Over the next 40 minutes he calmly ticked his way through each of the bouldery cruxes, at times being 20-30ft run out over C3's, which hopefully were placed correctly. Pulling v10 over a suspect 000 absolutely blows my mind. Alex is not just a sport climber or a boulderer, he's a world class ROCK CLIMBER who will change the face of our sport.

Jan Vopat, 13, has onsighted an 8a+ and Le plaisir qui démonte 8b in Gorges du Tarn. By looking at Czech's scorecard, including 52 7c onsights, we can see that his focus is onsight climbing and that his personal redpoint best is also 8b. 8a believes that focusing on onsight is great for all kids as creating a wide grade pyramid is the best start for all youngsters and it is actually how Adam Ondra started. 8a try to stay away for promoting redpointing kids hunted by their parents.

Jakob Kronberger, who did his first 9a more than a year ago, has done two 8c+'s in Arco, Bucking Bronco and Warbeast, suggesting 8c for the latter as it went down quickly.

Stefano Carnati, who was #19 in the Lead World Cup in Villars, has done his fourth 9a of the last year, Le Cadre Nouvelle Version in Céüse. "Three weekends. Three hard sections with good rests in between." Including also his 9a+, Goldrake and having won the Youth World Champion twice, it is easy to say that he is a contender to be the most promising teenager out there. (c) Eddie Fowke

Megan Mascarenas has flashed her fifth 8A, Eternia in RMPNP. Interestingly, this high class Boulder was reported as an 8B a couple of times some 15 years ago. "Such a fluid climb! And toe hooks at the end? Yes please!" The 18-year-old has participated in five Boulder World Cups since 2015 and her worst result is #4. In the 8a ranking game she is #3.

Alex Megos reports on Facebook that he has done his second 9b, Fightclub. - The first day in Canada 2 weeks ago Sonnie Trotter bolted this line in fear I wouldn't have enough projects to do. Now, 2 weeks later after working on it for 5 days and even taking rest days I finally got it!!! FA of "Fightclub" 5.15b (9b), the hardest route in Canada to date and my 2nd 9b!!!

(c) Parker Alec Kross from Crossroad studios

Margo Hayes, who earlier this spring did two 8c+'s, has done the first female ascent of Bad Girls Club 9a in Rifle. "Hey boys, I'm joining the club. Officially a bad girl." The 18-year-old made her first headline five year ago, doing her first out of three 8A boulders. Last year, she was #6 in a Boulder World Cup and got silver in both Lead and Boulder in the Youth World Championship.

Dave Graham, one of the very best rock climbers in the world of the last 15 years, reports on Facebook that he has done Monkey Wedding 8C in Rocklands. Here we present the beginning of the story. - Last weekend I finished off one of my ultimate-global-nemisis-projects, the legendary @fred_nicole problem Monkey Wedding [8C] which chills in the center of one of Rockland's most popular sectors. Last season I tried the boulder quite a lot, for at least 12 days, but could never seem to improve my highpoint, or do better than one hang the beast, which is only ten moves long. This year I returned partially uncertain of whether or not I could even summit this small peak, my confidence dashed by last years failure. Right off the bench I discovered more intelligent beta, resequencing my old crux, and matched my previous links. Sadly the war continued for another 6 days. I was confused by the conditions, normally cold weather is my jam, but my cursed sweaty fingers never seemed to stop sweating while I sat at basecamp, about two meters from the start of the rig, amidst all types of cold blustery weather, but it was always smarmy and humid somehow. One day, my window presented itself; super hot and a northerly wind, directly from the dry deserts of Africa, I felt something, potentially like an opportunity.