Enrico Lovato jumps 8c+ and does his first 9a, Sid Lives in Arco. (c) Lorenzo Rossato

"Two weeks ago I was advised by a friend of mine to try a short bouldery 9a in Nago crag, near Arco. The route consist of a 8b Boulder into an another 7b Boulder without any rest. In the first session I figured it out all the moves and after the 2nd session I began to fall high. In the 6th session I won the mental battle against this intense route. The strange thing is that I’ve never done an 8c+ route, I usually dislike long and endurance routes, and considering I love bouldering, I found this route very similar to my climbing style, so I didn’t care about the grade. I think maximal force trainings, using moonboard and hangboard, helped me a lot to achieve the goal."

Gonzalo Larrocha has done his second 9a+, La Rambla in Siurana. More info to come. (c) Javi Pec

Ryohei Kameyama, who just recently did the first repeat of Charles Albert's No kpote only 9A (8C+) in Fontainebleau has done the equivalent by doing La Révolutionnaire 8C+. It only took him four sessions. (c) Ryosuke Hibino

"This boulder has small crimps and slopers, so I struggled to maintain my endurance. Next project I think is "Trip hop" (8C). I couldn't climb this boulder my last bleau trip."

How do you train?
I feel my training key is campus board training. I often do ladder training. ladder training is simple. climb up and down, but I perform it as fast as possible and long time. It train endurance and agility, finger strength.

Gabriele Gorobey reports on Facebook that he has had some amazing days in Osp/Misja Pec having done his two very first 9a'; Halupca 1979 and Sanjski par extension. The multi-discipline climber, is known for establishing everything from hard core boulders to big walls.

Chris Weidner has done his second 8c, Killer Z in Hurricave which is a horizontal extension to an 8b. He started climbing in 1988 and did his first 8c being 40 years old. They key is hard training. (c) Lindsey Tjian

"It's an endurance route that, for me, required as much mental stamina as physical. There are a number of decent rests, but at each one I found it challenging to maintain tension with only the muscles required to stay on and to relax everything else. I used to run marathons and when I lowered from the redpoint, which took about 25 minutes, I felt like I had just crossed the finish line.

My whole life I've valued outdoor climbing much much more than indoor climbing and training. I only climbed in the gym when it was impossible to climb outside. I've changed my way of thinking, and am now putting a lot of time and energy into training. Turns out it works :)

This winter I committed to strength training for a few months. I did a repeaters cycle on the fingerboard then max hangs once or twice a week. More importantly for the Hurricave, which is often horizontal climbing, I trained core and upper body strength. For the first time since I was in high school I lifted weights. I gained a few pounds of muscle (I hope it's muscle!) but my strength to weight ratio feels higher than ever."

Lasse von Freier has done his first 8B+, Off the Wagon in Valle bavona. " Finally my hard training this winter payed off! A few days ago I repeated the classic„Off the Wagon” (8B+) in my second session. Skipping the 8B grade felt kind of unexpected."

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Ett inlägg delat av Lasse von Freier (@lasse_von_freier) 14 Mar 2019 kl. 10:47 PDT

Nicolas Pelorson, who previoulsy has done eight 8B+', has done his second 8C Délir onririque assis in Rocher Saint German. (Nico’s first was The Big Island in Font this December.) FA Charles Albert did climb barefoot, Nico used one climbing shoe and it took him some 20 sessions. "It's not so many harder with two shoes I think. Video

Marco Zanone, who has done three 8c+' in 2019, has done his first 9a, Dave Graham's Coup de Grace in Ticino. (c) Matteo Pavana

"I started trying this route back in 2016, I was recovering from a bad injury to my middle finger and I was definitely not strong enough for even climbing all the single move, but I knew that I was investing well my time because maybe in the future I would have been able to climb it.

Then in Autumn 2017 I came back with my brother Andrea with a different mindset, the conditions were prime and even if I was attending a Film School in Milan with limited time for climbing, my shape was quite good.
My progressions on the route was steady and after few days I was able to climbed the route from the second bolt to the top, but adding the 8A boulder problem at the start was another story.

I was feeling very close, cause I fall few time at the end of the roof, but then the winter came and I had to give up. 2018 was a bummer, the route was always wet I've never been able to give a proper go from the bottom. This year the spring arrived earlier than ever and after climbing A Muerte in Spain last month I felt ready to come back there. On the second day of attempts I eventually found my self topping out this outstanding boulder of granite, marking my first 9a.

My brother Andrea climbed this route back in autumn 2017; I was there belaying him on the send go and since then I've never stopped dreaming to feel all the emotions he felt during that day."

Ema Seliškar has done her fourth 8b+ the last six months, Agresija II in Kotecnik. In the Age & Gender bonus ranking the 14 year old Slovenian is #13. Last year she was between #9 and 12 in all four European Cups she entered. (c) Lucija Tarkuš

"Last year I was really nervous on comps, so I couldn't show my best and because of that I decided that I was not ready to compete in the Worlds yet. I am really looking forward and training hard to participate in the Youth Worlds this year in Arco. Nowdays I train 5 times in a week for 3-4 hours a day."

8a first presented climbing ethics in 2003. We used a traffic light visualization in order to say that there is no absolute strict rules. However, when it comes to "world records" we think you should not move towards getting a "yellow card". Do you agree with the presented ethics?

"In sport climbing, compared to most other sports, there are few written rules or use of referees. Instead, the climbing community creates and circulates their own Practice & Ethics. Beginners are sometimes struggling to understand what is "normal" behavior and what's allowed and what's not. Over time, the general procedure has been modified and in different subcultures different ethics apply."

Giuliano Cameroni has done his first two 8C+ just the last month, Poison the Well in Brione and REM in Cresciano. (c) Jimmy Webb

"REM and Poison the Well have first been tried by Dave Graham more than 10 years ago. I have never seen chalk on the REM holds, so I guess it hasn’t been tried in the last 5 years.

I started trying REM in January and it took me eight sessions to complete it. The key was the mental aspect: during the last four sessions I kept falling off the last hard move without any improvement. After that I decided to take a two weeks break from the boulder. Meanwhile, I was able to climb Poison the Well, which gave me a lot of confidence and motivation to complete REM as well.

The night of the send I was positive and didn’t feel any pressure, which allowed me to execute perfectly. Definitely felt like I was climbing in a dream! Also, this whole boulder is hands down my favorite piece of rock and the one I learned the most from."

Giuliano arrived to the boulder 23.30 and then did some easy warming up before he sent it 01.00 during the night. Video is coming up in April on Mellow.

"I warm up at the boulder, but just the minimum needed by hanging on the perfect Dreamtime holds and grabbing the crimp at 70%. It’s all about that right hand razor, so you really want your skin to be perfect and your fingers to be warm and well rested.

You need really cold conditions to hold on the right hand razor. During the day it was too warm, but at 1 AM it was dry and perfect! On REM I liked to warm up super slow and be sure I was at 100 when I gave the good try. On these kind of boulders where it all comes down to the skin, I prefer not doing too many moves in order to preserve the skin, so I mostly hang on comfortable holds or grab small crimps at 50-70%.

Grade-wise, a new beta has been found, so the difficulty still needs to be confirmed. Nonetheless it’s still one of the best and hardest lines in Ticino."

Ryohei Kameyama has done the first repeat of Charles Albert No Kpote Only in Fontainbleau and what makes it totally amazing is that he just needed four sessions! He could not do the bar foot sequence by Charles so he found new beta.

In comparison, Ryohei could not do the first move on Burden of Dreams 9A, although he could within eight days link it to the top from the second move. (c) Ryosuke Hibino who has helped us out with with some further info.

Next is probably La Révolutionnaire 8C+ and then possibly The Big Island sit project. They will stay until 24/3 in Font. Ryohei's secret training is campus board five sessions a week.

Ryohei Kameyama reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Charles Albert's No Kpote Only 9A in Fontainebleau. More info to come. (c) Ryosuke Hibino

" I feel "Burden of Dreams" is more a little difficult than this problem. I think this boulder is v16/17 (8C+/9A)."

Burden of Dreams is the 9A by Nalle Hukkataival. Ryohei has previously done two 8C's; The Big Island and Kuzan.

Nicolas Januel reports on Insta that he has done Le pied à coulisse which was set up as Fontainebleau's first 8C+ by Guillaume Mondet in 2016. Jimmy Webb and Charles Albert have later repeated it calling it 8C. Nicolas first tried it in 2003 and in total the 36 year old needed 200 attempts over 40 sessions to take it down.

Giuliano Cameroni, who did his first 8C+ last month, reports on Insta that he has done the FA of REM 8c+ in Cresciano. It shares the start of the classical Dreamtime and then it goes straight up so climbers should have looked and tried it for 20 years. The 21 year old Swizz is #2 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Hannes Kutza

"The crux is a low percentage move off two micro grips. Fell on this move for a month, then took two weeks off the boulder and did it first try at 1AM!"

Fedir Samoilov and Nika Potapova (16) just recently did Fuck the System 9a in Santa Linya. Last year Nika was #2 in the Lead Youth WCH and she won the Youth European CH in Bouldering. Fedir was #9 in the World Cup in 2017 and in the last three events in 2018, his worst result was #11.

How was the trip to Santa Linya and what are your 2019 plan and ambition?
Nika: I was very satisfied with the trip. Everything went just perfect! I am super happy to have reached the 9a level in climbing. At the beginning of my climbing career I cold just to dream about this. My coach name is Artur Pechii and I am very thankful to him for support and everything he does for me.

My plan for the next year is to participate in youth comps and senior WC’s and WCH. I will also try to qualify to the Olympics.

Fedir: This year we have been in Santa Linya two times. First trip (in January) we had very cold conditions and the whole three weeks we were just running on the routes until the fingers become totally numb. On the second time we was much more lucky with the weather and all things went better. I was getting stronger and stronger every day. It’s a pity that time gone so fast.

I think that Santa Linya is a special place with especially dynamic style of climbing and the routes usually requires a lot of power and endurance. I think this style does not fit my style of climbing and this is the reason why we are coming.

I'm trying to make it to the Olympics. This year will be very hard and the very hectic for sure :) because you have to take a part in almost all WC`s. When climbing became the Olympic sport things are much better. Almost all official events are funded. But 2 - 3 years ago we almost hadn't any financial support.

Seb Bouin, who previoudly has done 32 routes 9a to 9b, has done Chris Sharma's 50 meters test piece Pachamama 9a+ in Oliana. (c) Jon Cardwell

"This line is for me one of the best in Oliana (or the best). Thank’s Chris Sharma for bolting this one. I tried it last year but weather was a disaster. It was wet every time. This year it took me two little travel (1.5 weeks both). Next plan, maybe other route in Oliana and Spain. But the main plan is to be ready for Move in Norway (Flatanger).