Mikhail Chernikov has done his second 9a, Seleccion natural left exit in Santa Linya. "Last day of the spring trip. Very nice line. Going home with high spirits. Video will come soon." During the last 21 World Cups, the worst result for the Russian is #18.

Jules Marchaland did Punt'X (9a+) last year. "Puntx was a hard mental battle for me, I fell 20 times on the last two moves (and they are not super hard). It was a bit like a dream route for me because when I was younger I always saw some strong climbers trying the route. I did it in 18 sessions and …

Gogor a “must” in your backpack

Advertorial: Climbing Gogor is a small device that allows you to exercise the phalanges of your fingers. This is very important in activities such as climbing,…

8c+ by Hugo Meignan (18)

Hugo Meignan, one of the five Meignan hard climbing siblings, has done his second 8c+, Coma Sant Pere in Margalef.

Era Vella 9a by Tom Bolger

Tom Bolger has done Era Vella 9a in Margalef which was set up by Chris Sharma in 2009. It has been repeated some 15 times and everyone says the 45 m route is very nice. (c) Said Belhaj

Critical report for Baku WC from Fowke

Eddie Fowke who runs The Circuit and who will follow most of the WC's in 2014 and also provide 8a with short stories, is very critical to the last event in Baku. "The event organizers in Baku failed to provide the basics at an acceptable level. There was intermittent bursts of enthusiasm but no consistency of effort and very little cohesive direction from above and the result was an IFSC World Cup that didn’t present the sport to the wider viewing audience in a favorable light." Read his full report.

Frankenjura.com reports that Alex Megos has done Matador 9a (8c+) in two hours just like he did with Action Directe 9a last week. Matador was put up by Markus Bock in 2007 and Adam Ondra did the first repeat when he was 15 years old in 2008, commenting, "In my opinion more 8c+ than 9a, but others should feel free to say more about grade.

Piotr Schab has done Battle Cat and Infinity, both 8c+ in Frankenjura. During the last year, only nine 8c+ have been recorded in Frankenjura. The 17 year old has done eleven 8c+ and harder including Era Vella 9a when he was 15 years old.