Jule Wurm has done Einfisch Kleinfisch 8A+ in Chironico and and Frank's Wild Years 8A in Cresciano, see the picture. Both routes were set up one grade harder. "It was my second trip to ticino and it's so cool there! I left so many projects and i m psyched to go back soon! There are many 8A and 8A+ i want to try again on another trip!" Last year, Jule, won one WC and in four weeks the season starts up in China. How will you prepare? During the next weeks I try to improve my endurance, because at the moment I get tired after 3 moves and need a few minutes rest then, which is not so perfect for comps:)

During the last few years, we have seen an extreme development when it comes to bouldering performances for kids and teenagers. We have also heard about several injuries and also studies saying hard climbing training and especially bouldering is dangerous. At the same time, however, very few of the very best famous youngsters have ever had any serious injuries and Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou, who probably has had the most experience of hard youngster training, reports no injuries. Maybe one way to explain this contradiction between theory and practice of the best is that all the famous youngsters have started climbing as they could walk and gradually have increased the load and also have had a great focus on outdoors. This could be compared with guys starting climbing intensively from the beginning as a teenager with a focus on indoors, finger training and competitions. Please share stories of what you have heard or experienced when it comes to finger injuries and kids.

1. Alex Puccio USA 2. Mina Markovic SLO 3. Hannah Midtbö NOR Tierra Boulder Battle video

Pedro Bergua has done Supernowa 9a in Valdiello which is a double extension of Nowa 8c and Powerade 8c/+ which he did 3.5 years ago. Four months ago he fell seven times at the upper final crux. All in all, we are talking 50 tries for Nowa, plus four more tries on Powerade and then another 25 days on Supernowa. It is great to see that dedication pays of. Pedro is also a climbing coach and here is his training blog in spanish.

Angy Eiter, the best ever female competition climber, has done the FFA of Bibita Biologica, 8c in Arco. "Just another hard climb for me. Good vibes. Friends surrounding!I am very happy to see that I can still climb hard routes. :-) I really like the fact that I don’t have to climb in a gym anymore. On the contrary, I want to climb as many routes on rocks as possible and to travel together with Bernie to different areas I haven't seen before." Angy still have some connections to the competition scene as she works as a coach at the company K3-Climbing together with her boyfriend Bernie and Emanuel Soraperra. "We offer route setting to climbing gym owners and prepare young motivated kids for their comps.

Anna Stöhr blogs her recent trip to Leonidio in Greece together with Kilian Fischhuber where they set up some new routes including Kili's Capricorn 9a. "All in all our climbing trip to Leonidio was great fun and I cannot wait to come back!" Leonidio, with only 53 ascents in the 8a data base, is located some three hours on the mainland some three hours south west from Athens. Climbing-Leonidio.com: " Hundreds of sectors with the potential for thousands of routes on high quality tufa-limestone lie waiting to be developed. Currently (August 2013) there are around 100 routes from French 5b - 8b. The number of new routes is growing rapidly.

Jon Cardwell has done Daniel Woods Mission Impossible in Clear Creek Canyon for which he gives a personal grade of 8c+. He needed some six sessions to do it out of which five days in 2014. In between of his attempts, he was #6 in the Bouldering nationals after having been #2 in the semi. "The breakdown could be 8A boulder to 7b climbing to 8A+ boulder. So maybe it's power endurance but you definitely have to keep your mind together to completely the final boulder. Sometime's you feel recovered but your full power is not there to finish the final crux. I love this style of climbing and I think it suited my strengths. Always, huge thanks to the route's developer Jay Samuelson, and Daniel for piecing it together, showing people that it goes!

Giuliano Cameroni - climbing in Chironico from Inside of a dog on Vimeo.