During the Puurs Worldcup, 16-year-old Celine Cuypers from Belgium broke the world record (220 cm) by 17,5cm, to 237,5 cm. Check her great website with a short video "Encouraged by Nils and without any preparation, except for practicing some dynamic moves on the boulder at which I am not so good, I decided to give the dyno competition a shot." The 16-year-old is a previous successful competition climber who has done routes up to 8b+ and onsights up to 8a.

Alex Megos reports on Facebook that he has done the FA of a 9a+/b in Frankenjura. In total, there are now 24 routes 9a and harder in Frankenjura out of which Alex Megos has done the FAs of six. Megos's latest is also the first with a slash grade. "Steep and HARD! After 5 days of trying did the first ascent of "Supernova"!!! In my opinion the hardest route in the #frankenjura o I would give it 11+ (9a+/b)! Thanks to Joshi Schulz for letting me try that thing and thanks to @arnaudpetit_climb for the picture!!!

Cathy Wagner is having her best year ever, although being 50 years old she has done 57 routes 8a and harder. Two days ago she did En mémoire des mutants in Pic st Loup giving the confirmed 8b a personal grade of 8a. " Perhaps 8b for those climbers who still use no knee bars and...have no brain. Basically second go."

Mother's Ruin at Mother's Pet from David Mason on Vimeo.

Alex Puccio seems to be back stronger than ever just three months after her knee surgery and can know add her hardest flash ever, Mysterious Wayz 8A (+) in RMNP. (c) Chris Motta "As much as I would like to say I flashed my first V12 that moment will have to wait a bit longer. This Is a fun short power climb! :) Definatly completely my style and thanks to Joel, Chris and Josh for going out early today!

Sachi Amma, who has done nine routes 9a to 9b in 2015, reports on Facebook that he has done New Baseline 8B+ in Magic Woods. "I sent New Baseline 8B+ on my third go!!!!! Unbelievable!!!!! I expected that it is possible to climb in a day. But not that fast.

Petr Blaha, who started climbing in 1994 and did his first 7c+ when he was 31 years old, is peaking with Abyss 9a in Gorges du Loup, being 39 years old. During the last year, he has done three 8c+'s out of his total of six and all in Gorges du Loup. (c) Yoann Estepa How do you train? There are no shortcuts for progression, train hard, rest regularly, stay motivated, avoid injuries. Do that and you will progress. Training, up to 30 hours a week. Weightlifting and the calisthenics Monday plus Wednesday, twice a day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are dedicated to finger strength training, campusing or fingerboarding in the morning, two or three hours in climbing gym at the evening. Friday is a rest day, I spend Saturday and Sunday at the cliff all year round, I try do spend some time Sunday night on campus board. Three weeks of training, one week rest.

Ethan Pringle reports on Facebook that during a night session he did Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger. "YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!! I SENT THOR's!!!!' AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! I climbed through the first crux section on my third go of the night and somehow managed not to fall on the latter 3/4 of the route! I was SO nervous and pretty convinced that I was going to fall everywhere but I had it so dialed that I could machine through it pretty mindlessly, on autopilot. My toes were TOTALLY numb and frozen on the second half of the route and I couldn't see the feet becuause it was pretty much DARK but I just kept trucking and fought to the top!!! Holy SHIT, SO PSYCHED!!! I screamed until my voice was horse. Thanks so much to Dave Graham for this hilarious pic, the belay and eternal stoke! Surprise surprise!!!

Kairn reports that Seb Bouin has done the second ascent of Remy Bergasse's L'intégrale du toît d'Orsay at The toît d'Orsay which is made up by two problems put up by Jacky Godoffe. Seb is mainly a route climber and he has done about a dozen 9a to 9b's and, regarding the grade he compares it with an 8c+. Furthermore, he says he did not manage to do several 8B's in Fontainebleau. © Pierre Délas/Kairn