Cathy Wagner, who did her first 8a in 1994, has done her 8a+ #155, Da Lineking in Rodellar. "Sooo happy! Fell at the last move on my first go 2 weeks ago totally pumped and today, despite the wobbly warm-up, I felt steady. IMO, the right knee-bar in the middle of the 3rd part of Maskoking makes the route easier, so I'd say a soft 8a+." The 53 year old teacher did her first 8b in 2001 and yesterday she did her 17. Interesting is that she has never started off a year as good as in 2019! If Cathy would have taken part in the ranking game, she would have been #2 in the Age & Gender ranking game, after Adam Ondra.

Matt Fultz has done the third ascent of Peter Würth's Unendliche Geschichte 1+2+3 in Magic Wood, video. First you climb the boulder roof and then you clip in finishing with four bolts in order to climb and stand at the top of the gigantic bloc. "Soft 8C? Or 9a? Either way, might be Earth’s best rock climb." In the Combined ranking game, Matt is #5 and actually with just one 8c+ route he will be #2. (c) Nevin Rajen

Daniel Fong, who did three 8B+' last year, has done his first 8C, Paint it Black in RMNP in just four sessions. Video on his Insta Daniel Woods put up the 65 degrees overhanging. "Really cool to get on a hard climb that is also high quality. 4 sessions, first two were basically figuring out the second move aka my crux. Had a ton of support from the homies and tried hard, psyched to get it done before the heat comes. Out of my depth in this grade range so I’m going with consensus."

Toni Lamprecht, who previously has set up 14 boulders 8B+ and harder, has done the FA of Muttertagsdach 8B+ in Kochel, actually twice and there is still an extension. "I'm working on the "Stoamatz-Projects" since last winter. The lower start in the roof is sometimes wet, that's why I climbed the "Muttertag"-version first. Then I moved some stones on the ground and now it is possible to start 2 hard moves lower. And there would be the extension. Next to this roof-project I have some 5 other hard projects around Kochel and of course the same number of route projects. And there's more in the pre-alps of Bavaria, so it never gets boring..."

Matt Fultz has had a great start of his Ticino trip. Five days ago he did 28 boulders up to 8A in order to celebrate his 28th birthday. Yesterday, he did his first 8B flash, Steppenwolf in Magic Wood. (c) Freddy High In total, he has done 11 boulders 8A and harder including two 8B+' in the first ten days. In the 8a ranking game, he is now #6 after having had ten years of almost straight progress.