Christof Rauch, who just the last year has done 149 boulders 8A to 8C, has done Franz Vidmer's Kryptos in Balsthal giving it a personal grade of 8B+ as he did it quickly. "Sick limestone testpiece! Wanted to try this problem since I saw the video from Franz Widmer back in the days. Psyched to send it in one session." In the 8a ranking game, the full time engine-building technician and electrician in a waterplant is #5. If he had done given so many personal grades he would have been runner up.

Alex Puccio has had an amazing day in Brione having done two 8A’s; Disney production and Ponk as well as Amber 8B. ”Love me some Brione rock! 2nd day on it and went in a few tries today. Also sent 2 other nice boulders, good day with good people!!! :)” (c) Westmountainmedia In total the 157 cm tall has now done 181 boulders 8A to 8B+ meaning she has by far the most impressive female ticklist. Alex is also, in spite of several injuries, one of the best ever competition climber who got silver in the World Championship in 2015. In 2018 she did her last World Cup which she won.

Nadine Wallner, Freerider World Champion in 2013 & 2014, had a bad accident in 2015 which made her start climbing being 25 years old. In 2017 her hardest was 7b+ and then she meet and become good friend with Babsi Zangerl. Within 18 months she had done her first 8b/+ and now the second female ascent, after Babsi, of Prinzip Hoffnung 8b/+ trad. Here is her amazing story good for any record book. (c) Alpsolut pictures and Jacopo Larcher - a 7c in Squamish. "I started rock climbing in summer 2015. I had a open fracture tib/fib, while filming some ski lines in Alaska. For a while I couldn't ski anymore and started to climb. First it was more a rehab thing for my calfes but immediately I got addicted to this sport! Also the dream of getting a mountain guide got closer. In winter, last year, I met Babsi Zangerl in the gym. She lives pretty close to me in Bludenz. Babsi became a really good friend and we trained almost every day together. I also took her out skiing and shared my passion skiing with her. In spring I climbed my first 7c+ (Lucy), than my first 8a (Grenzgänger) and after this I could climb Euphorie 8b/+ at Voralpsee. I was super surprised and psyched! The rest of the summer I spent some time in the mountains working on some multi-pitches. Now I could send Beat Kammerlander‘s masterpiece Prinzip Hoffnung. It feels just unreal. But I like the style and approach of trad climbing. You could compare so many components with skiing."

Sachi Amma reports on Insta that he has done Stoking the fire 9b in Santa Linya. He did spend some 10 + 10 days with a three months training break in Japan. It was put up by Chris Sharma and has previously been repeated by Adam Ondra and Jakob Schubert. (c) Jon Cardwell Sachi stopped competing after he won the World Cup in 2014. The next year he did five 9a+’ and his first 9b, Fight or Flight. Then in 2016 he changed horizon - 8a interview. ""I can not find any value to be a better person by comparing myself with other climbers. That is why I stopped competing and climbing hard routes...." Six months ago, he was back on track with a 9a+ FA in Japan and in December he started to project Stoking the fire? How do you see your climbing lifestyle will change over the coming years? I feel that life has some secret. Climbing has some secret. You know what I mean. All the changes and transformations are happening without my control. I do not know what I can do with it. Maybe I keep doing one thing for 10 years. But you must see something is changing and something is more rooted. Why are there so many super good competition climbers from Japan? I don’t know. Maybe the reason is that we don’t have such a amazing limestone walls!

James Webb has repeated Dave Graham’s From dirt grows the flowers 8C in Cresciano. "One of the best. Big props to DG for this one!" Felt good to finish such a classic though! So many amazing projects here. Overwhelmed :) (c) Keenan Takahashi