Jakob Schubert, double World Champion and World Cup winner in 2018, reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Chris Sharma's Neanderthal in Santa Linya from 2009. (c) John Campbell "On my first day working this 115 moves (!!) monster I thought it will take a while to be able to send. But I quickly made a lot of progress and today (my 6th day on the route) I stuck the crux move and kept it together until the top." Gareth Parry, winner of Arco Rock Master 2007, witnessed the ascent. "Classic Jakob, a cool, calculated and somewhat precision perfect ascent of another hard route. He looked well within his maximum. Back on the ground he said one of the hardest moments was to stay focused after the dyno and not let the mind play tricks and take over.

The picture shows in which months the ascents in Leonidio have been recorded in the 8a data base. In Europe only Geyik Bayiri and El Chorro of the popular crags have a similar concentration in the winter season as Leonidio. Other great winter destinations in Europe are San Vito lo Capo on Sicily, Osp/Misja Pec, Arico on Tenerife, Fenda near Lisbon, Mallorca and crags around Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona.

Oriane Bertone has repeated Madame X assis in Les Avirons giving it a personal graden of 8A. The next day, she did the FA of Agamemnon Assis 8A. "I send the sit version after 3 work sessions. I felt it harder than "Madame X", 15 meters from Agamemnon in the same area, which was called 8A+ in the topo. Wery happy for this second hard FA of the month, after Le Spartiate Sit Direct !" In total, the 13 year old has done 13 Boulders 8A to 8B+ in 2018 and she is #2 in the female ranking game after Isabelle Faus. Video of her last four done boulders.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did an 8c+ being 12 years old, has done Staring at the sea 8b+ in Blue Mountains.

Last week Iker Pou did the FA of Artaburu in Margalef. In his words the route is by far the hardest he ever climbed but he never graded it. Now he says it is probably 9b but as such type of finger pockets is his strength, "it just might be harder."©Jordi Canyi When did you bolt Artaburu? I bolted the line in November 2012. I just tried it a little but couldn't do many moves... :) Did you try it a lot or you also trained specifically? It took me a lot of effort. I have tried the route every year when I could but I took it seriously in 2016. In both 2017 and 2018 I was close to send it but it didn't happen. Then recently I felt fitter and knowing the moves perfectly I did it. I have trained myself as usual but I did little changes. I did many meters outdoors but this year I went a lot of days to the gym Es Cau in Palma de Mallorca spending a couple of hours on the moonboard, after climbing outdoors. And in fact it worked cause I was stronger than ever. Do you feel stronger being 41? To be honest I feel really good, fit and maybe stronger than ever. The biggest difference is that I have to rest much more days than when I was younger but when I have a good day I see myself experienced and looseness (old dog!). The clue was train on plastic and lose 2kg. Have you plans for harder routes? Currently I don't have plans to try something really hard. I just want to stop sport climbing for a while and do some alpinism that motivates me a lot. Soon I will be psyched again to climb hard. Maybe if I find a cool line I will get focus onto it but now I need adventure and less sport climbs.

Very interesting comments by Adam Ondra from his onsight of Just Do It 8c+. He talks about taking risks, resting, screaming alerts and climbing efficient etc.

David Firnenburg, who the last month has done his second 9a+ and done three 8c+', has done his first 8C, Dreamtime in Cresciano. Two years ago he was #3 in the Combined World Championship and his big goal is now Tokyo 2020. "Fast switch from Spanish lead climbing to Swiss bouldering. Didn't expect the send today because I didn't feel the best but I thought why not giving it a try. And it went very well! First official 8C boulder for me. Psyched! THE Masterpiece in Cresciano. Very technical (heel hooks) and fingery climb. Did a static lock-off from crimp in the middle instead of dynamic move. Good conditions. Supporting crew. Thanks Andi, Simone, Remo and Martin! Stop thinking, just climb!"

Alex Garriga, who started climbing in 2014, has done Palestina in Cuenca giving it a personal 8c+ grade. The 20 year old, who previously has done two 9a', did his first 7c in 2015 and his first 8b in 2016. In 2018, he has also done 27 routes 8a and harder onsight. "I believe that my progress is due to the conditions of where I live and to which I have climbed a lot these years. I climb six days a week. I have more than 1000 routes of all grades in 15 minutes. My goal is just to try to climb all the routes I can."

Based on 2 100+ unique votes, Female Sport Climber of 2018? 35 % Janja Garnbret 32 % Margo Hayes 11 % Jessica Pilz 07 % Isabelle Faus 03 % Alex Puccio 12 % Other