9b FA by Adam Ondra
Adam Ondra reports on Instagram that he has done the FA of Eagle 4 9b in St. Leger, France. ยฉ Bernardo Gimรฉnez "Today, it was dry, I felt strong, made through the hard part and fell 5m from the anchor from totally easy terrain. Luckily, I could do it even second time in the late afternoon." Few days ago Adam did Super Crackinette, the first 9a+ flashed ever. In the last 12 months Ondra has done 23 routes from 9a to 9c. In total, there exist 30 established routes 9b or harder. Adam has done 22 of them. The runner up is Chris Sharma with seven 9b's or harder.

Here are a list of old-school guys that are still world class. Fred Nicole is of course number #1 and has been on the cutting edge for more than 30 years. Does it exist any other physical sport where an athlete has been world class for over 30 years? What is unique with runner-up Yuji Hirayama is that he has been world class in so many disciplines from winning six World Cups to having set the Speed Record on El Capitan. 1. Fred Nicole -70: 8b+ in 1987 2. Yuji Hirayama -69: #4 in a WC 1991 3. Dani Andrada -75: 8c in 1993 4. Muriel Sarkany -74: #5 in a WC 1993 5. Dani Andrada -75: #1 Speed WCH in 1997 5. Dai Koyamada -76: #4 in a WC in 1998 Other climbers with a long successful career who are still going strong are Ben Moon, Martina Cufar, Beat Kammerlander, Alexander Huber and Maurizio Zanollo. Is there somebody that we have missed?

Crag & route pages updated
Weโ€™ve updated the layout of the crag and route pages. The new page structure lays the foundation for bringing Topos to Vertical-Life Web. Alongside the new layโ€ฆ
Nearly 2,000 hectares of Font Forest destroyed by wildfire
Exceptional wildfires are currently sweeping through parts of France's Fontainebleau Forest. Located around 70 km south-east of Paris, the UNESCO Biosphere Reseโ€ฆ
8b+ trad by Michael Gunsilius
Michael Gunsilius, who previously has done one 9a, has done his first hard trad route, Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ in Bรผrs which Beat Kammerlander put up in 2009. Two of five tries Michael worked until the afternoon, sat into car drove 250km and did one try before the condition were to bad to do another try in the evening. "It's 40m long with round 20 placements and it's a specific kind of limestone therefore it's difficult to protect, you need special offset gear because most of the placements are not parallel like in granit. Additional you have to belay super soft because a few of the nuts are only made for technical climbing and not for protecting regular fall." Next up is to do an 8b+ MP this summer to push his limits in yet another disciplines. If Michael reaches his next goal, and including a previous 8B boulder, he should be considered one of the best multi-discipline climbers working full time.

Dreamtime 8C by James Webb
James Webb reports on his Instagram that he had to leave Fontainbleau due to rain and instead went to Cresciano where he did Dreamtime 8C on his first day. (c) Kevin Takashi Smith "4 years ago I spent countless days trying this thing and was never able to put it to rest. It was a massive mental and physical battle for me and it killed me to not be able to complete it." Dreamtime was put up by Fred Nicole in 2001 as an 8C but was considered 8B+ for many years until it broke. In total James has previously done 14 boulder 8C and one 8C+ and he is #2 in the 8a ranking game. Counting only flashes, he has been #1 for several years including having flashed 14 boulders 8B.

8B+ by Hayato Naka-Bayashis (38) who started being 30
Hayato Naka-Bayashi has done his first 8B+, Chilled out Midnight in Mukogawa. What makes it a unique and a nice story is that Hayato started climbing when he was 30 years old and now he is 38 years old. Does it exist any other physical sport where you can start being 30 and anyhow almost reach world class level.

Eveningsends presents Paige Claassen's one hour a day training recipe to prepare her to do Necessary Evil 8c+: Moonboard, Rings, Beastmaker Hangboard, Dumbbells, TRX and Therabands. Other than that, she actually worked 14 hours a day six days a week during two months before she started working of the route again. "Fortunately, with a decent base, I think that endurance is relatively easy to build in just two weeks."

9a+ flash by Adam Ondra
Fanatic Climbing reports that Adam Ondra has flashed Alex Megos Supercrackinette 9a+ in St Lรฉger and Ondra confirms the grade on his Instagram. This means that Ondra has once again raised the standard in climbing. In 2012, Adam flashed Southern Smoke direct 9a+ in Red River Gorge, giving it a personal 9a grade. "According to witnesses, the Czech phenom was very easy on this route of resistance, guided by the bolter of the route himself, Quentin Chastagnier. Ondra has given him a belay and checking the moves while Quentin was putting the draws." (c) Bernardo Giminez

The complete 8C to 9A list and the progress
99boulders.com has presented a comprehensive list: 8C 123, 8C/+ 6, 8C+ 10 and Burden of Dreams 9A. Also all ascents have been added so Alex Beale have been working hard. The most repeated 8C and 8C+' are: 16 Practice of the Wild - FA Chris Sharma 15 The Big Island - FA Vincent Ponchon 13 Monkey Wedding - FA Fred Nicole 13 The Story of Two Worlds - FA Dave Graham 11 From Dirt Grows the Flowers - Dave Graham 11 The Wheel of Life - Dai Koyamada 08 Catalรกn Witness the Fitness - Chris Sharma (Most probably not 8C any longer but as the diagram include these ascents, we have not taken it out from the list) 04 Creature of the Black Lagoon 8C+ FA Daniel Woods The picture shows the extreme development the last years with over 100 ascents the last two years. In total, 116 climbers have done at least one 8C including the only female, Ashima Shiraishi. Charles Albert have done six, all of them barefoot. It should be mentioned that grades are subjective and Alex says, "Iโ€™ve tried my best to be as comprehensive as possible with this list. However, Iโ€™m still human. If Iโ€™ve made any mistakes or left off any problems or people you think should be added, let me know in the comments. I get most of the info from 8a.nu and HardClimbs.info."