Obed Hardmeier, who the last five years did just one 8c, has stepped up in 2017 with an 8c+ and a 9a, Jungfraumarathon in Gimmelwald. "It took me more sessions than expected: around 10 days. Two days before I linked it up, I slipped on the last move. I'm not sure about the reason for the progress but the climbing style in Gimmelwald certainly suits me quite well and I loved spending time in one of Swizerland`s best spots!"

Christof Rauch has had two weeks off from his full time work and finished it off by doing two 8C's last Saturday; Zunami (c) Norbert Grugger and Sound of Silence which he gave a personal 8B+ grade. In total, the working class hero who just got his first first free shoes and crash pad, did make a total of 20 boulders 8A and harder during 13 days. Overall, Christof has done 501 boulders 8A and harder out of which more than 400 the last four years. Imagine if he could take one year off from work! "Yesterday I had my best climbing day ever! At first I went to Loferer Alm together with @nogrugger to try my unfinished business "Sound of Silence" (8B+). The first highlight of the day was to meet Klem Loskot and try hard together with him. After a few failed attemps I could eventually sent my project! Still had some power left and decided to drive to the legendary "Zunami" (8C) and give it a go. The upper moves felt really solid and so I gave it some tries from the start. As I stuck the first move I felt like climbing in a dream, I hit every hold perfectly. When i kept on the wall at the last hard dyno it was a surreal moment for me! Couldn't be more happy! Big thanks to @nogrugger for the support and the photo.

Thomas Dauser has done his first 9a, Elder Statesman in Frankenjura. In fact, last month he did his first 8c+ through The Last Rites Last after five days trying and then he needed to link it to a three moves 8A to get the 9a. Here is the video and the picture was taken by (c) Julian Söhnlein "While 9a is certainly a magical grade (still) in climbing, it was more about the mental and physical challenge, getting to the point where I realized I am able to climb it, and then to actually send it. I am sure I could have climbed 8c+ already last year, I was just never into so much projecting and also grades. To me, it is always a question of how much time you want to invest in one route."

Orgasmatron 8A | Karo Sinnhuber from Karoline Sinnhuber on Vimeo.

Christof Rauch has done three 8B+'; Dark Matter in Magic Wood, Alpha Boulder in Val Calenca in just one session and Entlinge in Murgtal went down also very fast. Christof, who is working full time, is #2 in the ranking game but when it comes to having done the most 8A and harder the last years, he is #1. Just the last 12 months he has done 115, out of which 12 boulder 8B+ and 8C. (c) Thomas Lindinger/Dark Matters