David Firnenburg, who was #6 in the last Boulder WC, has done Chris Sharma's Practice of the Wild in Magic Wood giving it a personal 8B+ grade. "If I compare POTW with New Base Line for example I would say they are the same challenge more or less. Though, POTW didn't feel like a real 8C to me. Not like this significant step towards another higher level compared to the other 8B+'s I've done in the past. I really want to be convinced by the difficulty of a climb to call it my first 8C boulder." Last year, the full time psychology University student got the bronze in the Combined World Championship and the 21 year old is going for the Olympics. He also plans to do most of the World Cups in 2017. In the 8a Combined ranking game, the German is #6. "Bouldering and Lead work well. Slowly improving in every area in trainings. I started to train speed as well but need to integrate it more into trainings. My personal best last year was around 8,5 seconds." (c) Eddie Fowke

Alex Puccio has had yet another amazing day doing an 8B, 8A, 7C+ and a 7C flash in Leavenworth. (c) Joel Zerr of The tea cup 8B. "Wow.... had the most AMAZING first day EVER in Leavenworth! This place is BEAUTIFUL!! This line took me a couple hours or less. Sent Coffee Cup, Abstraction, The Practitioner and the Tea Cup all on my first day here, psyched for the rest of the trip!!!" The runner up in the Boulder World Championship 2014, is also runner up in the 8a ranking game. In total, the 27 year old has done 139 boulders 8A to 8B+, including four flashes which makes her the best overall female boulderer. In 2017, she plans to do the Boulder WC in Vail and Munich beside Arco Rockmaster and Adidas Rockstar. In the long run, she might also go for the Olympics. The next day she did one 7C+ and Monarch 8A on her second go, "Another good day in the woods. Should have been a rest day since my skin and body felt wrecked, but apparently the rain is coming tonight so forced rest day tomorrow! This place is amazing!!! :)"

Moritz Perwitzschky has during the last eleven days recorded 24 routes 7c and harder, of which seven onsights. After the first rest day after his big Frankenjura marathon, the 17 year old finished off by doing his second 8c+, Pain makes me stronger, every day! In February, Moritz did do a similar strike in bouldering with 23 ascents 7C to 8B over 13 days. Then we asked him, "Is it not time to raise the bar and go for something really hard?" I think not. I just want to climb as much as possible and the result doesn't even matter. The fitness and the sends will come sooner or later, if you don't get injured. And as I don't do any systematical training, I don't really know, what I'm capable of so let's see. (b) Simon Weisser

William Bosi, who has done two 9a's before, has sent Jungle Speed in Siurana confirming down grading suggestions to 8c+. "So pyched I managed to do this amazing route in a day." Hubble, the former 8c+ by Moon in 1990, took six sessions so Bosi's very quick ascent of Jungle Speed, once again confirms the grade inflation. The 18 year old also did his first 8b+ flash by El Món de Sofia where actually half the route was onsight as he only had beta for the first half. What is the plan and ambition 2017? I am here till the 22nd so I'll hopefully do some more stuff. I have been working on a film with Hot Aches Productions due out at the Kendal Film Festival this year so my goals are to get ticked some of the U.K.'s hardest routes. Still focusing on lead comps doing lots of the youth and some seniors.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did her first 8c when she was 11 years old, has done Lucifer 8c+ in Red River Gorge. "The conditions haven't been the best at the Red and I definitely didn't believe in myself at times." (c) Melissa Mooney What is interesting is that nowadays, the top young girls perform at the same level as the top boys at the same age. However, still Adam Ondra's track record, especially when it comes to onsight, is not yet beaten. He did his first 9a redpoint when he was 13 and first 9a+ when he was 15 years old. Here is an 8a interview from last year where she says she started climbing in trees at seven years old and once she fell down her non-climbing parents took to a gym. "I don’t have a trainer, I tried for a couple of months having an online trainer but it didn’t work out, so I just went back to training myself. I write my own programs and have done this since I was 8. I find that this really works for me. The hardest thing for me is keep myself motivated. I do this by setting goals, climbing with my adult friends and traveling overseas."

IGA - Klettergärten der Welt // Climbing gardens of the World from Vertical Life on Vimeo.

Andrea Gennari Daneri from Pareti Magazine has conducted an interview with Alfreddo Webber, who at 49 years old is developing into a 9a climber. Last year, he has done four 8c's, including Reini's vibes 8c+, Video, in Arco. "I’m close to 50 yo and now I work full time in a quarry, five days a week, 8 hrs a day. I wake up at 7am, breakfast, then 20 kms drive to the quarry. Back home at 6pm. Two days a week I have training on my wall at home. It’s a 1h 30’ work, basically long sequences, with intervals of some harder moves; then some hangs on crimps. When I’m projecting something hard for Sunday I have to rest on Friday and Saturday, otherwise I get weak. I’m less powerful than 20 years ago, but now I know myself better and I manage better my energies. How’s that you reached the top at 49 and not 25 years ago? Because I broke up with climbing at the age of 26, but I figure out that, if healthy, I have still some chances of improvement. (In 2013, he had a bad accident doing a big pendulum in Arco. It is just recently he removed the last steel from his leg.) Aged climbers usually prefer slab climbing? I like overhangs because I’m very short (1,59) and I need to find different betas for some sequences. I like slabs, too, but on lower grades.

Black Diamond has, free of charge, published a 33-min documentary of Nalle Hukkataival doing the FA of Burden of Dreams 9a in Finland. The documentary is about fanatical dedication in its purest and finest form, coming close to insanity as Einstein says. Nalle says he usually can do all the moves on any of the hardest boulders in the world in one session, but Burden of Dreams took him ten sessions. Hukkataival, who previously had 8C (+) as his personal best in max 13 days, does not comment on why he suggested it to be the world's first 9A, besides using this time comparison. "So if you compare 13 days with 80+ days, that is a pretty major contrast." (Not counting indoor replica sessions). Besides that, the documentary talks a lot about all of the factors that have to be working together like conditions, working out beta with friends and just pure luck when everything come together. In practice, these variables are the same as presented by 8a in 2008 for the Time Comparison Grading theory, see the second picture.