Carlo Traversi has done the second ascent of Beth Rodden's Meltdown 8c+ in Yosemite which since 2008 have been seen as possibly the hardest trad route in the world. "This season it all came together. A dry Fall and this week the colder temps are just sweeping into the Valley. Yesterday I was able to climb it on my 3rd try of the day after a couple weird slips after the crux on the first two tries. All gear was placed on lead, after the first piece was placed I climbed back down to the ground to re-chalk and re-compose." Carlo's background is bouldering where he during two years until 2013 did five 8C's. Then in 2015 he did two 9a's and on his Insta he then reported he was close doing Meltdown after three years of sporadic effort.

Alex Totkova, who the last two weeks has done two 8b's, has done 4*4 8b+ in Vratsa. "The route was so important for me because this is my first 8b+. On 4x4 the first 10 meters was boulder 7c. And the other 20 meters was 7c+ or 8a. I was very happy when I did it and I coun't believe that I climbed it." The last three years she has won all the Lead comps she has done in Bulgaria, Petzen, Imst and Arco.

Carlos Ruano has made the FA of El Dorado 9a in La Pedriza, Spain. The 38 years old has previously done one 9a and several boulders up to 8B+. ©Talo Martin "The start of the route is a 8A+/B boulder, then follows a 7C+ and huge 7C dyno to catch the lip and there's no rest in its 12 meters. Despite the crux is in the bottom part I fell 5 times in the last hard move. "

Moritz Perwitzschky has done his first 9a, Working class in Frankenjura, which he marked as chipped. "Lot of fixed holds, went down quick, M. Bock suggested 9a, I can't really tell, haven't tried much in that grade." During the last month, the 19 year old has done six routes 8C and harder and he is #4 in the Combined ranking game.

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done his third 9a+ through the FA of Circo Ibérico in Cuenca. "Route on the lower range of 9a+, harder than the others 9a's in Cuenca anyway. Few climbers like Pablo Barbero tried it before and once I tried it I was super psyched to keep trying it". In the ranking game, the 19 year old spanish is #5. ©Javipec

Thomas O'Halloran has done the first repeat of Alex Megos Schweinebaumeln 9a in Blue Mountains. The picture is from this summer walking up to Céüse and here is a nice video of him doing Mister Hyde 8c+ up there. "Over the past few years I have spent a lot of days on it, but always in the middle of summer in bad conditions. I’d just use it as a training route while everything else was out of season. It was a good training route to keep fit. I did it on the 4th day of attempts this season. It’s very satisfying to do. I’m not feeling especially fit or strong at the moment and it didn’t feel like it took a lot out of me. So it’s great to know I have quite a bit more room to improve!"