Maggie Odette has done Killer Bees 8b in Hurricave where Chris Sharma did the FA. The 48 year and 157 cm tall old has the last five years previously done five 8b's and two 8b+'s. "I've been trying it for two years now to climb this 50 feet of rock. Hardest of the grade for me so far because it's so short...and so am I ;) Actually, I think it's pretty fair as far as the height game goes. The tricks are there if you're willing to take the time to find them!" (c) Heidi Baxter

Cypher (8B), Slipstones, North Yorkshire from David Mason on Vimeo.

Rhythm (8A+), Flasby Fell, North Yorkshire from David Mason on Vimeo.

The semifinal of the USA Bouldering Nationals is streamed live, 09.25 MST: Euro 17.25. Interesting they rank the climbers by three zones; 5, 10 and 15 points and you get 25 points for the top. For each try 0.1 points are deducted both for the zones and the top. Here you have the results. The big change for this system, in comparison to the IFSC system, is that two tops can loose to somebody that does many zones. Scoring by points have been up to discussion inside IFSC and 8a have forwarded a similar scoring system with two zones 3 and 5 points respectively 10 points for the top or 11 points for a flash. No deduction for tries but instead counting attempts for tied scoring. On the picture by Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing you clearly see the 5, 10 and points zones holds.

Toyamagawa_Collection from Imashi Hashimoto on Vimeo.

Adam Ondra reports on Instagram"First ascent yesterday, a route bolted by Quentin Chastagnier - La Castagne 9a+ (name was changed - did not know the name had been given)." This means that Adam has now done 32 FAs 9a+ and harder and on the diagram by Alex Beale we can see that Chris Sharma is runner up on this exclusive list, followed up by Alex Megos on seven.

99boulders.com has together with Willis Kuelth created the complete 9a+ to 9c statistics, including a diagram showing the great progress. In total we are talking 69 9a+, 7 9a+/b, 24 9b, 2 9b/+, 3 9b+ and Silence 9c. In total 69 climbers are listed, including Margo Hayes, Anak Verhoeven and Angela Eiter. Noteworthy is that 92 % of the ascents have been done in Europe, with a concentration around Lleida in Spain. Here are the most repeated. 19 La Rambla - FA Ramon Julian Puigblanque 18 Papichulo - FA Chris Sharma 15 Biographie - FA Chris Sharma 11 Thor's Hammer - FA Adam Ondra 05 Chilam Balam (9b) - FA Bernabe Fernandez Alex Huber's Open Air from 1996 is listed to be the first 9a+ because of Adam Ondra's upgrade and probably also due to that Huber having said it should be due to the grade inflation. It should be mentioned that grades are subjective and there just might be some further up- and down grades that can change the list. Currently Ondra has done 23 of the 30 listed 9b or harder.

Nina Williams has done her Window Shopper in Flagstaff which is her fourth 8A+ the last eight months and she is #2 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Alex Kahn "Extremely finger-position specific. Getting the far right hand determined how the come-in move to the crystal crimp felt... The crystal crimp determined how the next three slaps felt. I used an insecure high right heel for the end moves and never trusted it. Came down to micro-beta and getting out of my own head. Not sure if I ever really got out honestly... Just pure luck on the send :P Epic mental battle."