Amalie Kรคgi wins gold in Arco
Amalie Kรคgi, who flashed all five problems in the qualification round, won gold in the girls' U-17 boulder event. With her fifth-place finish in Lead as well, tโ€ฆ
Kazuki Nakata gets the double in Arco
Team Japan got another gold at the Youth World Championships in Arco when Kazuki Nakata won the U-17 in Boulder, his second gold after also winning in Lead. In โ€ฆ
Sorry for the downtime but now we have upgraded to a modern server with much higher capacity which means faster access to 8a. It might be that some things need to be optimized but as it stands now the response time is more than double as fast :)

It's now possible to add new ascents using the beta site! We've added a quick-add option so it's easy to add new ascents when you're at the crag. Previously you could get all news, data base access and also driving directions to several thousand crags in the world. The bugs have also been fixed. Read the full newsletter here Check out the beta site

21st 8B by Alex Puccio
Alex Puccio has done her 21th 8B, The Shining in RMNP and she got it in just two hours in bad conditions. (c) Joel Zerr "Wow, psyched! First day ever at this boulder!!! 90% of the holds were VERY damp and some were actually fully wet! Took about 2 hours of work. Would be a lot nicer to climb without a lake under the start. 2 really cool boulders!!!"" The runner up on the 8B and harder list is Ashima Shiraishi with 15, Isabelle Faus with 12 and Anna Stรถhr with 8. Including two 8B+'s, Puccio has done 23. In total there are some 20-25 female who have done an 8B boulder depending on which grades you use.

Nina Williams, who previously has done 36 boulders 8A to 8B, has done No More Greener Grasses 8A+ in Mt Evans. "Pulled all the projecting tricks for this one. Tiger stripes, micro-beta, trying in various weather conditions. Turns out a little humidity is a good thing!."

Dani Andrada: "It is harder to climb a 9a+ than boulder an 8C"
After a conversation with Dani a few days ago climbing together, he told us his concerns about the fast hatching of the boulderers and the late blooming for route climbers. First of all this is only an evaluation without acrimony, simply extracted from a personal conversation with him. (C) Talo Martรญn - Muรฉrdago Films "How many climbers can, in their first years of climbing, get to do the maximum grade in bouldering? I think quite a few. And now, how many people who in less than 4 years can climb a 9a+? They almost don't exist. In bouldering I see that it is increasingly unnecessary to have a certain experience and in routes is totally the opposite. You need tenacity, psychology, baggage.. For me, it is easier to climb routes than bouldering. It may also be because of the age, but if I find a problem that suits me, that's it. The real strength is up to about 32 years old. There are many people who have started to climb and have quickly reached to the highest level in bouldering but not in routes. For bouldering you don't have to climb very well if you have pure strength. There are some of the high-level boulderers who have problems to climb a 8a route. Which is even more impressive is that almost the highest grade in bouldering has been climbed barefoot many times by Charles Albert during the last years, even downgrading a 8C+ proposal in Fontainebleau or the last repeat to Monkey Wedding 8C in Rocklands, and nevertheless on routes, just a few have done 8c barefoot. I have tried at least 8 times an 8c+ in Rodellar that I fell on the last bolts barefoot."

First 9a by Moritz Welt (16)
Moritz Welt, who did Masters of the Universe 8c (+) on his second go two weeks ago, has done his first 9a, Der heilige Gral in Frankenjura. Bouldering video with Moritz "12 tries, 6 days - first go today... what a wonderful line with amazing moves! Maybe the best route I've ever done... Next thing is just to climb many more routes mostly in the grades 8c and 8c+ but also to do some more 9a's. The priority is just to climb routes where I like the line and the moves to have the most fun possible. I also love onsighting routes.

Adam Ondra comes with great promising news for his 9c Project Hard in Flatanger on his Instagram "Finally some progress on Project Hard. I did the "9b+ link", which is linking the whole route without the first 20m of 8b. Possibly my hardest route ever, except for the fact that is not a route at all... Yet."