James Webb, #2 in US Bouldering Nationals last weekend, arrived to Fontainebleau, when it was snowing. It cleared up and one hour later he did the fourth repeat of L'Alchimiste. Gradewise, it has been given 8C and 8B+ and on Bleauinfo there was 8C/+ mentioned as well. James did it in just three tries and gave it a personal 8B grade in his scorecard. (C) David Mason "3 tries total. Im a bit confused by this right & left exit stuff. Its just one wall.. with just one line.. and two different options for beta. Thats it. Pick the beta that suits your style and go for it. Nonetheless, a quality problem! Very psyched to be here. It is a nice line for sure. Great rock and interesting features. Today was the first day. Traveled here over the night and landed this morning. Took the train to Font and my bud Dave Mason picked me up and we went climbing... No world cups for me. Would rather spend my time here on the rock. Probably gonna be here till mid march. Hopefully the weather holds up for us!"

Bouldering was more or less invented in Fontainebleau and it is still the most often visited and biggest arena in the world. The first topo was produced in 1945 but already in the 19th century, the Bleauserads were challenged by the blocs. The Bouldering difficulty gradings can also be said to have been invented in the Forest and in fact, the american V scale is above 7A a copy when in comes to grade steps. Grades in Font have been said to be sandbagged but in reality this is just another way of saying that another grade scale has been invented outside Bleau. The best way to describe this is to compare the maximum grades. In 2005, the highest grade in Font was 8B, which can be compared to the fact that in 1996 and 2000, the world's first 8B+ and 8C had been established and since then repeated many times. Meanwhile, some 100 guys had done an 8B+ outside Font until 2005 and gained fame in magazines and on websites as well as sponsor contracts, but nobody claimed to have done 8B+ in the Forest. In reality, there is probably at least a handful Bleauseards that have done 8A to 8B Boulders in Font, equally difficult as some 8B+ to 8C+ that were reported at the time around the globe in areas like Ticino, Rocklands, Hueco Tanks, etc. Here are some Bleauseards who probably climbed 8A - 8B's in Font prior to 2005 - these problems would have been reported as 8B+ outside Font - Julien Nadiras, Antoine Vandeputte, Olivier Lebreton, Sebastien Frigault, Christophe Laumone, Jacky Godoffe, Manu Marquès and Christian Roumegoux. The bleau.info scorecards of Marques Vimeo and especially Roumegoux (52), in the picture by Pierre Delas, are very impressive and yet they are unknown outside Font. Some 15 years ago Christian did an 8c+ and onsighted two 8b's on rock and did several 8B's in Font. If Font used the same grades as Ticino etc, he could be a world famous boulderer having done probably some 8B+'s.

The Boulders from Float Faction on Vimeo.

Northern Lights Challenge 2015 -finaalikooste from Helsingin Kiipeilykeskus on Vimeo.

Climbing reports that Colin Haley and Alex Honnold have done the second ascent of the Torre Traverse in Patagonia in 20 hours 40 minutes. Haley did the FA together with Rolando Garibotti in four days in 2008. "Last season, Haley and Honnold attempted and nearly completed the one-day Torre Traverse, climbing all the way to a stance two pitches below the top of Cerro Torre in just 22 hours. Here, a terrible storm forced them to a halt and eventually into a painful retreat down the west face of Cerro Torre and across the ice cap. By the time they made it back to town they had been going 53 hours straight with no stove or bivy gear." The picture was taken Alex Honnold, who reports on Facebook, "Sunrise on the South East Ridge of Cerro Torre as @colinhaley1 leads our rappels down after a long day of traversing the range. 32 hours camp to camp to climb all 4 Torres. Thanks for an amazing day out, Colin!"

Rock & Ice reports that Marianne van der Steen has set a new standard for dry-tooling by making the first ever male or female flash of a D13+, Kamasutra at Bus del Quai in Italy. It was opened last year by the three times Ice World Champion, Angelika Rainer and here is FA video. "Van der Steen told Rock and Ice that she’s a slow climber and thinks that might be a reason why she “never [does] too well” in World Cups where time is an important factor." The most amazing thing with Marianne's world record was that, "When she got to the ground, she wasn’t pumped at all, she says, “therefore it didn't feel like I'd done something super difficult. It was only later that evening when I realized and heard probably no one had ever done a D13+ flash. Picture by Marco Servalli.

THE 9 YEARS PROJECT -FRANKENJURA- from Heiko Queitsch on Vimeo.