8a+ (b) Joshua Ibbertson (11)
Joshua Ibbertson has done Primeur de luxe 8a+ (b) in Frankenjura and his father, James gives us the story. "We spent the half term holiday with some good friends of ours the Perwitsky family, who live the Frankenjura. They recommended we tried Primeur de Luxe due to the foggy conditions as it's quick to dry. Josh managed to do all the moves that day and link it overlapping sections. We returned the next day but it was his third day of climbing and his skin was too sore to pull on small holds so he took a rest day. Luckily the sun came out, dried the rock and we enjoyed really great conditions allowing him to get it in a couple of tries.

9a+ FA again by Adam Ondra - updated
Adam Ondra has done yet another 9a+ FA and his second one in Czech Republic, Predator in Srbsko. In total, the best climber in the world of the last five years has put up 21 routes 9a+ and harder. (c) Pavel Zvire "Very nice route with awesome sequence in the crux, which is impossible to grade. For me probably 9a/a+, but with no flexibility definitely much harder...1 daz month ago, now sent 2nd go in 30mins" Read also the article in the right column, which was published before this amazing knee drop picture appeared on the website: "Stretching the fastest way to improve".

Crag & route pages updated
Weโ€™ve updated the layout of the crag and route pages. The new page structure lays the foundation for bringing Topos to Vertical-Life Web. Alongside the new layโ€ฆ
Nearly 2,000 hectares of Font Forest destroyed by wildfire
Exceptional wildfires are currently sweeping through parts of France's Fontainebleau Forest. Located around 70 km south-east of Paris, the UNESCO Biosphere Reseโ€ฆ
Pirmin Bertle, who has done six 9a's, did yesterday do his hardest route ever, which made him share the news that in April he did a 8C+ FA, Drop a line in Couisimbert and that he in August did the FA of Des scรจnes bizzarres dans la mine d'or 9a+ in Jansegg, video. Last week, he also did the FA of Mediomalomania 8C in Lindental, "but the hardest thing in my life I sent yesterday." Interesting is that he did not climb at all during the first six months of 2014 due to having caught bone mark edema. Then he just climbed very easily for some months until he started to work only on the 8C+ boulder. Interesting is also that he only trains five hours a week and never indoors. More info on his blog and on 8a tomorrow. :)

Drop a line 8C+ at Cousimbert, the real video from Pirmin Bertle on Vimeo.

9a by Sachi Amma
Luka Fonda reports with a great picture that Sachi Amma managed to make the 3rd repeat of Water World 9a in the big cave of Osp. Earlier this year, the WC winner 2013 did five 9a+'s and one 9b.

Martin Strรกnรญk, #2 in the Boulder World Championship 2006, said: " I think that it is a soft 8C right now with all the beta there is, but still harder than 8B+. It's interesting how this problem has gone from "hard 8C or even 8C+", via "the benchmark for 8C" to "soft 8C", and difficult to know how much of this change is due to new beta and how much is a widening of the 8C-grade."

8C by Martin Strรกnรญk
Martin Strรกnรญk, #2 in the world championship in 2007, seems to be in his best shape ever having done seven boulders 8B and harder in 18 days, including The Story of 2 Worlds 8C. "5 days, icon of bouldering for me, hard battle with progress, moves and conditions, but luckily last day of the trip temperature allowed me to send this boulder! And good session on Il Trill, must come back! (c) ON_ OFF Productions

Papichulo 9a+ by Jonathan Siegrist during the night
EPICTV reports that Jonathan Siegrist has done Chris Sharma's Papichulo 9a+ in Oliana. (c) Samuel Elias ""Papichulo is an incredible 45 meter route. Itย’s involved, with a very pumpy and nerve-racking finish after a consistently tough first half." This was the third 9a+ for Jonathan and what makes this one so special is the fact that he up had to turn on his head lamp midways the route and continued to the top.

9a FA by Jakob Schubert
Jakob Schubert, one of the best climbers of the last five years, both on rock and in comps, reports on Facebook that he has made the FA of Companion of Change 9a in Zillertal. Last weekend he was #3 in Kranj as well as in the 2015 overall ranking. (c) Elias Holzknecht "The route was bolted by Markus Schwaiger then rebolted + cleaned by Gerhard Hรถrhager, two of the most important pioneers of Tyrol! I tried this route for the first time many years ago and came back every once in a while, a lot has changed since I first saw this route, in my life but also in climbing and on this planet in general. That's why I'm giving it the name 'Companion of Change'. I'm not 100% sure about my plans yet, I'm really spontaneous right now, done with university since May, so I can put all my time into climbing. Planing to focus on Lead next year and less bouldering so I can focus on rockclimbing a lot longer. Probably climbing mostly outside until May. On Saturday I will go to Croatia for a week, mid December Spain and Hueco in February."