Merry Christmas and a Happy New 2006

8a hopes that you have had a great year with loads of climbing and that it has been inspiring to interact in the 8a community. 2005 has been a great year for us with many new records and an interview in Climbing. We are now 11 000 members and we expect to be more than the end of 2006. During November, we had over 45 000 unique visitors who made a total of 1 million clicks.

We have learned that the most amazing thing with 8a is actually that most of the best climbers in the world run their own personal websites through the 8a community. Apparently, this and the interaction it creates are totally unique as compared to all other sports and websites in the world! The personal scorecard of David Graham has e.g. been opened more than 200 000 times.

Plans for 2006

1. The special subscription offer of Climbing magazine for 8a members, expires January 3.
2. We are about to start selling an 8a T-shirt and our web shop will open in January.
3. On the Global main page, rotating pictures are now shown.
4. In February, the scorecard will be available in 12 languages.
5. We have 12 country editors including .
6. Product news will be presented with pictures.
7. Yes! We will improve the navigation and user friendliness as well as this news letter;)
8. SMS-features in order to register and get the latest updates.
9. Chat for quicker interaction between 8a members.
10. The book: The 8ABC of climbing will be published in the fall of 2006.

We should also mention that there is absolutely no plan to start charging a monthly fee for the 8a membership. 8a was started as a hobby in 1999 and in order to cover costs, give better service and continue the development with more features, 8A was created in 2005. We hope that the sales of banner and some products will make it possible to develop and host 8a in a more professional manner in the future. It should be mentioned that our webmaster have been working halftime for almost four years without any salary at all and the same goes for our Spanish editor.

We are always looking for more contributors who are interested to provide the community with pictures, articles, translations, news etc. Send us a mail and we will upgrade your account. The most active editors will receive products from our sponsors.

Climber & Junior of the year 2006

Dani Andrada - Spain & Josune Bereziartu - Spain

David Lama  - Austria & Charlotte Durif - France

The very best of climbing regards,
The 8a team