Katie Lamb has done her sixth 8B in 2020, The Swarm in Buttermilks after seven sessions. In the 8a ranking game, the 23-year-old is #5. (c) Eric Bissell

"Every day for one whole year I have dreamed of The Swarm. It was my child, my light, my life. I wanted to prove myself as a crimper, and there is no boulder in the US more sacred to crimping crumpets than this one. Once I committed to learning the ways of the patina and listening to the whispers of the Owen’s Valley and ancient Bristlecone Pines the boulder was attainable. Every day that I felt close to sending, the boulder said “do it again”. I took inspiration from my friend Duke (who has the spirit of Santa’s elf) and eventually I found myself topping out the glory slab and standing atop the boulder of my dreams. Pure! Bliss! A merry Christmas kiss from the mountains!"

Alex Garriga has done his second 9a FA in Cuenca during the last week, Daemonologie. "The route shares the hard first half of El carnicero the rostov, a 9a I did in February. Then a bad rest in two 2 finger pockets followed by an endurance challenge with big moves on big holds. (c) Alfonso Martinez

Chris Cosser has made it to Tokyo by winning the Africa Championship. His best discipline is Speed where he did 6.87 although having just trained it more or less for two hours a week for six months. Until 2018, when he finished high school, he just climbed three times a year. (c) City Rock

"Once school finished I started to climbing 5 times a week at CityROCK Johannesburg where I really started to push my training as the Olympic goal became a focus. Since then I’ve been working toward the dream and kept trying to grow in the sport. Training in South Africa is difficult as the facility’s don’t currently cater for high-end training. I’ve spent a few months travelling around Europe both for competitions and training. In those months I truly understood what’s required to close the gap between Africa and the rest of the world. Now my objective is to do just that. The Olympics is the next set.

Speed is quite a cool one for me because it is homologated around the world which makes it even for everyone training it. Unlike the other 2 disciplines, South Africa is very far behind in terms of ability but with speed we are competitive, is it exposures or talent? For my personal speed training, I’ve just put hours in on the wall and have watched other athletes to see how they have trained speed."

The 20-year-old is hoping to move to Innsbruck in order to prepare for the Olympics. Last year, he participated in eleven Euro competitions placed #57 at his best among the seniors and #30 in the Speed World Championship among the juniors. "I’m also realistic about my goals for the OG." In any case, Cosser seems to be a talented Speed climber that should have chances to become Top-6 in Speed.

There are now 6 million star rated ascents in the 8a database, added by 85 000 members. Frankenjura and Fontainebleu have 221 000 respectively 154 000 recorded ascents and in practice, you can find info and comments on practically almost all crags, sectors and climbs in the world. There are endless possibilities to filter your climbs by grade and season etc. You can also become a moderator and help us to improve the database but in reality, with every climb you log, you interact with the climbing community creating better possibilities to find more and better climbs around the world!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Alex Megos, who has been appointed 8a Climber of the year, has done Dave Graham’s classic The Story of Two Worlds 8C in Cresciano from 2005. The name actually refers to the grading inflation at the time which basically stopped after Graham's statement. "I worked on it for four days I think. Day one and two were to figure out beta and to climb sequences. On day three it rained, so the second half was completely wet. I managed to get through the bottom bit and got close to sending it but fell three moves before the topout. The day after that it was dry again and I did it first try that day after warming up. We left a little after to drive back home again." (c) Alise Zvigule

On Insta he explains that he did not use kneepads and discusses ethics and the importance to also report HOW things are climbed. "There are various videos online from lots of different climbers, all theoretically climbing the same boulder and claiming the same grade- 8C. It seems like the climbing community is not differentiating at all and rarely mentioning HOW things are climbed."

Already in 2002, 8a published Ethics and Practice in Sport Climbing and we have done also presented the "How" in bouldering several times. Chatting with Megos, he also mentions that a proper sit start makes a big difference on The Story. As a matter of a fact, HOW a proper sitstart should be done has been discussed several times on 8a. One dilemma is whether shorter climbers are allowed to use the same starting holds a taller FA reached. As a matter of a fact, Dai Koyamada (165 cm), did the first repeat in 2010 but then did choose to go back in 2012 to do it again as some said he had not started in the same sitting position as Graham (181 cm) had done. Actually, Koyamada did then start laying down and said his variation was 8C+. 8a's take on this is similar to what Megos thinks. You can start anywhere you like, possibly by stacking pads if you are shorter, as long as you express this "HOW" clearly and possibly give your variation a different grade.

We also asked Megos to give further comments in regards the use of kneepads. "I think everyone can climb with kneepads if he wants to. But he should be honest whether or not he thinks it makes it easier. Some people just climb to tick a grade. So even if they find new beta or use a kneepad which makes it easier they still claim to have done a certain grade although it might have been easier. I just hope people can be honest. That's all 😊 Merry Christmas."

In total Adam Ondra spent 44 days in the Margalef and Oliana out of with 15 days was spent working and trying Perfecto Mundo 9b+.

Loic Zehani has done his 9a #20, UFO faire XXL in Calanques. "It is a connection between "UFO" 8c (one of the first 8c in France, bolted by Fred Roulhing) and "XXL" 8c +. You have to do all the hard part of "UFO" and then the bouldery crux of "XXL" with a little rest in between. It took me 5 days. I fell 3 times on the last hard movement. It's a very physical route. I think it's a 9a especially since the bouldery section is harder following the breakage of a little part of a hold. You can watch a try on my Instagram where I fall in the last movement."

Solveig Korherr has done her seventh 8c in 2020, Blue Line in Geyik bayiri. (c) Jon Shen "Two days. First Female Ascent. Ceusienne Berlin style rock after 20 meters of easier tufa approach. Happy that I was able to cram two fingers into some of the tiny pockets. Quite atypical of Geyikbayiri."

So how many climbers are around? What about Covid-19 restrictions and how long will you stay?
Turkey has been great so far! It’s getting very busy now especially with the holidays starting, so there are quite a few climbers around. It’s hard to tell because there a lot of different campgrounds and I’m in a smaller one but probably around 100 climbers. Tourist can do everything, there are no restrictions for us. I will probably stay here till mid of January.

Aidan Roberts made his breakthrough at the world scene at the end of this summer. During six weeks, he made six FA's 8B+ to Superpower 8C+. Lattice Training got his breakthrough on film and Tom Randell gives us more insight.

"Aidan is extremely intelligent/academic but at the same time climbing super hard and also crazy humble about it all... I'm going to have to shout about it for him 😂. He's studying at top UK university in a maths degree and so has to balance this with climbing performance. A kid with many things on his plate!

This film follows Aidan repeating multiple 8Bs to then establishing first ascents all the way up to 8C and 8C+ with Superpowers and Outliers. Whilst you all know these grades have been climbed before elsewhere, you may not know the context of Aidan and the Lakeland grading - he's not soft and neither are the grades! One of his FAs from Colorado established previously (Railway, 8C) has been tried by some of the world's best boulderers and yet has only had a single repeat by Matt Fultz..."