Adam Ondra has taken some free time from competition preperation by doing his 42:nd 9a+, Qui in Geisterschmiedwand. "2nd ascent after 23 year, FA Stefan Furst in 1996. It took me over 10 years and roughly 10 days. 1st day this year. Stefan gave it 9a, possibly something have broken, but very possibly it has not got much harder due to breaks. I believe it is more 9a+ now, even though the crux is very hard to grade. The difficulty is not to be underestimated as the first 8c section is suprisingly tiring and makes the crux so much harder." Really nice that his belayer was Furst captured on Adam's Insta, with all details. Interesting is that Furst gave it 8c+ in 1996 as Action Directe was considered 8c+/9a at the time.

During the last years, we have seen more climbers using a fan to improve the climbing conditions. Lately I have actually heard about guys pushing the limit actually using an air conditioner in order to create cooler temps. In practice this can be taken much further by specifically cooling down big sloopers etc. In theory, you could bring in some industry fans which could reduce the gravity so the question is how far can we take the usage of fans in climbing before it would be called unethical or even cheating? On the picture, Giani Glement is using a portable fan while doing Practice of the Wild 8C (B+).

Rock & Ice report that Molly Mitchellhas done China Doll 8b+ R on trad. It is a 40 meter link up of an 8a+ sport route with an 8b R trad route. In Frankenjura the terms "green point" is used for doing sport routes on trad. (c) Scott Crady "I worked on the route since mid May. I sent the first pitch on the bolts back in July, then sent the first pitch on gear back in August, then sent the whole line on gear last week. It’s funny because somewhere over the course of working on it I got really used to the first pitch and would warm up sending it on toprope every time I went out. And when I first started working the second pitch as the extension, it came along a lot quicker than I had imagined. I was constantly making pretty big progress, and everyone seemed to believe in me that I could do it. It was just hard for me to fully believe. I started to put a lot of pressure on myself. When I sent it was not the best conditions, which honestly I think helped just get my mindset into just trying my best as opposed to feeling pressure to execute. I was in disbelief clipping the chains. It was a huge breakthrough for me mentally. I think for a bigger perspective - it makes me want to keep pushing. It’s motivating for me to find a new project and aspire to more things! I thought I’d want to take a break from projecting after this long summer project, but honestly I’m just so excited to find what inspires me next!" Molly has done several 8b+ sport routes and 8a on trad. Previously just a handful woman have done 8b+ on trad. It should be mentioned that there are at most just a dozen male who have done an 8c or harder on trad. Documentary video when Heather Weidner did the first female ascent.

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Martin Stráník, #2 in the WCH in 2007, has a a great day in Labské Údolí where he did his first 8B flash, Sicarios. As can be seen on the video, it was raining heavily. "Cooling temps and high psyche made everything easy in Elbe valley yesterday, i sent 8B, 8A+/B, 8B+ FA and my first 8B Flash :) called Sicarios. So refreshing after all comps this year ". In the 8a ranking, the 29 yer old is #4. In the Combined Ranking the Czech is #36 after, surprisingly, having a hard time performing in Bouldering (best #29 and #43) at the same time he has been #6 and #9 in Lead. In Speed he has been #81 and #95 meaning, he has a great chance to qualify to Toulouse if he can make a good result in the last Speed event.

In regards to the discussion of Giuliano Cameroni's FA of Legacy 9a in Rocklands, it is crucial to understand that it was found and projected as a 10m highball before Nicole came along and bolted it. It is located above the Roadside sector with 100+ boulders around including also highballs and some even higher bolted routes.

Emma Twyford, one of the best female multi discipline climbers out there, has done The Big Bang in Lower Pen Trwyn opened by Neil Carlson in 1996 as the first 9a in the UK. Emma did the second repeat of the vertical crimpy route and she comments. "Big Bang (9a) has been a long term project for me. Inspired my James McHaffie's ascent I decided to give it a try unsure of what would happen. Needless to say initially I was a bit off the mark but with some training I was soon linking the hard crux at the top together. That was when I knew it was possible. The hard part was finding the time to be fresh enough for the route between route setting. I came very close at the end of last year falling from the last hard move, then I got injured setting at the beginning of this year. So many doubts hit me, earlier this year I came close again. The mental battle kicked in, I was climbing the route in 2 sections with no rest but my head wasn't translating this to success. On Tuesday just myself and Angus Kille were the only people at the crag, the conditions weren't ideal but there was no pressure. I set off and just climbed it. Emma, who is working full time as a route setter and coach, is currently the best British female trad climber and this summer she did some hard multi-pitches in the Dolomites. Today she is setting their national championships. (c) John Bunney

Linda Sjödin has made some kind of record in grade progress going from 8A to do New Base Line 8B+ in Magic Wood. Remarkably to say the least as there are less than a dozen female that have reached that grade. Please give us your climbing background? I first started climbing in 2011 at age 19 but quite irregularly. In 2015 I started climbing more consistently and trained to perform better on the wall. How important is climbing in your life now? For a long time, I’ve identified myself primarily as a medicine student who likes climbing but the last couple of years climbing has become a bigger part of my life and who I am. Last year I took a break from med. school to focus on climbing, so there’s been a lot of climbing lately. How many sessions did NBL take and how much specific training? I didn’t count the sessions but probably around 15. Looking back, it would have been wiser to skip some of them and just climb something else. Starting a project at the beginning of the summer wasn’t the smartest decision, I’ve had too many bad sessions where it was just too warm, sunny or humid to climb at that level. I tried sending at 2 AM to get cooler temps but I’m really not a night person so that didn’t work out very well. I trained a lot but nothing specifically for New Base Line. What about comps next year and how do you train? I haven’t decided if I want to do comps or not next year. I mainly just climb and try to focus on improving my technique. What is your next plan? I’ll be home for a couple of months and then hopefully off to Brione and Albarracin and home again in January to get back to med school, but nothing is set in stone yet. (c) Åke Rosén

David Firnenburg, who has done two 9a+', has done his 13th 9a, Jungfrumarathon in Grimmelwand. "First 9a after my shoulder injury. Felt already possible to send on the first day but needed another two days because of bad beta for me at the crux. Pump of my life clipping the anchor :-D Thank you Andrea for your support! Such a nice place up here." More info on Insta. In 2016, David got the bronze in the Combined World Championship and he was #4 in a Boulder World Cup and he was one of the first who focused on making it to the Olympics.

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