Thomas Dauser has done his third 9a through the FA of Il gusto della liberta in Ulassai. (c) Klaas Willems "So happy!! It was a long way to the top of this dream line. In total, split over two stays, I spent around 10 days working on it, checking out the moves, making link-ups, and finally sending it in perfect evening conditions. I did my first 8c now already 5 years ago and then my first 9a one year ago. My main focus is on climbing outdoors, a lot in Frankenjura. But the last few years I did more specific training as well.

There are several ways on how breathing can improve your climbing and here are some examples. You should try it out or even take some Yoga breathing lessons in order to best use your breathing while climbing. 1. Breath before you set of = Increase focus and concentration 2. Less nervous by thinking of how you breath 3. Get more alert/stronger by hyper ventilation (fast breathing) 4. Improved resting by slow, long and deep breathing 5. A focus on breathing will make you more relaxed while climbing Just close your eyes and focus on breathing and notice what happens in your body and soul and you are half way there.

Margo Hayes reports on her Insta that she one month ago did Southern Smoke 8c+ in Red River Gorge. During the same trip the 20 year old did Golden Ticket 8c+ and probably some more great routes. (c) Jan Novak ”I had a wonderful time visiting The Red for the first time in a while! I met up with friends from France and was able to spend some time climbing with my dad. He’s always my favorite partner. I wanted to try a some classics and some routes that looked intriguing to me. I climbed the Golden Ticket and Southern Smoke in 5 tries each.” Including the two 9a+ classics from last year as well as a 9a and other 8c+', Margo must be a contender for having the most impressive ticklist in the world. The only two girls that challenges her are Angy Eiter and Anak Verhoeven.

During the last 12 months, 7 298 ascents have been recorded in Leonido making it the third most zlagged in the world after Frankenjura and Kalymnos. Actually, 50 % of the total recorded ascents in Leonidio have beed added just the last year. Kind of remarkable that it is more popular than Rodellar, Arco and Railay Beach together. The second most trendy crag to visit is Kyparissi like 1.5 hour south of Leonidio. The good news is that both these crags situated like 3 hours south of Athens are climbable also during the winter. Here you can buy the guide-book which also comes in an App.

Molly Thompson-Smith, #7 in the Lead WC 2017 and #11 in the World Championship, has been on a climbing trip in Spain together with Jan Hojer. In Siurana she did Kale Borraka 8b+ and in Santa Linya she did Fabelita 8c. Jan's best was Open Your Mind 8c+ in Santa Linya. So how come so few comps this year and what is the 2019 and Olympic plan? I ruptured 3 pulleys in my ring finger at the end of Dec last year and had to have surgery in the New Year. Took me a while to get back to climbing, and especially at a decent level so wasn't able to do any comps until World Champs. Next year I plan to do all the lead WCs and some bouldering ones. I'll try for the Olympics, hopefully I can enter all the events I need to next year but we don't know what the selection criteria is yet and I've got a lot of catching up to do anyways!

Looking in the 8a database trying to identify who has made the FAs of the most popular and highest ranked hard core routes, Chris Sharma sticks out. 2.8 Papichulo 9a+ in Oliana 2.2 Mind Control 8c (8c+) in Oliana 2.1 Era Vella 9a (8c+) in Margalef 2.0 Biographie 9a+ in Céüse In fact, almost all Chris hardest routes have later been hailed and recommended. Here are some examples of some with few repeats; First round first minute 9b, El Bon Combat 9a+ (9b/+), Fight or Flight 9b, Es Pontas 9b . (c) Chris Insta with 455 000 followers.

Jakob Schubert reports on Insta that he has done the second ascent of Chris Sharma's El Bon Combat in Cova de l'ocell giving it a personal grade of hard 9a+. "I know it's easy to not think about it and just take the grade of the first ascensionist which in this case is 9b/+ but I feel the responsibility to have more thoughts about it. For me it felt easier from the first day I tried it and I would guess it is a hard 9a+. Curious what others will think." Jakob has been one of the leading competition climbers in the World the last ten years and this year he was the Lead as well as the Combined World Champion, beside winning the Lead World Cup. The 27 year old Austrian has previuosly done three 9b's, seven 9a+' and two 8C boulders. El Bon Combat is located just 40 min oustide Barcelona and it was bolted by Martí Iglesias Galobart. It is 25 meters and the really spectacular route is made up by a mixture of sand stone and conglomerate. The difficulty is based on several 8A Boulder problems connected with poor rests. (c) Javi Pec

During the last years, we have seen a great progress when it comes to redpoint grades for both male, female, youngsters and oldies. Strangely enough, when it comes to route onsights it seems the level is decreasing beside Adam Ondra. Nowadays, it is very seldom we hear about 8c's respectively 8a+' being onsighted by male and female. In comparison, Ondra has done 84 onsights 8c and harder. In bouldering, we saw some progress up to 8B and even 8B+ some years ago but last year, almost none did flash an 8B. Kind of strange as there exist videos of most of the hard 8B out there and also that there are many more to choose from compared to five years ago. Among the male, James Webb sticks out with 19 8B boulders flash. When the 8a scorecard was set up in 2000, we choose to award onsights very high in order to motivate more onsights. Maybe it is time to increase the bonus and also report more high class onsight? Remember that it might not be a coincidence that Adam Ondra had a focus on onsights being a teenager. In general, many coaches and trainers say that it is better to build a wide onsight pyramid instead of just redpointing a personal best.

Over the years, doctor and coaches have warned for an increased number of growth plate fractures and 8a has often informed about the problem. Here is a Eric Hörst article from 2017 and here is one by Volker and Isabelle Schöffl from this spring. Sadly and very unfortunate we have just lately heard many more stories preventing some advanced kids to stop climbing. The fracture often appears during the year of the highest growth velocity for the youngsters focusing to much on power in the gym. It seems most coaches are aware of the problem but this seems not to be the case for the parents and kids. Two coaches have recently reached out to 8a asking us to write another warning article as they see an increase risk for more fractures that actually could mean the kids are forced to totally stop climbing. Campus board and repeativey working on the same bouldering moves are the worst thing. In fact, all type of intensive finger training should be avoided during the year when the youngster grow the most. Remember that Adam Ondra being a teenager his focus was onsight, technic and endurance.