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.

Felipe Camargo, who previously has done one 9a+ and one 8C, has repeated Chris Sharma's 9a Gancho Perfecto in Margalef. Although it was put up ten years ago it only has had five repeats, out of which everyone calling it hard. The Brazilian with 66 000 followers on Insta suggests an upgrade to 9a+. (c) Anva Creative "I tried it for basically 2 months now! But the second month, the end of the route was totally wet! So I just trained in the gym here at Sharma climbing and climbed a lot on the bottom! Now it dried and i did it :) I have two weeks left in Spain and I think I will focus on Bon Combat. I dunno if I can do it but I want to get close and comeback to it. It is amazing."

Matilda Söderlund reports on Insta that she has done Pure Imaginaation 8c+ in Red River Gorge. Andy Wickstrom In 2012, Matilda was #6 in the World Championship and later she focused on getting a Master degree in Business Administration. This year she is back with four routes 8c and harder. ”So, so happy that I managed to keep it together and send it on the very last day! I was very close about a week earlier and then it got super cold (too cold for me to be able to climb on the crimps of Pure Imagination haha). Then we got one day with perfect conditions and I was able to send it I learnt a lot and enjoyed the process of projecting and all of the mental challenges & mind games that it includes. Pure Imagination is an amazing line (bolted by Kenny Baker), a lot of nice crimps and fun sequences. Can’t wait to come back to the Red for more climbing!”

Adam Ondra during the end of his onsight attempt of The Salathe Wall in Yosemite, where he fell on an 8a+ trad pitch.