Giuliano Cameroni has had some incredible last eight days doing three 8B+'; Scarred for life in Fionnay, Manhattan reine cantonale in Valais and Pied de biche in Plamproz. In the 8A ranking game the 21 year old is #2 after Daniel Woods.

Dani Andrada is undoubtedly the climber with the most quanty hard climbs under his belt, whether boulder problems or routes. He is also known for his bolting labour but over all for his fanaticism being 43 years old. Recently he reached +4,000 routes/boulders and we had a chat with him. With so many hard climbs in your notebooks, have you considered reaching a number? I've reached to 4,015 wich I've bolted about 760 8a or harder. I don't know how many are FA's as it doesn't bother me. I would like to reach to 5,000 if I don't die to get it, but overall I would like to climb quality things although every day gets harder and harder. This season I would like to reach to the 1,000 bolted routes as now I'm at 789. Some years I've put up 60 routes and some others 15. For me bolting new lines is the most important thing for the community. You mentioned us that nowadays people only think about the numbers instead of being more experienced.. Yes. I think that most of the climbers, overall young ones, which are at their best, they only think about the numbers and forget the climbing in itself. Try every hard route is in fashion and not to making more volume of routes and get experienced with it. I come from an older generation where before climbing 8a I climbed 7c+ on sight. To me maximum grade in a day and on sights come together. In the end what differentiates a good climber from the bad is the speed to climb things with more or less tries. Experienced climbers in 8a maximum are much better climbers than other who just have climbed a few 9a's. There are climbers that when they do their first 9a clamor for it as a great achievement. I have climbed 70 routes 9a or harder and still having doubts with some grades. In the end, climbing is not about just trying hard climbs, it's trying to climb in different types of rock and styles. Do you have something to do in short term that you haven't done berore? Climb and travel as much as I can due there're almost no routes left at home (laughs). Go mad bolting new lines and overall climb 8c on sight, which is something I never did. American Hustler for example in Oliana or some. I have many possibilities to do something like that cause is about get endurance. I would also like to do 8C (pure boulder problem I mean, not a traverse) but I guess it's harder, cause the older you get the harder is get strength. Also back to La Pedriza this winter to the slabs and try the freed routes by Mulero up to 8c with cams and nuts. The downside of all this is that I am a nonconformist, and I want to be everywhere trying everything at once. ©Talo Martín

Connor Herson (15) has done the sixth ascent of Lynn Hill classic almost 1 000 meters The Nose 8b+ in Yosemite (originally graded 8a back in 1993). Being 13 years old he French freed it during a day and last year Connor did 15 routes 8b+ and harder including one 8c+ second go. The two last years he has been Top-11 in the Youth World Championship. Old 8a interview. "The Nose is a very interesting route to me; it only has about 20 feet of really hard climbing in the changing corners pitch, as well as a few other pitches of still hard but slightly easier climbing. I'm definitely so psyched to have done it! In total, it was my sixteenth day working on freeing the route (10 days either rapping in to changing corners or climbing up to the great roof, as well as 2 three-day pushes), and those were mostly weekends or school holidays. Last weekend, my dad and I went up to get our systems dialed and try the route (it was my first multi-day bigwall), and I surprised myself my sending the great roof and coming very close on changing corners. We decided to go up again this weekend when the weather forecast over Thanksgiving looked bad and school was cancelled due to poor air quality last Friday. I definitely wasn't expecting to send, but I did everything up to changing corners without falling and, to my surprise, sent changing corners on my fourth try! I still can't believe it!" (c) Jim Herson who also belayed him and comments. "The breakthrough of his ascent is not so much his young age but how quickly he put it together without using fixed ropes. El Cap is overrun with climbers these days. Fixed ropes on El Cap's popular routes are untenable. I'm most proud that he was able free El Cap without using fixed ropes and interfering with other climbers. And most importantly, he freed the Nose without missing a day of school!"

Calrin Curtis from South Africa is a full time lawyer that has great chances to be the male African representative in the Olympics. The 24 year old who trains six times a week plans to stop working in six months and then only focus on climbing and the Olympics. In the last world championship he was #72 out of 87, with 9.05 in Speed as his best result and the only African competitor. "I started climbing at my school when I was 16. I competed in the world youth Championships in Imst in 2011 and Singapore in 2012 and was the highest placed African Athlete at both events. I plan to head overseas to climb and gain as much training and experience as I can until my money runs out. I would love to go to Innsbruck and train and also try and find sponsorships to help extend my trip as long as possible. Perhaps this article could help:) I don't have too much structure to my training at the moment but I train all 3 disciplines equally. I'm looking forward to learning new training structures when I go overseas."

Sachi Amma stopped competing after he won the World Cup in 2014. Next year he reached his goal to do ten routes 9a or harder. Then in 2016 he stopped doing hard routes. ""I can not find any value to be a better person by comparing myself with other climbers. That is why I stopped competing and climbing hard routes. Why do I need to be better than the others?" Changing horizon interview. Now he rises again but no grade on his Insta so we had to beg for it. In total he has now done eleven 9a+ and two 9b's. "This route is in Shirakabe Face area, 30m long almost vertical with 16 bolts. I bolted original line this April but it was too difficult for me. So I made a connection to the route “Akirameruna” (No Surrender, from Kenji Iiyama 7c+). Original part is 7 bolts, about 20 moves of hard 8b+ then you directly go to a 4 moves 8A+ before continuing into “Akirameruna”. Crux move is from two micro crimps to far under cling. The wall is vertical so you need to be strong on your finger and sensitive for the movement. I started working from ground from middle of October but kept falling at the crux move. After about 25days of working on it, I finally stuck that move on beautiful sunny, cold and windy day in this November 15th. It was beautiful days with Autumn leaves. In Japanese, Kanji, Climb(登) and Rise(昇) are same pronunciation. We normally use Climb(登) for climbing. But I found that if you are really into the climbing, you are out of control by yourself. I think it is not climb but rise. This route taught me this. I would love to finish the original line in near future. So many things to climb in Japan!"

"Energia Cosmica is the name of the route that I had bolted one year ago in the Bilico’s crag in the Canali valley (Dolomites). This place is simply wonderful and is near my home in the mountains. The approach is one hour and twenty minutes but all the routes are amazing and is perfect if you like slab climbing. Now the crag have seven routes from 8a to 9a+. My favorite climbing style is the slab and Energia Cosmica is my hardest slab route ever, a lot more difficult than Bain de Sang 9a and Bimba luna 9a/+ that I had done in 2017 in few attempts. For this route I did somthing like 60 attempts and 20 days on the route and I think that could be my first 9a+. I hope that one day someone try to do the first repetition. I’m very happy to have completed this challenge, the perfect slab in the perfect place with the perfect rock!"

8a and Vertical-Life are hiring: We’re looking for motivated User Experience / User Interface Designers for mobile and web projects! If you love climbing as well as designing user experiences, this could be your chance to combine your greatest passions. You will be joining our highly motivated team of climbers, business strategists, product managers, designers, engineers, and merchandisers. You will be working on user experience strategies for our existing apps and websites, and for new projects from the ground up. Get in touch to receive detailed information about the job. Send your application, CV and portfolio to: [email protected]

Alexander Rohr, who previously has done four 9a, has done Chromosome X in Charmey giving it a personal grade of 8c+. "Unfortunately fell in the last hard move in my second go and again in try 3 and 4 yesterday..... 2 degrees is just too cold! Did it first try today.... Never 9a but a good route and a cool resistant style on small holds..." In regards the two different sequences to the right by FA Pirmin Bertle and first repeater Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi used to the left, Alexander found a method in between. He also says that Chromosome Y, which Adam Ondra flashed, feels harder.