Putting hand warmers in the chalk bag is a good way to keep the fingers warm during winter. Normally the heat is created through a chemical process. Strider has developed a hand warmer where you actually start a "fire" on some sticks which you keep in a box which gets really warm. Other ways of keeping your hands warm during very colds days are using vompression sleeves on your forehands and cut the fingers on some thin gloves.

Michaela Kiersch has done Maze of death 8A+ in Bishop. "Nina's beta for the win! Couldn't have finished it so quickly without her. 5 tries? Love the style and the aesthetic." On the picture by Cameron Maier, Michaela is doing Haroun and the Sea of Stories! 8A (+). In the Combined 8a female ranking game, the American is actually more superior than Adam Ondra is among the male. Interesting is that the 23 year old graduated from University last November. "in 2018 I am looking forward to seeing what happens when I focus more energy into my climbing."

Inspired by, EpicTV's - The Great Grade Debate here are some further thoughts which goes back to the original article from 2002 - Rating in theory and reality - "Everything is relative" The harder it gets, the harder it takes to progress. To advance in grades from 5c to 6a normally just takes a couple of sessions meanwhile for Adam Ondra it will probably take several years to progress to 9c+. The easiest way to establish how much harder one grade is possibly to use a pyramid-multiplicator model of around 4, based on how many climbers have reached a specific grade. (For boulders the multiplicator is much higher.) 1 = 9c (Adam Ondra) 4 = 9b+ (Ondra & Sharma) 16 = 9b (Some 16 guys) 64 = 9a+ (Some 69 guys) 256 = 9a (Guessing 200+ guys) Another way of explaining how much harder one grade is, is to use the 8a Time Comparison Grading Theory, at least for experienced climbers. The speculated time and effort needed to advance one grade for Adam Ondra with a 9a maximum onsight capacity could be, talking about personal bests; Onsight = 9a Flash = 9a+ 3 Days = 9b 20 days = 9b+ 150 days = 9c For less experienced and relatively less technically and tactically skilled; Onsight = 8a Flash = 8a+ 3 Go = 8b 3 Days = 8b+ 15 Days = 8c 100 Days = 8c+

Do not miss his technique for skipping rope drag by clipping in and changing rope 45 sec in the film. Smartness, Safety, Speed and precision climbing at it's best.

hugo parmentier, who got two podiums in the European Boulder and Lead Championships in 2017, has done his first 9a, Mollasse'son in Mollans. (c) Didier Le Gall "I came two weeks ago and worked it six times. This weekend I give a go to try the moves again and then I've done it on my first real go from the ground. This route suites my style: small crimps and short power endurance. With some super rests between sections. It's for sure it's a great step in my climbing, also because I discover these days how working a route route is awesome and now I want to try harder for sure ! For 2018, as a first year in senior, I will focus on comps. I want to do the World Cup circuit in lead and do the Combined at the World Championships and for sure some outdoor climbing when competitions will give some times. This route and the psyched for it really makes me think about other projects. Next week off for the Bouldering Nationals." In the 8a Combined ranking game, Hugo is #20. In the Combined Youth World Champion last year, he was #8.

Adam Ondra reports on his Instagram, with 200 000+ followers, that he has done the FA of Pure Dreaming 9a in Arco and the second ascent? of X-Large, for which he suggest upgrade to 8c+. He also did FA of the link-up Underground into Pure Dreaming 9a+. (c) Giampaola Calza in Athena 8c. In total, the 25 year old has now done 158 routes 9a and harder out of which 100 9a's. Bare in mind that the Czech is the top climbers who most often gives personal up- or downgrades, the one having the widest grade pyramid, highest portion of onsights and FAs. He is also the top climbers that most frequent reports chipped routes. In total, Adam has recorded 1 975 routes in his scorecard.

Loic Zehani, who previously has done nine 9a's, has sent Llamps i trons in Margalef for which he suggest an upgrade to 9a, after a broken hold. He also onsighted his first 8b, Photo Shoot and the 16 year old comments. "The vacation starts good."

3rdrockclothing reports that Gerard Rull has done La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. "It is clear Gerard has certainly left behind his serious pulley injury which occurred in 2016 which required surgery. His recovery encompassed most of 2017, it is exciting to see him back on top form." On his Instagram with a picture by Ilia Karpenko: "I never felt so loved and supported by all my people. So I just want to say thanks. Thanks to all those that supported me all the way here, that believed in me in every single moment, even in the darkest ones:" The FA of La Rambla was done in 2003 and it has now been repeated 19 times, out of which seven times just the last year, which makes it the most repeated 9a+ in the world. The FA was made as an eliminate and once the repeaters did go further out using a jug, Ramonet said his version was harder. The 9a+ grade has also been questioned later but all the last ten repeaters have confirmed it. Originally, it was Alex Huber who did the FA in 1994 to an anchor some six meters below calling it La Ramla 8c+. Alex have later said that his route should be considered 9a based on modern grading and some repeaters including Adam Ondra have confirmed this.

Based on 1 000+ unique votes, "How do you climb/train?", we can see that the results are more or less the same as an identical poll in 2015. This might be interesting to some as it seems there are more focus on training programs in the media. The first time we did the poll was in 2013 and then there were less focus on training. 13 % I follow a strict program - 13 % in 2015/ 10 % in 2013 46 % A bit of both - 48 % / 40 % 41 % I just climb - 39 % / 50 %

Chris Ring has done some analysis based on the 8a.nu database to see if age has any impact on the reached peak climbing grade for U.S. climbers. R & I has found Ring's analysis interesting and published a long article. In the diagram, we can see that in between 18 - 36 age, the hardest reached grade is almost the same. Even more interesting, Ring tracked the change in the maximum reached grade from year to year and he actually found a late blooming tendency. "The model estimated that a person’s hardest grade will gradually increase between the early 20’s and the early 40’s, on average." Looking practically on which ages perform the hardest grades in climbing we can see that for the female, it varies from 13 - 39 (Shiraishi and Sarkany). Among the male we have had 14 year old' that perform on the highest level and just now Yuji Hirayama (49) is close to send La Rampla 9a+. This means that climbing is unique when it comes to a wide age gap performing at the highest level for physical sports.