In the Ticklist, the percentage of the ascent added the last year is measured. Using the %, here are the big trendy crags/boulder areas as well as the Not trendy. 54 % Leonidio, Lofoten 21 % Chulilla 20 % San Vito Lo Capo, Mallorca, Black Mountain, 19 % Brione 16 % Rocklands 15 % Cuenca, Albenga 3 % Railay Beach, HP 40 4 % Terradetts, Orpierre, Freyr, Hueco Tanks, Cresciano 5 % Rumney, Chateauvert, Tres Ponts, Peak District, Zillertal, Targassonne

Here are the active 8a top climbers with most recorded ascents that through their star rating of their routes and boulders help the community to find the best crags and climbs. It might not be a coincidence that some of the best also have the widest grade pyramid, also relatively easier climbs are interesting to remember. 2 529 Moritz Perwitzschky 2 268 Jose Agustí 1 964 Adam Ondra 1 854 Christof Rauch 1 837 Rafa Fanega 1 671 James Webb 1 644 Paul Robinson 1 484 Daniel Fuertes 1 452 Mathieu Bouyoud 1 243 Jernej Kruder 1 146 Ramón Julian Puigblanque 1 089 Jan Hojer 935 Alex Honnold

As many of our regular users already know, the 8a.nu platform has been run by Vertical-Life since recently. It is our common aim to improve the service, design and usability of the page. We provide the world’s most extensive database of crags, routes and information on ascents. It is our intention to make sure all this information is easily accessible to climbers around the world. We appreciate the collaboration of a broad network of climbers, who love to use 8a.nu for tracking and sharing their personal achievements and for celebrating those of friends and of the community. Our editorial focus is on news reports and analysis of outdoor climbing and competitions. The thorough redesign of the website will require a few months, because we need to ensure that contents and functionalities are maintained. We hope you are as excited as we are! Stay tuned :-) About Vertical-Life: specializing in software and media for climbing, operating on an international level. With the Vertical-Life app, the Smart Climbing Gym system and the Smart Scorecard for comps we offer digital products for climbers and professionals in the climbing industry.

Christof Rauch, #1 in the 8a boulder ranking game, has tied in and done Bucking Bronco 8c+ and Sid Lives 9a in Arco. "Ohhhh my god! Sooo happy! Checked the moves two times yesterday, one more time today and then did it on my 5 try from the start after an epic fail the try before. Awesome bouldery route with some of the coolest pinches around. Syked! I've not really prepared for routes but I like pretty long boulders and the routes I've climbed are quite short. @2018, I have no special goals at the moment, I just want to climb some cool boulders and maybe some old projects." The last year, Christof has done 125 boulders 8A and harder and he is probably the one having done most hard boulders in the world during the last four years, almost 500. Amazingly, he is working full time as an engine building technician in a water plant and got his first sponsors last year but just products.

Based on almost 3 000 unique votes, here are the result for - Best Climbing Shoes? La Sportiva continues their domination and Scarpa gets an improved result. 44 % La Sportiva 20 % Scarpa 14 % Five Ten 06 % Tenaya 05 % Boreal 04 % Ocun 07 % Other (Most mentioned: Evolve, Wild Climb and Mad Rock)

Studio Bloc Masters is organized for the third time and is open for both amateurs as well as professional athletes. Names such as Alexey Ruptsov, Jongwon Chon, Jan Hojer, Fanny Gibert and Janja Garnbret are among the participants every year. The prize money is € 10,000 where the winners get 3,000. At the same time it is a charity event where the entire profit goes to Meeting Sun children. "During the qualification we count with around 500 competitors from all over the world. YOU can be one of those trying to challenge 80 qualification problems set through all over our 2000m² sized bouldergym. The level of the boulderroutes will be set from easy to hard, so that anyone can score points!"

What does it take to climb the world’s first 9c? How do you train for such achievement? That and much more will be revealed in the 17-minute film directed by Bernardo Giménez which documents Adam Ondra’s journey to the successful climb. It shows what preceded the afternoon of September 3, 2017 when he “sent”, as climbers say, this project in the spectacular Hanshelleren Cave in Norway. "Silence is located in one of the beautiful Norwegian fjords. I really like how the extreme sport achievement goes hand in hand with the peaceful and gorgeous surroundings in the film giving it a very special feel. Bernardo did a great job depicting this contrast,“ says Adam Ondra, the main protagonist, about the movie. The film will premiere in Riva del Garda, Italy, as well as online as the whole event will be live streamed. “We wanted everyone to have a chance to enjoy the evening with us and watch the movie which is why it will be also available on YouTube for free afterwards,” explains Pavel Blažek, Adam Ondra’s manager." (c) Photo credit Pavel Blažek More info and live stream link. We will present the embedded code so the premiere can be seen directly on the 8a website.

Chuck Odette, who did two 8b+' last year, being 61 years old has done Killer Bees 8b in Hurricave. In the Age bonus ranking, the 62 year old is #2 after Adam Ondra. (c) Heidi Baxter "The older I get, the harder they feel…but I’m not giving up yet! It seems like every time I send a route, there’s a small contingent of people who want to downgrade it because I’m so old it must not be that hard. There’s an indisputable, previously downgraded to 14a (8b+) route which suits my strengths that I’ve been saving for an old age ascent, hopefully in 2018. If I can stay healthy, I’ll do it!"

Here is the 8a Top-5 male + female competition climbers in the history. It is based on the number of points achieved, number of WC wins, number of World Championships as well as podiums. The ranking can not be calculated as there has been different of number of World Cups and World Championships. Further more the first Lead World Cup was 1989 and the first Boulder in 1999. The list does also reflect who has been dominating over the years. 1. Jain Kim - Ramon Julian Puigblanque 2. Angela Eiter - Kilian Fischhuber 3. Muriel Sarkany - Jakob Schubert 4. Mina Markovic - Adam Ondra 5. Akiyo Noguchi - Francois Legrand Others that can be mentioned having made a strong mark on the historical competition scene are; Sandrine Levet, Anna Stöhr, Robyn Erbesfield, Liv Sansoz, Maja Vidmar, Dimitri Sharafutdinov, Sean McColl, Jorg Verhoeven, Jerome Meyer, Tomas Mrazek, and Alex Chabot.