Here are a list of old-school guys that are still world class. Fred Nicole is of course number #1 and has been on the cutting edge for more than 30 years. Does it exist any other physical sport where an athlete has been world class for over 30 years? What is unique with runner-up Yuji Hirayama is that he has been world class in so many disciplines from winning six World Cups to having set the Speed Record on El Capitan. 1. Fred Nicole -70: 8b+ in 1987 2. Yuji Hirayama -69: #4 in a WC 1991 3. Dani Andrada -75: 8c in 1993 4. Muriel Sarkany -74: #5 in a WC 1993 5. Dani Andrada -75: #1 Speed WCH in 1997 5. Dai Koyamada -76: #4 in a WC in 1998 Other climbers with a long successful career who are still going strong are Ben Moon, Martina Cufar, Beat Kammerlander, Alexander Huber and Maurizio Zanollo. Is there somebody that we have missed?

It is nice to see how well the grading system works around the globe and that we have a slow but steady grade inflation is just natural. One of the reason for this is the calculation grading that some topo authors as well as websites use. Let us say twelve guys do and report a 9a and then three guys come along suggest 8c+. The calculated grade would still be 9a although it just might be that most of the first repeaters did actually not suggest 9a. Instead they just used the topo grade, as they do not care, or possibly wanted to make the first ascentionists and the sponsors pleased. Other possible reasons for the 8c+ suggestions, might be that a new sequence was found or a hold broke making it easier. In practice, trying to calculate grade, a higher weight should be given to the last suggestions otherwise the multiplication sum just might continue the grade inflation.

Michael Gunsilius, who previously has done one 9a, has done his first hard trad route, Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ in Bürs which Beat Kammerlander put up in 2009. Two of five tries Michael worked until the afternoon, sat into car drove 250km and did one try before the condition were to bad to do another try in the evening. "It's 40m long with round 20 placements and it's a specific kind of limestone therefore it's difficult to protect, you need special offset gear because most of the placements are not parallel like in granit. Additional you have to belay super soft because a few of the nuts are only made for technical climbing and not for protecting regular fall." Next up is to do an 8b+ MP this summer to push his limits in yet another disciplines. If Michael reaches his next goal, and including a previous 8B boulder, he should be considered one of the best multi-discipline climbers working full time.

James Webb reports on his Instagram that he had to leave Fontainbleau due to rain and instead went to Cresciano where he did Dreamtime 8C on his first day. (c) Kevin Takashi Smith "4 years ago I spent countless days trying this thing and was never able to put it to rest. It was a massive mental and physical battle for me and it killed me to not be able to complete it." Dreamtime was put up by Fred Nicole in 2001 as an 8C but was considered 8B+ for many years until it broke. In total James has previously done 14 boulder 8C and one 8C+ and he is #2 in the 8a ranking game. Counting only flashes, he has been #1 for several years including having flashed 14 boulders 8B.

Yuji Hirayama reports on Facebook that he is leaving for a three weeks trip to Spain where he wants to finish something he worked hard on 2005. " I do not know if the timing of life is limited and I can fill in the past time, but now I want to clip the anchor!!!" What he must be talking about is La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. What an extreme feat it would be if he could take it down being 48 years old. During the last years he has done both 8c+ and 8B+. Yuji should be considered the most accomplished multi discipline climber in the world the last 25 years:

Kairn.com, the biggest french climbing website the last 14 years, will stop publishing news. They hope that somebody is interested to continue and otherwise, they will just shut down.

Hayato Naka-Bayashi has done his first 8B+, Chilled out Midnight in Mukogawa. What makes it a unique and a nice story is that Hayato started climbing when he was 30 years old and now he is 38 years old. Does it exist any other physical sport where you can start being 30 and anyhow almost reach world class level.

Eveningsends presents Paige Claassen's one hour a day training recipe to prepare her to do Necessary Evil 8c+: Moonboard, Rings, Beastmaker Hangboard, Dumbbells, TRX and Therabands. Other than that, she actually worked 14 hours a day six days a week during two months before she started working of the route again. "Fortunately, with a decent base, I think that endurance is relatively easy to build in just two weeks."

Fanatic Climbing reports that Adam Ondra has flashed Alex Megos Supercrackinette 9a+ in St Léger and Ondra confirms the grade on his Instagram. This means that Ondra has once again raised the standard in climbing. In 2012, Adam flashed Southern Smoke direct 9a+ in Red River Gorge, giving it a personal 9a grade. "According to witnesses, the Czech phenom was very easy on this route of resistance, guided by the bolter of the route himself, Quentin Chastagnier. Ondra has given him a belay and checking the moves while Quentin was putting the draws." (c) Bernardo Giminez

99boulders.com has presented a comprehensive list: 8C 123, 8C/+ 6, 8C+ 10 and Burden of Dreams 9A. Also all ascents have been added so Alex Beale have been working hard. The most repeated 8C and 8C+' are: 16 Practice of the Wild - FA Chris Sharma 15 The Big Island - FA Vincent Ponchon 13 Monkey Wedding - FA Fred Nicole 13 The Story of Two Worlds - FA Dave Graham 11 From Dirt Grows the Flowers - Dave Graham 11 The Wheel of Life - Dai Koyamada 08 Catalán Witness the Fitness - Chris Sharma (Most probably not 8C any longer but as the diagram include these ascents, we have not taken it out from the list) 04 Creature of the Black Lagoon 8C+ FA Daniel Woods The picture shows the extreme development the last years with over 100 ascents the last two years. In total, 116 climbers have done at least one 8C including the only female, Ashima Shiraishi. Charles Albert have done six, all of them barefoot. It should be mentioned that grades are subjective and Alex says, "I’ve tried my best to be as comprehensive as possible with this list. However, I’m still human. If I’ve made any mistakes or left off any problems or people you think should be added, let me know in the comments. I get most of the info from 8a.nu and HardClimbs.info."