Evgeny Krivosheytsev, four times Ice World Champion and also Speed World Champion as well as twice #2 in a Lead World Cup, won the Vertical-Life climbing marathon in Leonidio. During three days he climbed 2 714 m, divided on almost 80 different routes up to 8a+. Complete results The Ukrainian did drive down 2 000 km from Odessa to enjoy Leonidio during two weeks. The day before the marathon, the 48 year old onsighted two 8a's and overall he did not fall once. Today he had a well deserved rest day and tomorrow he might try some harder routes. - Climbing, rocks and atmosphere where much better then I expected! For sure I will come back again for climbing and festival. Organization was good, very friendly and nice people. After 10 days in Leonidio it feel like home. I hope the festival next year will be even better. It was big pleasure to use the Vertical-life app. Very easy to find the routes and mark them, plus a lot of interesting information.

Christof Rauch has done three 8B+'; Dark Matter in Magic Wood, Alpha Boulder in Val Calenca in just one session and Entlinge in Murgtal went down also very fast. Christof, who is working full time, is #2 in the ranking game but when it comes to having done the most 8A and harder the last years, he is #1. Just the last 12 months he has done 115, out of which 12 boulder 8B+ and 8C. (c) Thomas Lindinger/Dark Matters

Having climbed in Nafpoli, Kyparissi, and Leonidio for a week with my family, we are very impressed. These places are probably the best winter destinations in Europe. At the same time, we have never seen so much grade inconsistency. We have climbed some 6b+ routes that are harder than the 7a at the same sector. We have both climbed some of the hardest and easiest 6a we have ever tried. If you would like to warm up on a 6a or a 6b+, only to find that they are in practice three grades harder, you can get super pumped which may ruin your day. It is not easy for the topo authors to check all the grades that are given and often holds break, but thankfully there are digital topos like the Vertical-Life (VL) one that can correct them. Giving grade comments on databases like 8a or VL etc could help your friends have a better climbing experience.

One week ago, Adam Ondra published on his Instagram that he had problems doing Maurizio Zanolla, aka Manolo's Eternit 9a and said it is possibly 9a+. "one of the hardest vertical face climbs in the world for sure." In the aftermath of this we have received many comments explaining that actually most of Manolo's hard core routes have been altered since the FAs was done. Jolly Lamberti published the picture on his Instagram, showing the status of Eternit.

Andre Neres has done his second 9a, Peixe Porco in Sagres, which is the only 9a in Portugal.

Peixe Porco 9a by André Neres from Hands Up Creations on Vimeo.

luis rodriguez martin has done Chilam-malenum 9a in Villanueva del Rosario which is a 70 meter link up. He says he practically run of of friends belaying him as every try did take like one hour. His legs were just destroyed by all the tufas. (c) M. Kwiatkowski

Anna Stöhr, the best female boulder competitor in the history, reports on her Instagram that she has done Penrose Step 8B+ in Leavenworth. This was Anna's second 8B+ after New base line in Magic Wood. (c) Kilian Fischhuber

Tomás Ravanel has done Estato Critico in Siurana which makes him the first Chilean to do 9a. He started climbing 12 years ago when he was 21. After the last attempt the last year, falling in very last movement, Tomás injured his right big toe, which prevented him from finishing the process. "I am very happy to have done this route, because for me this means finishing a process and being able to release the energy that led me to injure my toe in that way, i hope end this process would led me to heal once for all". Interesting is that after just 18 months of climbing he did his first 8a+ and his first 8c, he did after three years of climbing. The Chilean is based in Spain, living in a van where he intends to travel in Europe, traversing the best climbing sectors and training for his next projects.

In the aftermath of Mina Leslie-Wujastyk's accident we have tested several harnesses and last week we said that Hirundos and Sitta from Petzl have a very safe construction. However, and this is the case for all harnesses with flexible leg-loops we have tested, they stretch too much. Personally I just barely fit small for the two Petzl harnesses at the same time I also just barely fit Large. It says in the description that Small has 48-53 cm width and Large has 55 - 60 cm. It should be mentioned that I could stretch the Small at least one cm to get the maximum at the same time the Large does not stretch at all, but stays in place anyhow. It should be mentioned that in comparison to other harnesses on the market, Petzl stretches more or less the same as all other on the market. Lesson learn for the industry, on order to do safer harnesses, would be to let them stretch less and force me to use Medium as I should.