NEWS

First 9a by Nico Ferlitsch (16)
Nico Ferlitsch has done his first 9a, Martin Krpan in Misja Pec and it included some 50 day trips driving almost 500 km. "At the age of 12 I did my first 8b route Hyperlink, Kanzianiberg, Austria and with 14 years my first 8c Intermono, Sella Nevea, Italy. Last autumn I first saw my 9a route called Martin Krpan in Slovenia. I had to try it and from this moment it was my project. It is an extremely long overhanging traverse in a cave. I tried a whole winter-season to send it and as the spring came closer, I got something like stress. It got warmer and warmer and I knew that it will be too hot to try it again. Hard routes like this one, canโ€™t be climbed when it is warm and humid. So I had to wait for the next autumn. In summer I really trained hard on my beastmaker and campusboard to get more strength in my fingers. I just wanted to be prepard for the 9a. I dreamed of it every single day.

Full house in Leonidio and Megos flashes 8c+
The Climbing Festival in Leonidio did start today and in comparison to last year it seems to be twice as many climbers. In some of the popular crags, there are climbers on most of the routes. Luckily there are plenty of crags to be spread out on and Aris T and many others are bolting new lines. Alex Megos has done two 8C FA as well as flashed Capricorn 8c+ which actually was put up as an 9a. (c) Micha Schreiber - Megos on the FA of Pantysgawn.

Said Belhaj does Kryptonite 9a almost by himself
Said Belhaj is back in Sweden after a two months road trip. One of the high lights was Kryptonite and amazingly he worked it for a week without a belayer. (c) Matt Pincus/Training Beta - Quicktick 8a in Rifle "After I had spent some time in the US not feeling in tip top shape, climbing all over the place I finally decided to get to work on Kryptonite. As my friend who I was going up with had a change of plan I set out there alone with a long clipstick, Mini and Micro Traxion and worked it alone for about 1 week in total. Its pretty steep so some sections are a bit tricky to climb in this way but at the same time I like working routes alone as you can really take your time and not feel bad for your belayer! Then I took a break and climbed in the desert and did some "touristing" in the Navajo Nation. When I came back to Kryptonite the conditions were cool and perfect and it was once again amazing to be up there. Fortunately I was also feeling in pretty good shape after having my usual unstable autumn form. I needed 2 more days with a "real" belayer to finish it. I hope more development and attention will be happening at this futuristic crag in the near future."

Our sever provider has told us that they will do the server migration this afternoon. The whole website might be down for 10-15 minutes and then everything should be running much more quickly again. We have updated to much more capacity based on the latest technology. It might be that the very last ascents being added just before they migrate will not be copied to the new one so it might be wise to wait uploading new ascents until everything is ready. The last info is that on Wednesday, they will run a test to see that nothing have been broken and then the old server will be placed in a museum :)

Shauna Coxsey, the best female boulderer the last years, will make her first Lead World Cup appearance in Kranj 11/11. In the Euro Youth Cup she only participated in lead and normally she was Top-5. Also Stasa Gejo, who won Bouldering in World Games, will do her first Lead WC in Kranj. Further good news is that also Alex Megos, who won the semifinal in Arco, will participate. The German was #7 in the Munich Bouldering WC so let us hope for some more good results for him and he might also go for the Olympics. Japan will send eight males almost all of them their bouldering specialists guys. Further more, Jongwon Chon who won the Boulder WC will try Lead again. Hopefully most of the athletes will have good results so they will continue to go for Tokyo 2020.

9a in Arco by Kronberger and Scarperi
Jakob Kronberger and Stefan Scarperi, in the picture, have done Sid Lives 9a in Arco which Gabri Moroni put up. "I think it's a hard 8B boulder into another 7b/b+ boulder. All in 10meters of climbing. 9a? Let's see what other people think!" For Jakob it was his fifth 9a although just 16 years old. For ten years older Scarperi it was his second and amazingly he did it on his first session. Two weeks ago he did 8c and 8c+ so he seems to be in the best shape ever.

30 October 2017

Rubtsov's 8C in Russia

9a in Cรฉรผse by Loic Zehani (15)
Loic Zehani has done Le Cadre Nouvelle version in Cรฉรผse which means he avoided the chipped hold which makes the grade jump from 8c to 9a. This was the seventh 9a, out of which three FAs, by the 15 year old who did his first when he was just 13. (c) Chris Frick and here a video. "MAGNIFICENT line that have obsessed me for a few months. Fell 25 times at the end of the middle block section ... luckily the other hard section (on the pockets) and the end suited me really well. A major path in an exceptional site."