Alex Megos comes with great news on Facebook with a great picture by Ken Etzel. "What a battle! Sometimes things just take a while but when they happen it's even more rewarding! After 5 us of worked it I did the first repeat of "The Finnish Line" put up by @nalle_hukkataival a few weeks ago! Maybe the best line of all time?!" In regards the grade, Hukkataival said it was a contender to be the hardest in Rocklands which has four 8C's.

With the epicenter some 60 km east of Kalymnos, a 6.7 magnitude quack stroke 00:30 friday night and from Kos reports two dead and hundreds injured. Many buildings on Kos, which was closer to the epicenter, were destroyed and also a tsunami hit the sourranding islands. Aris T, the topo producer, reports that they woke up during the night and the ground was shaking for about 30 seconds. He has not heard about any problems on the island and he is going out climbing on Secret Garden and will give us further updates. It might be wise to pay attention for loose rock.

Cameron Hörst (16) has climbed two 8b+ routes in a day at Wild Iris, Wyoming, including a rare ascent of Todd Skinner’s legendary “Throwin’ the Houlihan” (historically graded 8b+, but now considered 8c by local consensus). The younger Hörst brother, Jonathan (14), has climbed multiple 8b routes in Wyoming, most prominent being his first ascent of “Threat Level Midnight” at Ten Sleep Canyon. It’s worthy to note that the Hörst brothers only climb 7 months of the year, thus taking a break to play other sports. Their father, renowned coach and author Eric Hörst, endorses a diverse approach to youth sports and training…for optimal physical and mental development, and to reduce risk of overuse injury among adolescent climbers. Read his article, Youth training and growth plate injuries. Four years ago Jonathan did his first 8b+ at 10 years old and he has now done 24 routes 8b and 8b+. Cameron did his first 8b+ at 11 years old and he has now done 17 routes 8b+ and 8c.

Sorry for the downtime but now we have upgraded to a modern server with much higher capacity which means faster access to 8a. It might be that some things need to be optimized but as it stands now the response time is more than double as fast :)

It's now possible to add new ascents using the beta site! We've added a quick-add option so it's easy to add new ascents when you're at the crag. Previously you could get all news, data base access and also driving directions to several thousand crags in the world. The bugs have also been fixed. Read the full newsletter here Check out the beta site

Frankenjura, Arco and Finale are three crags where sport climbing was born and they are all Top-20 in the crag data base. Based on the trend rating, we can see that 11-12 % of the added ascents are from the last 12 months meaning that they have all increased in popularity in the last year. The crags that have lost in popularity are in general crags from France, Kalymnos and Railay Beach.

98: Yannick Flohe GER - Johanna Holfeld GER 00: Nathan Martin FRA - Urska Repusic SLO 02: Alberto Gines ESP - Luce Douady FRA Complete result Interesting that Germany, who has struggled with poor junior results for several years, got two golds and some more good results. Laura Rogara, who was in the Lead WC final, was just fourth among the 16 year old's. Nikita Potopova, who has been totally superior in Lead this year, was just seventh.

Based on the route setting fiasco in Chamonix, clearly the route setters need some guidelines for how hard the routes should be. Obviously, everyone knows that one top in the final creates the ultimate show but on the other hand such a goal can easily ruin the show making the route too easy with multiple tops. Here are example of guidelines that IFSC could give to their route setters. Any further suggestions? Quarterfinal male grades (female -2) (and #of climbers reached) Third clip = 8a, Midways = 8b+ (26), Penultimate hold = 8c+ (3), Top = 8c+/9a (1) For the semifinal and final, the grades could be the same as it is onsight instead of flash as in the quarterfinal. Further more, the route setters should opt for one third to be eliminated around midway and just one climber reaching the penultimate hold. If there were more than one double top in the quarter final, the route setters should increase the difficulty with half a grade. If there are ties among the Top-5 before the final, the route setters should increase the estimated difficulty by one grade. The above suggested grades will also help the inexperienced climber to understand if there is any idea to participate. Often it seems that the routes are too easy in the beginning, sometimes, also based on the new 6 min rule, turning Lead into a boulder battle instead of measuring who has the best endurance.

The Momentum from Black Diamond has become my wife's favorite climbing shoe. She like that the discrete "Yoga look" instead of climbing in pink, orange or other bright colors. It is very easy to put on and off as well as it is not so sweaty due to its great breathability. The last is flat and the midsole is very soft making it a very comfortable shoe. What amazes me is how sticky and durable the 4.3mm NeoFriction rubber is. In other words, it performs really well for both beginners, standing on big holds or doing shorter routes, as well as for experts who do not want the down turned shoe. Black Diamond will launch several different shoes in 2018 which are produced in Korea. Video presentation

Alex Puccio has done her 21th 8B, The Shining in RMNP and she got it in just two hours in bad conditions. (c) Joel Zerr "Wow, psyched! First day ever at this boulder!!! 90% of the holds were VERY damp and some were actually fully wet! Took about 2 hours of work. Would be a lot nicer to climb without a lake under the start. 2 really cool boulders!!!"" The runner up on the 8B and harder list is Ashima Shiraishi with 15, Isabelle Faus with 12 and Anna Stöhr with 8. Including two 8B+'s, Puccio has done 23. In total there are some 20-25 female who have done an 8B boulder depending on which grades you use.