Outsideonline has presented an interesting article by Tommy Caldwell, Why Alex Honnold’s Free Solo of El Cap Scared Me". Here is the most interesting quote. "Alex once told me that he had never fallen completely unexpectedly—meaning without at least some prior inclination that it could happen." Although most have saluted Honnold's achievement some have been critical. The 8a policy is that we do not want to report dead dangerous ascents as we do not want to encourage this type of climbing. During the last 15 years we have broken the policy a couple of times when it is anyhow all over the place. The problem with judging Honnold and the media doing it, is that we are all going for the same acceptable risk when we lead and it is part of the climbing history. If you fall on the worst spot on most 6a sport routes, even on Kalymnos, you will injure yourself. Historically, dangerous run-outs have been considered cool and many consider them fun. The E-grading in UK gives the most credit if you can die. Personally, I climb top-rope as much as possible and I have since I first started bolting been criticized for making the routes too safe. My point here is that if you think it is ok with dangerous run-outs on sport routes, we should only salute Honnold. If you on the other hand think that it should not be possible to hurt yourself with good practice on sport routes, you might very well be critical towards Honnold and the media reporting his ascents. I stay in between, I think it is OK with dangerous bolting on hard routes and I am mostly amazed in regards Honnold's free solos.

Christof Rauch, #1 in the 8a boulder ranking game, won the Zlagboard contest during the Austria Climbing Festival in Austria. He hung almost two minutes 1.59.08. Full ranking Later he tied in for the first time for almost a year and did a personal best with Freedom 8c in Zillertal.

BMC reports that Steve McClure has done his long-term project in Malhalm, weighing in at 9b. Here is part of an article from 2015 describing him as a late bloomer, when we made a review of his autobiography - Beyond the Limits. Having trad climbed for 20 years, Steve started sport climbing when he was 24. At 26 he made his first 8a redpoint (in fact it was 8b) and within a year he went from 8a to 8c+. Two years later, in 1998, he made the FA of Mutation as an 9a but as nobody has repeated it yet, the community now considers it as perhaps 9a+. In fact, other than Jordan Buys (who repeated Rainshadow, 9a at Malham) the only person to have repeated any of his 9a's and harder FAs is Adam Ondra who already has said "The upper end of the grade for sure, 3 stars." for Overshadow 9a+. In fact, using the modern variation and link up thinking, Steve has done several more 9a's but just as a personal challenge as he wants all his routes to be of the highest quality.

El Cap Report has presented some mind-blowing pictures of Alex Honnold free soloing Freerider, almost 1 000 meters up to 7c+, in Yosemite.

Please describe Rainman 9b FA and when you started working on it? It's a real power endurance route. Basically it's 8c+ into 8c+ I think, split by a rubbish rest. Individually the sections are only 8c+ (only). But together they seem so much harder. I started working it a little in 2010, then more days each season, maybe 10-15 a year by 2013, lately more like 20 a year. Some years I was just playing, I knew it was not happening. This year and last I was putting in the effort and it was coming together. How do you think it is possible that in climbing you can keep progressing 45+? Progression is relative. As we age things will decline, its inevitable. Recovery is slower, and there are injuries. But with effort we can maintain power and strength that is already there. But its well known that endurance gains can be made later into life. However, I think the key is to look to where the weak links are. Often the 'older' climber may not have trained, or stuck with one style, leaving a huge gap in potential physical gains. We have to identify these and work on these. With fingerboarding, a one arm first joint edge, I managed to go from 0kg weight to 8kg weight in a few months. Its also likely that the older climber will end up with more structure and more focus due to time pressures; those endless trips away are gone with 2 kids and a job and mortgage. This leads to gains simply because of the structure. But still, as we know, climbing is more than just how hard you can pull. I had a great talk with Dave Graham, and we both agreed we were getting better, but mainly because we were getting cleverer. It's down to the 'micro beta'! The finding of those tiny efficiencies, and how long it takes to find them. the more climbing we do the more moves we cover; it's all logged, we just move better. With this route I wonder about my 100 days on it, and if I'd been presented on day 1 with the sequence I have right now just how long would it have taken? This year I spotted 3 or 4 really crucial beta changes, crucial in that they maybe only made 5% difference to that move, maybe only 1/2% overall, but it all adds up. I was left wondering how the hell I didn't spot them. 100 days of not seeing what seemed obvious now. Would another person see them? Or does it take that long to find them? Many were found out from necessity, a sequence that was OK on link just somehow didn't work on RP, but it took 50 days to get there on RP to find that out! Photo - Ian Burton

National Geographic reports that Alex Honnold has free soloed the almost 1,000 meter El Cap via the 30-pitch Freerider 7c+. Alex did not use or bring any safety equipment, and it took him approximately four hours. The historic event, that set a new standard in big wall climbing, was documented for an upcoming film by NatGeo. Last November, Alex attempted the route, but backed out after one hour due to poor conditions. "With free-soloing, obviously I know that I’m in danger, but feeling fearful while I’m up there is not helping me in any way."

Nathan Phillips, #14 in the Boulder WC in Nanjing this year, has done his first 8B flash, Ropes of Maui in Llanberis Pass/North Wales. Here is the uncut video. "I had planned to give this boulder a good flash attempt. We got up at 5am to drive to North Wales and I watched a few videos of the climb when I woke up. I tried to focus on all the foot placements as much as I could. When I got there I could remember most of it, but as it's quite a long boulder I had to improvise on some of the foot placements. When I climbed it I did everything exactly how I had planned and it worked out somehow! I don't normally focus too much on flashing stuff but occasionally I like to put the pressure on. My previous hardest flash was Jacks Broken Heart 8A+ in Magic Wood." (c) Eddie Fowke

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has done The Pursuit Of Happiness 8B (A+) in Redhill outside Cape Town. (c) Jimmy Webb " I had two sessions in 2014 and then three more sessions this year, it was really satisfying to come back stronger (I did a lot of strength training over the winter). The next plan is to head to Rocklands for June, hopefully try some more hard boulders!" So what kind of strength training have you done? Lots of things but a big focus on max strength fingerboarding. Up to three times a week fingerboarding, lots of board climbing, also weighted pull ups and other conditioning exercises too. I did some anaerobic capacity work too but mainly relied on my fitness from route climbing and previous training. I had training plans from David Mason and Alex Barrows (they worked together with David mainly doing to strength/power stuff and Alex doing the fitness stuff).

Alex Puccio, the vice World Champion from 2014, has done Dead Meadow 8B in Wild Basin. In total she has done 20 boulders 8B and harder which makes her the #1 female boulderer sending most hard core outdoors. "Was suppose to be a rest day and went out to spot Joel. He got me all psyched to try it and surprised myself with a send. First day on it as well. Psyched! :) Now time for Vail WC!!! The season is just starting up now and since it's been snowing in the alpine and too hot at the lower elevation stuff we have been climbing mostly inside. But after Vail we plan to mostly climb outside! People have started going to RMNP and digging things out so let's see how fast stuff melts out." (c) Joel Zerr