Rafa Fanega, who started climbing at 16 and did his first 8c+ being 39 years old, has done another two 8c+' the last week, El engaño and the FA of Maldita Envidia both in Villanueva del Rosario. The 163 cm tall and 42 years old has now done nine 8c+'. In total, Rafa has recorded 1 679 routes, out of which one third are FA's. Most of his FA's are from Fin del Mundo outside Madrid, which has been one of the most popular crags in Spain recently, although it is closed between January 15th to June 15th. The picture by Raul Santano is from Fin del Mundo. Interview by our spanish editor Talo Martin. Do you think this could be the season to climb your first 9a? To be honest I don't know. My life is bolt routes somewhere here and somewhere there. I climb as much as I bolt new routes, and in this way it is hard to be focus in something hard. The days I climb something hard is always without any expectations. I work 121 days a year and that gives me loads of free time, and with so much rock I don't rest too much. Have you any idea of how many routes do you bolted? I think that more than 1.000, but I guess I should count them. Since the day I live in Andalusia I don't know.. It's true that I could have bought a pretty nice camper van with the money I spent in the last decade. Always there are friends who help you with some bolts and hangers and I appreciate that. For me bolting is important as climbing.

Christof Rauch has done his third 8C FA in just eleven days, Carinthian Dreams in Kärnten. Prior to these amazing sending days that have made him #1 in the 8a ranking game, he had done 450 boulders 8A to 8B+/C basically in just four years. The picture shows his wide pyramid. Interview with the full time technician who got his first sponsor just some months ago. "Oh my god! Seems like I'm in the best shape ever! This is the hardest and one of the best problems I've ever done. It links the crackline (~8A+) into "Punching in a Dream" (~8B+). I've never put so much effort in a boulder problem, all in all it took me about 17 sessions. Got really lucky with today's windy and pretty cold conditions. Compared to all the other hard boulders I've done/tried I would say it sits probably on the upper range of the grade. Just happy now!" (c) Simon Brunner

Öreg-lyuk egyike a jelenlegi legnépszerűbb hazai boulder helyeknek. Ez tény, bár azt is kijelenthetjük csak egy nagyon kis maroknyi csapata a hazai mászóknak képes itt élvezni a mászást. Öreg-lyuk ugyanis egy barlangrendszer, melynek a legtöbb útja és vonalvezetése a plafonban található lyukakon, peremeken és (amiért Serényi Repedés Balázs is felfigyelt rá) plafonrepedéseken megyen. A fokozatok zöme a 7A-7B skálától felfelé helyezkedik el, jelenlegi legnehezebbje a Patkány által nyitott 8A+/B, egy direkt beszállóboulder az Importáruba. Ősz óta rendszeresen mennek ide verdák, ha a hely éppen nem vizes. Számos projekt máig megnyitásra vár. A projekteléseknek meg is lett az eredménye, Ipach Marci az utóbbi évek egyik legprogresszívebben fejlődő sportmászója befejezte hosszú jegyességét az Importáruval, bezsebelve így az első plafon 8A-ját. Kucsera Bálintnak sem kellett sok, valahogy kifújta őt is a gerecsei szellő és egy nap alatt ismételte az Importáru-t, a Csé bétával - véleménye szerint karcosan de így is érheti még a 8A-t. A bleaui 7C+ nál keményebb azért fater!! -így a román borostás buldózer. Nándi hazalátogatásainál már megszokhattuk, hogy leaprítódik pár megaprojekt vagy nyílik pár újdonság. Nndes most az Import áru retur variánsát nyitotta meg, Exportáru néven 7C+ -ért, ami jó lehetőség lehet a különböző Öreg-körök megnyitására. Azért Bajusz Balázs is itt hagyta a névjegyét ha már erre járt, szintén az Importáru-t ejtette el, de mászott 8A-t nemrég Fontainebleauból - de termelékenységéről a "héta mutató" is tanúskodhat: 46db bouldert mászott meg 7A-8A fokozat között...

"You climb at your own risk" is a mantra that is used in climbing but clearly that does not include broken anchors or anything like that in an indoor gym. In Sweden, the Consumer Government Agency has said that if a club points out some specific routes that are good for beginners to start leading, this can only be done on well protected safe routes. If it turns out that the novice falls to the ground although the belayer did nothing wrong, the club can be held responsible. With the big increase of gym climbers who want to go out and try leading for the first time, it is important that the local clubs and communities can recommend some safe routes, especially for teenagers. It might have been that previously all outdoor beginners knew that, "You climb at your own risk" but in 2017, there are probably thousands of gym climbers who just assume that the beginner routes are safely protected like in the gym. Here are the 8a bolting recommendations for easier routes: #1 at 3 meters #2 at 4 meters #3 at 5.5 meters #4 at 7.5 meters #5 at 10 meters If we are talking about very hard routes with a relatively much easier start, it is normally OK with longer distance in between the bolts. When it comes to clipping positions and grades, on a 6a route the clipping positions should be adjusted to 160 cm climbers meanwhile on an 8a route, 170 cm could be applicable.

Basically, I find often climbing videos pretty boring as you have no insight of how the route is like and how it felt for the climber. One example of this is the 30 min documentary of Ethan Pringle doing Jumbo Love but if you get Ethan's comment as he climbs it, it became one of the most interesting climbing videos I have ever seen. Commentating videos like this should be made standard but possibly it is just Ethan and a few others that can pull it together. Video on demand for USD 3. The video producer is Spenser Tang-Smith and he says that, "Ethan was really happy to do it too, it helped him bring the whole experience to a conclusion." Interestingly, Ethan says that Jumbo Love did not take his full 100 % mental and physical capacity and he shares some insights about that most of the time we only use 80 % of our total capacity.

Rvproj presents the full story including an uncut video form Ethan Pringle's send of Jumbo Love 9b. Ethan had been projecting it for eight years when he did Sharma's 80 meter test piece in 2015. Here is part of what Ethan wrote on Facebook after his send, "WOW!!! Yesterday I climbed my ultimate lifetime dream route, the most bad-ass sport climb I've ever laid eyes on, Chris Sharma's ‪#‎JumboLove‬! WOW. I can't believe it's over. I say that half in a literal sense because when I sent it, it was almost like an out of body experience that I can barely remember happening. My story on Jumbo Love spanned over eight years and involved every emotion I can think of: awe, excitement, love, admiration, longing, apathy, fear, frustration, anger, resignation, acceptance, and eventually, MOTHERFUCKEN GLORY!!!" In 2000, Ethan took the silver in the Youth World Championship and his best result out of seven Lead and Boulder WC's is #16. On rock he has done a handful of 9a's and Biographie 9a+ in 2007, when he was the #1 in the 8a Combined ranking game thanks to three 8B+ boulders he also climbed that year.

Daniel Fuertes has done two 8c+' which share the same start in Rodellar. One is CHC which was put up by Dani Andrada with finishes with a 7b+ after a good rest. The other is Los Cucos which is a FA of Fuertes where the exit is 8b+. "It can be 9a, but this route has a good rest between the two hardest sections and I think that it's 8c+/9a. This fantastic route is 25 meters of super overhanging where you climb down!! Wow!! It's crazy!!! I want to say thank you to Alejandro Bada and Kymy de la Peña, because they climbed with me these days there, and the area was so wet!! I feel lucky, with friends like this, impossible to fail!!" On the picture by David Lopez Campe, Daniel is working on the 15 year project, No Pain no Gain, which is thought to be 9a+. It is 40 meters long out of which 30 meters goes in a roof.