Jon Glassberg has a personal best of 8B but he is aiming for The Big Island 8C in Fontainebleau. Read his blog on La Sportiva describing his process and plan where he also says that, "Any climber with an athletic disposition, dedication, time, appropriate training and proper diet can climb V10(7C+).

Ten years ago, Albi Schneider presented his CU belay glasses on the market and 8a immediately gave it a thumbs up. Many were skeptical but it was such a great success that it was copied but after a trial, the guys selling it in Europe have to pay a licence. All in all, it has been estimated that at least some 50 000 pairs of glasses have been produced and sold around the world. In Kalymnos, where you can buy the CU's at just 79 Euros at Wild Sport often half of the belayers actually use belay glasses on the sectors with 25+ meter walls. 8a is currently testing another innovation by Albi that probably also will become popular in the future. On the picture, World Champion Angy Eiter is uses her CU's while route reading.

Christof Rauch, famous for having done more than 350 boulders 8A and harder the last 3.5 years, has done his second 8C FA, Iron Knuckles in Kärnten. "Perfect moment! Surely one of the biggest fights I've ever had, and definitely the hardest problem I have ever climbed. I feel in really good shape at the moment and I've never put so much effort into a single boulder problem. I just really wanted to climb this thing and it was always fun to try those moves. All together I worked on this beast about 14 sessions. Two hours after my ascent it started to rain really heavily, so I got soaked on the 50 minute walk back to the car. The problem links a perfect shaped crack with a little feet first section, about 8A+ at itself, into "Hard Knock Life" 8B, all in all about 20 hard moves and there is still an harder exit..." Directly after the send Christof, who is working full time as an electrician and engine building technician, started to work linking the 8A+ traverse with an 8B+ finish. Another fun fact is that it is a 50 min hike to the boulder and as many times before, he did it by himself, in order to get a full day experience challenging some rocks out in the nature.

Tips and tricks for beginners and up Maximizing your grade The 8abc of climbing Shortcuts to 8a Recruitment finger training

Adam Ondra shares some great tips on his Instagram including also a indoor replica of his 9c project in Flatanger, where he is going next.

Klättercentret in Stockholm created The Project and invited several top climbers to go for the challenge topping out the "world's hardest route" getting Euro 5 000 or having the yearly record getting Euro 1 000. It was a great media success and Adam Ondra has the high point but in reality the route has already been abandoned. "As the route is permanent it will now for the first time in climbing history be possible to have a World record which everyone can try to beat. It will of course be possible to have all sorts of records based on countries, regions, cities, gender, age and so on." It just might be that Alex Megos, who often spends time in Stockholm, will project it a bit in order to get the Euro 1 000 but other than that the upper 3/4' will just collect dust. The idea was to start with 6A boulder moves and continue with a "mighty 8C at the top". Anybody can understand that doing an 8C boulder after having climbed a 30 meter progressively harder route for about 30 meters is impossible for human mankind, i.e the Euro 5 000 was well looked in the bank valve. Further more, it seems to be a route setting mistake as it did turn out to be too hard too early. Ondra's highpoint, which we must assume should be at least 9a involving at least an 8A+ boulder sequence, is about ten meters and 20 moves from the top! Very few gym climbers can actually do more than 15 moves. The best solution now should be to give Ondra his Euro 1 000 and either add many holds or to make a new, more progressive Project route that is at most 8a half way up. A female variation should also be created by adding holds, because as it stands now, the Project also discriminates female climbers.

Alexey Rubtsov started climbing at 17 years old and three years later he was the 2009 Boulder World Champion. This is the first year the Russian has been a full time climber due to more support from his federation, prize money and better sponsor deals with Mad Rock, Nihil and Russia Climbing. He started the season by doing his first 8C and he is #2 in the Boulder World Cup after he won the last event in Tokyo. He has no coach and most of the time he trains by himself. "I climb mostly my boulders. I train 4-5 times in gym in week, 3 hours a day. More than last year. Sometimes I do body power training after climbing but mostly just bouldering, I like it. Yoga can kill you, running did not work. This is my opinion." Talking about advantage of any starting positions and the new trend with slabs in the World Cup, he is equally outspoken. "Starting 1st in final and in semi are best. No pressure and better friction. So many slabs this year. It seems like best climber is the one who can walk better along the wall. Slab and jump and jump on slab that is so far from rocks. I don't like it. I like more power boulders. Slopers and crimps on steep walls :) I hope we will see it this year! This is the first year when I am a professional climber. I almost did not work, just trained. I spent more time thinking about the training process, I found several interesting techniques. Last year there was a new strongest team in bouldering (the Japanese), and I took it into account. I am very pleased with the strong rivals, they do not allow me to relax but to push for progress. I'm training alone and making programs, but it's even more interesting, no one tells me what to do and I decide what's good for me. Honestly, going out for the season I did not know what to expect from myself this year I was more aiming for the whole season, and not for the first positions, as in the past. As a result, now I feel better than a year ago in the middle of the season." (c) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing

Everything ready for today in Melloblocco celebrating also the Italian Bouldering Cup.(C)Talo Martín/Muérdago Films More than 2.000 pre-registered climbers and more tomorrow will take part in one of the biggest bouldering events in the world. The forecast will be rainy but just in the evenings during 4 days of competition, party and live music. The organization also has covered with big canvass a bunch of boulders to avoid the rain. Vertical-Life have been invited and like last year they will run a Zlagboard and a scorecard contest, through their App. If you break the 2.44 world record by Ramonet you get 1 500 Euro.