Five Ten has published Boulder World Cup Mid-Season Update including many nice pictures and videos linked. As a matter of a fact, Five Ten is the leading shoe manufacturer in the overall rankings. (Coxsey #1, Garnbret #2, Narasaki #3 and Fujii #5: La Sportiva is second with Watabe #1, Noguchi #4, Chon #4, Klingler #5) "Janja Garnbert whose main focus is actually lead climbing is just 8 points behind Shauna Coxsey in the overall rankings. In the men, Keita Watabe sits in first overall with Aleksei Rubtsov and Tomoa Narasaki in second and third respectively. With just three rounds to go in Vail (USA), Navi Mumbai (India) and Munich (Germany) it would appear to be all to play for in both the men’s and women’s."

www.8a.nu was started as my personal blog where I wanted to spread news of the new routes I put up and also where I shared the training tips I gave as the coach for the Swedish Youth team including Said Belhaj. In 2000, the scorecard was developed by my webmaster Leif Jägerbrand and within some few months, 8a became a very popular global website. Most of the current scorecard pages are actually looking the same as they did in 2000. In 2002, Jonas Emanuelsson joined as the new webmaster and the current website including Ticklists etc are his work. During several years, we have tried to find new web designers that could help us redesign 8a to state of the art look community interaction and user friendliness. Tieme van Veen has helped us with the beta.8a.nu available for mobile phones and within a week or so, you will be able to add routes here much quicker. During this spring, I have lived with my family in Bressanone, Italy, where Vertical-Life is located. It was started by Matthias Polig and friends in 2012, with the aim of creating a worldwide premium topo platform. Vertical Life offers a system to combine printed guidebooks with all the advantages an app can offer. In fact all their partner's guidebooks offer a code to unlock their digital version for free. Until now Vertical Life offers approved content for 50 destinations including Kalymnos, Frankenjura, Yosemite, Magic Woods to name a few. Right now they are working on the Céüse guidebook in collaboration with Arnaut Petit. I do like this approach to base topos on the local community instead of ripping off these local guys by just copying their work and selling it. The local FA's and the community around them including topo authors, rebolting and taking care of access issues etc, are the key in our very fast growing climbing community. Lately, they have also created an App where gym owners can manage their routes, which then also can be Zlagged by the climbers in order to create a training-log. The platform is becoming a more open tool for different players such as gyms, coaches and events. Based on our mutual focus and because VL, in fact, is also a design company, having put up the exhibition The Climbing Gardens of the world in Berlin, we started discussing if they could do a total make over of 8a. I am very happy that finally we have made a deal and that VL will invest in 8a and that they have started to work on this big mission. At the same time, I will remain as the editor-in-chief allowing me to spend more time finding and presenting the latest news and training articles etc. I am very sure that this cooperation will create a much better product. There will be less banners on the first page and it will be easier to add and find routes in the database. Please feel free to give your suggestions on what we should improve and what could be included in the upcoming modern website in order to give you a better experience visiting 8a.nu.

Christof Rauch has done his second 8C FA the last ten days by Styrian Delirium in Weststeiermark. The 23 year old Austrian, who is working full time and got his first sponsor just some months ago, is the one who has done most 8A's and harder in the last three years: 300+. He is also the new #1 in the 8a ranking game. "F**k yessss!! Feels like we have some low gravity days. Felt so much stronger on those moves. Amazing progression from dreaming about climbing this whole line and eventually doing it. Honestly this is not the best line but it connects the two coolest problems in the cave, "The Unnamed Ungraded" 8B, about 15 moves, into the 19 moves of "Sound in Motion" 8B. With the little rest in between this thing climbs more like a route than a boulder. Definitely feels harder than all the other really long boulders I've done. All together it took me around 15 sessions." The picture is from the FA of Traumata 8A+ which he put up this Thursday. In total, the Austrian has done 16 FA's 8A and harder in the last seven weeks.

Our youngest son was 18 months when we first put on a harness on him. Proudly we saw him crawl ten meters up before we realized that we had not taught him to get down... Later we did understoond that it is almost impossible to get down from a slab using a full body harness before they are at least three years old. At that time, we had anyhow started using just a normal harness which is not recommended as they can easily rotate upside down as their head including helmet are relatively heavy. We have never had such a problem but we were very careful in the beginning at the same time we made them just hang and also use a chest harness as a compliment. However, in practice and although our summer place is located just ten meters from a beginner crag they did not start climbing until one month after we had placed gymnastic rings above our sofa in our living room. One hour daily playing with them made they suddenly want to go for the 10 meter routes in the gym. Before this, it seemed that just the challenge was to big for them. When it comes to outdoors, we practice them same comfort philosophy and almost always pull in the rope and try to let them climb as easy and short routes as possible. They also use knee-pads as they otherwise often actually hurt themselves.The biggest success so far is by timing them on the possibly easiest route in the world, 1-2-3 ABC in Kalymnos. During the latest session, they played on it ten times each in a row optimizing the start position as well as tick mark the key holds, to set new records. When it comes to shoes, it works almost as good with just regular shoes. Now their focus is to go for personal record in heights and during the last session, we could here the older one actually hum when he was approaching the anchor at 25 meters. We also often give them a mission cleaning or putting in draws. Yesterday, we actually understood that possibly we should not have focused so much on their climbing as we now spend more time belaying them than we climb ourselves. 1. Buy gymnastic rings and knee pads 2. Let them try the harness at home including hanging in it 3. The shoes must be so comfortable that they can use them several hours 4. Practice hanging and coming down before starting climbing 5. Pull all the time in the rope when they climb 6. Start with the shortest and easiest routes possible 7. Give them missions with the quick draws and chalk

98: Baptiste Ometz SUI - Johanna Holfeld GER 00: Leo Favot FRA - Camilla Moroni ITA 02: Davidi Moroco ITA -Naile Meignan Complete results

"I can see it happening this year, hopefully." Adam Ondra comes with great progress news on Instagram.

Emil Abrahamsson started climbing when he was 15 years old, being quite overweight at 158 cm and 75 kg. Two years later he climbed outdoors for the first time and during his second outdoor year he did several 8A's. Now he is an 183 cm powerhouse at 77 kg doing 8B without any specific training and twice he has been #4 in the Swedish Nationals. "In 2017, I started to focus on something I had skipped before, crimping. I actually began crimping just last year, before that I refused as I was afraid of getting injured. I have always been strong at pinching and grabbing slopers and slowly I am also building up my crimping strength. Finally I feel I can increase my crimping strength without being afraid of injuries. I have noticed that this has improved my climbing a lot." What's interesting is it that he has not had a trainer or done any structured or organized complimentary training. His focus is outdoor and repeating as many problems as possible instead of just going for the hardest projects. "I climb as much I can but I am quite limited by my university studies and I feel as though my body needs to rest a lot to prevent injury. During good weeks I can climb 4-6 days a week but if it is good weather then I'll just be climbing outdoors. I have not done so much gym training before this year, which is when I began doing some core training which helps a lot. I try to do it after every indoor session but nothing structured yet." In regards to being asked questions about having been a super talent and if he had been very successful in any other sport when he started training, then he explained that he had been overweight! "I have never thought of myself as being very talented. This is something I like a lot so my body has just adapted to it. I am always focused for climbing and the sport is something I want to continue with forever. The feeling of sitting on top of a boulder after a send with a cup of coffee is just the very best thing. Nowadays, this is my focus and the absolutely best way to get away from stress and the ordinary life." Erik Carlsson video from when Emil did an 8B which he thought to be 8A+.

There are now more than 4.3 million star rated climbs in the 8a data base which will guide you to the best crags in the world. You can also search the Ticklist by the highest onsight percentage or thumbs up percentage and you can search by specific grades. By checking the number of ascents you also get a good knowledge if the routes are worth trying. If you want to go into more detail, you can check if many females or youngsters have done it or read comments in order to find out if the routes are good for you. As the topo authors can not try all the routes in the data base, they have to trust the FAs, which they might be a friend of. Surely, these guys can also have the preference for a certain types of routes that might not reflect the 8a community opinion. A good example of this is the E.T. sector in Kalymnos, which is one of the highest star rated crags on the island at the same time it has not gotten good score in the 8a databas.

Janja Garnbret and Jongwon Chon put on a stellar performances as they both flashed all four final boulders and won Euro 3 000 each in the Rock Ljubljana which was shown on Slovenian TV. 1. Jongwon Chon (KOR) - Janja Garnbret (SLO) 2. Jernej Kruder (SLO) - Katja Kadic (SLO) 3. Aleksej Rubcov (RUS) - Chloe Caulier (BEL) 4. Jan Hojer (GER) - Hannah Midtbo (NOR) 5. Domen Skofic (SLO) - Mina Markovic (SLO) More info and pics

Margarita Martinez, a former ballet dancer who came to USA from Puerto Rico at 16 years old, started climbing at 34 years old. Having had many injuries, health problems and also working hard baking wedding cakes she stopped climbing having reached 7c+ due to Rheumatoid Arthritis (see picture) for four years until she was 49 years old. At 53, having done several 7c+' again she decided to start pushing harder. Margarita started to focus on pull-ups and also pushing hard on the Maxi-pull endurance hang board until she got a new serious shoulder injury. The doctor suggested a replacement which should have meant stopping climbing. With a magic therapy she recovered again and having done four 8a+'s, she did Whole Shot 8b in Maple Canyon last year which originally was 8b+. (c) Edwin Teran Now she has made great progress on two 8b+ projects but once again she has gotten a serious health problem due to a spinal fracture. "Getting old sucks but you make lemonade with all the lemons of life." Climbing less for the moment she is focusing more on her new business, Drypointe, which is a small ball that will dry out the smell and bacteria from your shoes. How is it possible that your amazing story has not been picked up by the climbing media? Not sure, I guess I don't advertise myself. Some people like to kiss and tell but not me I climb because I love it. The grade or notoriety is not important to me. I don't want to be defined by climbing. I want to be defined by a good person to others, a good mother/wife and a good human.Trainingbeta has done a podcast interview with me.