James Noble has made the second repeat of Mike Adam's new Bordello in Earth Quarry giving it a personal down grade to 8B+. Ned Feehally did the first repeat some ten days ago. "Very nearly broke me (literally), that's the hardest I've pushed my fingers on any problem. Used Mike's left hand sidepull crimp sequence on the stand but a slightly easier sequence on the sit hence the personal downgrade. Still the hardest thing I've done."

Belmez Face publishes in FB the FA of Territorio Comanche 8c+ in El Hueso, La Pedriza by Ignacio Mulero. The route is a extreme-friction 35m climbing, starting with a section of 7c+ with 'no hands', followed by a bouldery little roof before the never ending upper slab where Mulero was falling over and over again in the last few weeks. Mulero has previously done a few 9a's and 8C boulder, and during the last two winters, he did the hardest slabs to date up to 8b+ and free climbed some old trad routes in the 8b+ range. (C) Talo Martín - Muérdago Films. After a very long process in which he was losing skin and partners to join him (1h hike), luckily and despite the bad conditions (it was sunny and it needs a cloudy and cold day for the south face climbing), he and his partner woke up very early to be at the crag (07:20), and after a warm up placing the draws for the last time he did it in his first go. La Pedriza is just 50km from Madrid and with its 3 600 routes and 2 500 boulder problems makes it one of the biggest granite crags in Europe. The route should be one of the hardest slabs in the world considering that there are basically no holds. It is just smears and microscopic crystals that could not be compared to slabs like Tough Enough 8c in Madagascar or Meltdown 9a in Wales where there are 'holds'. An interview to Ignacio Mulero will come soon to 8a.nu.

Ahogy a rossz nyelvek emlegetik a német csodagyerek, mr. sufnituning, vagy a laborban kitenyésztett szőke herceg bárhogy is egyike a világ jelenlegi legjobb mászóinak. Az elmúlt években már a RedBull-os baseball sapkán kívül több is átjött a videókból annál, mintsem egy szalmahajú gyerek veszettül uralja a peremeket. Mert ez a srác tud lenni ortó is, van humorérzéke és mint kiderült ő sem egy gépezet, egész sokáig bajlódott az elmúlt időben ujjsérüléssel. De ez már a múlté! Kanadában a Sonnie Trotter által nittelt peremőrületet verte le 5 nap alatt és a sok kieséséből ítélve egyértelműen ajánlja is a fokozatot. A patagonián egyébként egy elég szép és hosszú cikk meg is jelent ezzel kapcsolatban. A 9b-ről készült megmászós videóban a standakasztás pillanata számomra különösen kedves. Jó látni, ahogy szédeleg és sokkban van, ahogy elönti az adrenalin és a végtelen öröm, hogy felszínre tör valami és nem magában bont pezsgőt. Átjön az a fanatizmus amiért az ember csinálja a sportot és ez pontosan az az öröm ami mindegy, hogy egy 7b vagy 9b megmászásnál jön ki belőled.

In the picture we can see also Keita Watabe did the same mistake as Tomoa Narasaki, Alexey Rubtsov and Jongwon Chon to not match on the marked top hold. (Everyone who topped out misunderstood that the top hold was the small green camouflage hold under his left hand). Anyhow the Jury did not bother to discredit Keita's top as they did with Tomoa Narasaki. Imagine this would have been the Olympics. What would the IOC, 1 000 journalist and millions of viewers have said as all the four top ranked did not understand how to top out? Clearly, the IFSC and the route setters need to address that there can be no misunderstanding in regards to how to top out. Further more that the Jury guarantees fair judging among all athletes.

Eric Hörst, a well known climbing trainer, explains Why strong fingers matters. This article might balance out the Cafe Kraft guys with a focus on almost everything but finger power. "The bottom line: By increasing your limit strength and advancing your high-end climbing ability, the submaximal level at which you can climb with relative ease and aplomb—and in high volume—is elevated. Therefore, by making a long-term training commitment to getting stronger (and improving your mental and technical game) you may someday find your current maximum climbing level to be “moderate” and achievable in volume."

Felipe Camargo, who two months ago won 35 000 USD in a Neflix "Ninja Warrior" show, has done his first 9a+, Papichulo in Oliana. Chris Sharma made the FA in 2008 and the Brazilian got it's 17th ascent. (c) Lena Drapella "I worked the route six weeks last year and seven days this trip. Trained a lot of endurance and tried to set my traverses in the gym with similar amount of hard moves, resistance and boulders. Like 28 moves to the first bad rest, then a 12 move boulder, better rest and then 40 endurance moves to the top. I never worked so hard or wanted anything as bad as I wanted this route!"

Two weeks ago, I published, "A boulder final can turn into a horror show with the new 4 min rule", explaining that a boulderer might reach the top within the 4 min but might not get an OK. The IFSC rule says that in order to get an OK you should within the max 4 min, "Controlled the marked finishing hold of the Boulder with both hands." Ask can be seen on the picture, Alexey Rubtsov is dynoing to the top hold when there are two seconds left but even so he did not get an OK. It took him some three seconds to control the last holds with both hands as, his feet cut loose, to move his left hand, his feet cutting loose again. Imagine if this had been in the Olympics and he had been one second earlier and most would have believed he made it and then it would have been up to the judge estimating split seconds, in order to give him an OK. At the very least, the new 4 min rule must be changed so it is good enough to get to the last hold within the 4 minutes and then you are allowed to establish the controlled position for some seconds.

Floclimbing, famous for almost closing a three year live-streaming contract with IFSC, has run Tuck Fest DWS. Carlo Traversi and Kyra Condie won the USD 5 000. In order to see this comp live you had to pay a monthly fee of USD 20 as would have been the case also for the World Cup streaming.

Floclimbing, spoločnosť známa pre nedávnu aféru s plateným live-streamom svetových pohárov, bola organizátorom súťaže v Deep Water Sóle (DWS) Tuck Fest. Víťazmi sa stali Carlo Traversi a Kyra Condie, ktorí si odniesli hlavnú cenu 5000 USD. Na sledovanie tejto súťaže live bolo treba zaplatiť mesačný poplatok 20 USD, ktorý bol temer aplikovaný aj na Svetové poháry.

Eric Hörst je známym lezeckých trénerom a v tomto článku vysvetľuje, prečo na sile prstov záleží. Článok môže zároveň vybalansovať príspevok chalanov z Café Kraft, ktorí sa sústreďujú na skoro všetko ostatné okrem sily prstov. "V skratke: zvyšovaním silového limitu a posúvaním hraníc tvojej maximálnej obťažnosti sa zvýši level a množstvo ciest pod tvojou maximálkou, ktoré dokážeš preliezť na istotu a s relatívnou ľahkosťou. Tým pádom, ak si zaumieniš dlhodobo trénovať a zvyšovať svoju silu (ako aj techniku a psychiku) môžeš jedného dňa zistiť, že obťažnosť, ktorú teraz považuješ za maximum, je pre teba "normálnou" a vieš ju liezť aj vo väčších objemoch."