Nicolas Favresse has done Du neuf avec du vieux 9a in Briançonnais after a month of training as a preparation for his next big Patagonia project. The route was put up by Yann "Diego" Ghesquiers in 2015. It is interesting that Nicolas never trains indoor or even uses a hang board. "For the past 3 years I have been struggling with a few injuries which have prevented me to push myself in climbing. First I tore a ligament in my wrist which forced me not to climb for a total of 8 months. It was my longest break ever. Then I started to have some issues with my cervical spine which i damage a while ago on a 10m ground fall in the Gunks. The tricky thing is it irritates a nerve whenever I do any physical exercise and then my shoulder tend to become less stable because of that. So the solution for me is to climb mostly on low angle climbs, take a lot of rest and replace indoor training with ski touring in the mountains or other cardio activities. I am really surprised to see how well it works for me. I am pretty psyched because in a few days I go to Torres del Paine, Patagonia with my friends Sean Villanueva and Siebe Vanhee and we need to be strong because our goal is to attempt to free climb a line on the East face of the central Tower. The Torres del Paine has some of the best quality granite in Patagonia and the East face of the Central Tower is longer than El Cap in Yosemite and just as blank and steep! Off course we will bring musical instruments on the wall so that we can elevate ourselves with our music."

Ichimiya Daisuke has done the third ascent of Horizon 8C in Hiei after seven days of projecting. It was put up by Dai Koyamada and repeated by Ashima Shiraishi. "This problem is a long roof like an horizon..so cool!!" The 23-year-old's biggest plan for 2017 is to go back to Colorado again, where he has unfinished business with Jade 8B+ and The Game 8C.

The 8a news is now available in Spanish, Italian, French, German, Swedish, Polish and Slovak. Just click on the flag in top right of the site and the big headline news will be presented in your language. You can also find the latest hard ascents from a total of 40 countries. If there is anybody who would like to help out as a new country specific editor, just send an email to [email protected].

Po nedávnom pridaní slovenskej verzie 8a je na svete aj nemecká verzia. 8a je teda dostupné v ôsmich jazykoch: angličtina, španielčina, francúzština, taliančina, nemčina, švédčina, poľština a slovenčina, a prelezy si pridávajú lezci zo štyridsiatich krajín.

Stefano Ghisolfi has done his seventh 9a+, First Ley in Margalef, which shares the stat of his ultimate goal, First Round First Minute 9b. The Italian is #2 in the ranking game. (c) Paolo Sartori " I fell around 6 or 7 times at the last crux but today I finally sticked it and climbed easily until the chain. I just checked the last section of First Round and it is pretty hard, tomorrow I will try to link some moves."

Cathy Wagner has done La Kanabica in Rodellar in just two tries, suggesting a personal 8a+ grade. "One of my favourite routes in Rode! Like other climbers, I think there is some inconsistency in the grading... Classics like Florida (L1) or Gladiator are so much harder and much closer to 8b than la Kanabica." In total the 51-year-old has done 572 routes graded 8a and harder, out of which 49 up to 8b in 2016. Fanatic Climbing has helped with a translation of their interview. "I warm up less and less. I have not the patience to deal with and it's an error. My best flash routes have been done completely cold. The few warm up I do it's tai-chi movements, I started lessons since a year. It permits at the moment for me to keep moving my energy with softness and to focus about the moves of the route I'm trying when I'm at the ground."