Christof Rauch has done three 8B+ Boulder Problems (two of them FA) in the last 2 weeks. The third best positioned boulderer in the 8a ranking game did an 8C FA last year, which is still his personal best. He comments in his scorecard about Insanity of Grandeur, one of his sends: "Felt so unreal to stand on top of this huge boulder! A real kingline with full value climbing. Checked out the moves when i did "Delusion" for the first time, then I had a few sessions last winter and now it took me 3 more sessions to put it down. Syked!!!" (c) Stefan Kürzii

Oriane Bertone, who did her first 8A being 9-year-old, has done her tenth 8A, Evita assis in Ravine du trou. "One of the best lines of Reunion Island. Difficult for small climbers who have to take a swing on a little crimp on the first crux."

David Firnenburg, #3 in Combined in the last world championship, has done his eighth 9a, Action Directe in Frankenjura. It was put up by Wolgang Gullich in 1991 and it has been repeated 21 times now. (c) Lars Scharl 'IT’S DONE!!! A DREAM COMES TRUE. Last Saturday David finally repeated „Action Directe“ (9a) in Frankenjura after falling 9 times at the very last move. That was heartbreaking. The process of hard work behind this ascent makes the success even sweeter. It’s a big motivational boost to have achieved something that hard and iconic. It’s a feeling of satisfaction and pride which definitely remains active in our memories longer than usual."Action Directe" is a true masterpiece.'

Jernej Kruder came to Mallorca with no real DWS experience and immediately onsighted Weather man 8a+ with a crux 18 meters high up. Then, he started working on Es Pontas. During his five weeks on the island, he only spent one day climbing other routes, onsighting two 8as and an 8a+. Regarding the grade, about which Chris Sharma told 8a ten years ago that it is personal but anyhow agreed that it could be a 9b, Jernej seems to be of the same opinion. (c) Kerstin Helbach "I'll just stick with Chris' thoughts. This thing is so specific. For sure it's about the 9th grade, but there are so many different factors, like the dyno. If there are 200 people in the world climbing 9a, maybe just 10% of them can do it. There is a fear factor and a mind battle trying it all over again without knowing if you're able to the all the moves or not. At the moment I don't feel like superman to climb all the hardest climbs in the world, but I feel lucky to have all of this skills that you need for this route. Maybe I'm just one of few chosen guys, who can actually climb this thing." The Slovenian also said that he could not do the crazy knee drop sequence after the dyno so he found another solution. What's interesting is that in fact the runner-up in the Bouldering World Championship 2014 says that even after the big dyno and the "drop knee" part, he found several more cruxes. "So on my last 4 days I was so lucky I didn't fall even once on dyno (even though I was never sure I'm gonna do it or not). So at the end the main crux was a long move on the arete. I stuck it for 3 times already, but failed it after that move- 3 moves before jug. There is also a bit strange crux after the jug, but luckily I was very confident after doing all the hard parts." Next year, Kruder will compete as normal, which he will combine with climbing Boulders, routes, and MPs and at some point he might start training for the Olympic Games.

"With the falling leaves I take the oppurtunity of the first dry conditions since two weeks and clipped the anchor of "The Essential (9a)" That's Christoph Hanke's comment about his send of one of the most repeated 9as in Frankenjura. He's also usually seen competing as a part of the German national team. (c) Alex Megos

Jernej Kruder Mallorca'ya geldiğinde neredeyse hiç Deep Water Solo tecrübesi yoktu ve birden Weather man 8a+ rotasını onsight çıktı, ki bu rotanın kilidi sudan 18 metre yukarıda bulunuyor. Ardından, Es Pontas rotasına çalışmaya başladı ve adada bulunduğu 5 hafta boyunca sadece bir gün farklı rotalarda tırmandı ve iki 8a ve bir 8a+ onsightladı. Dereceyi göz önünde bulunduracak olursak, Chris Sharma on yıl önce 8a ya bunun bir 9b olabileceğini söylemişti. Görünüşe göre Jernej de aynı fikirde. (c) Kerstin Helbach "Bu konuda Chrisvari konuşacağım. Bu şey çok özel bir yapıda. Kesinlikle 9 lu bir derece fakat bir sürü etken var. Atlayış kısmı mesela. Eğer dünyada 200 kişi 9a tırmanabiliyorsa belki yüzde onu bu hamleyi yapabilir. Korku faktörü var, zihin savaşı var. Her seferinde tüm hamleleri tekrar birleştirip oraya gelebilecekmisin bilmiyorsun. Tabi şimdi kendimi en zor rotaları tırmanabilecek bir süpermen gibi görmüyorum ama bu rota için gerekli yeteneklere sahip olduğumu hissediyorum. Belki ben bu rotayı tırmanabilecek birkaç şanslı kişiden biri olurum." Slovenyalı ayrıca atlayıştan sonraki çılgın diz düşürme bölümünü yapamadığını ve yeni bir çözüm bulduğunu söyledi. İlginç olan ise 2014 Boulder Dünya Şampiyonası nda zirveyi zorlayan tırmanışçının büyük atlayış ve diz düşürrmeli bölümden sonra da birçok kilit bulması. "Son 4 günümde çok şanslıydım çünkü bir kere bile atlama hamlesinden düşmedim (ki hiçbir zaman tekrar yapabileceğimden emin olamıyorum). Ana kilidin sonunda uzun bir hamle vardı ve ben şimdiden 3 kere buradan düştüm ki bu cepten 3 hamle önce. Aslında cepten sonra da enteresan bir bölüm var ama bunca zor tırmanıştan sonra o bölümü geçecek özgüveni buldum." Gelecek yıl Kruder yarışmacı olmaya devam edecek kimbilir belki de Olimpiyatlara hazırlanacak.

Adam Ondra comes with great news that he, at 11 pm, has done the second 9a traverse pitch starting five meters in due to a wet hold. Then he continued doing great progress also on pitch #16 and here you can listen to his sum up recorded at 1 am.

Alexander Feichter, who previously has done three 9a's and five 8B's, has done the FA of The Mystical Patatohead´s Direct Edge 8C in Gais after seven days of projecting. It was opened on top-rope by Martin Moser in 2004 who also used the right crack and called it 8C. Alexander opted for just using the edge making the grade more solid but says it not an elimination. Full novel story in his scorecard. "It is by far the most difficult boulder I have ever climbed in a boulder area until this day. If one stays underneath of it, the direct edge seems almost impossible." Video

Alex Megos has opened the first 8B+ in Sweden, Trainspotting in Göteborg, which he says is definitely one of his greatest Boulder FAs ever. The high ball has been a project for 20 years and Alex rappelled down first to check out the scary top-out. "The boulder has a concave frontside so it gets steeper and steeper the higher you climb. Except from the first 2 moves all the moves are hard and balancy. The problem is that the holds are all turned in the wrong direction and there are no footholds in the right positions. So if you could turn one or two holds 90° it would probably not be harder then 8A. The way it is you have to do the moves as slow as possible to get the holds right but the problem is as soon as you let go with one hand you start to fall out. The wall has a few crack systems through it so all the holds are crimps on the edge of the cracks. Some of them are slightly incut but most of them are slopy. The last move is a big throw from a decent sloppy crimp to the a big jug up and left with really poor feet and you are high off the ground as well. " Göteborg is said to be the closest connected to a big climbing area city in the world. Trainspotting is just in the middle of all 1 000+ climbs up to five pitches, which you reach from the city center within 12 minutes including 3 minutes walk from the train station. (c) Daniela Ebler