Mar Álvarez, who works as a firefighter, has done Manu Lopez's Kif Kif demain 9a (8c+) in Bielsa. The 153 cm tall, who previously has done two 9a´s, did it going straight up, eliminating a good rest to the right like the FA. In total she needed 17 days to take it down. - An excellent route that I have enjoyed since the first day. Thanks to Guillaume for bolting it, and the BTR team for being a source of inspiration and motivation.

Painting names makes it easier to find the Route or Boulder you are looking for but if you do not have a topo, the grade is even more important. The problem is of course that the grade can be changed and that it is kind of hard using a paint brush. With the paint marker in the picture, it is super easy to paint grades on the rock and if the grade changes, you can brush it away with some water within a minute, at least on granite.

Adam Ondra is back home after the first trip to Flatanger this year and he speaks about the upcoming projects. (c) Petr Pavlíček - Well, the projects are obvious, but the problem (or good thing?) is that they are super hard. The most feasible project is "Kangaroo Dyno", which includes dyno that is much harder than 3 Degrees of Separation dyno. I am pretty sure it is an 8A dyno single move, but you have to get there by climbing 8c+/9a. It will be probably 9b, but 9b which all about one dyno is super hard for me. The rest of the projects are even harder, such as "Change variation" 9b+ hard, and "Project Big" and "Project Hard", both possible 9c's. Especially Project Big is the LINE of the cave and the dream of my life, but I think it will take a few seasons, but let's see. I do not want to make too much pressure on myself, I will try the projects this summer a bit, but if they feel milion miles away, I will try my luck in the future. I am super happy as I have just finished first bachelor studies and after 3 years of hectic life I want to enjoy climbing outdoors to the fullest.

Jonathan Siegrist has spent some time in Switzerland, where he has made the FA of Hyper Finale 9a in Rawyl. Photo by Fred Moix. This was actually the fourth 9a in Switzerland during the last six weeks. R&I Switzerland interview and more updates on JStar's blog

Adam Ondra is back in Flatanger where he has made yet another great FA, 120 degrees 9a+. "Absolutely crazy inverted roof boulderproblem after having done the first part of Elden Inuti." In fact, Flatanger is the crag in the world with most hard routes and Adam has been one of the pioneers having put up six routes in between 9a+ and 9b+. During the last week, Adam has also onsighted two 8b+' and one 8a+ and that is measured by his personal grades. (c) Erik Massih - It never gets darker than this during the summer nights in Flatanger.

Ivaylo Fazata has done his second 9a FA, El Nino Ext. in Dryanovo. "If the world wants to finish NOW I am OK :) 60 moves power endurance beast on the highest quality rock at the crag. Ivaylo Krastev bolted the route and in 2007 climbed it one bolt before the chain, video RESPECT!!! Interesting is that Ivaylo has also done two 8c+ FAs and his personal best, repeating other routes is 8c.

In 2008 8a said that Rockfax/UKC must update their grade conversion, which they did later. Previously, the charts were constructed in such way that UK climbers were the only ones doing 8c+ and 9a trad routes. When Alex Honnold soloed The Complete Scream, UKC reported it as an E8, which according to their table is equivalent to a 7c, which we reported within brackets. Now it turns out that Alex thinks it is max an E6 and a 7a+.

Heather Weidner comments on her send of China Doll extension, which made her the fourth female to have done 8b+ on trad. (c) Jon Glassberg/Louderthan11 - The 13c (8a+) pitch 1 was bolted by Bob Horan, the extension 13d (8b) has no bolts. I did the two pitches as one 40 meter pitch all on gear, using one fixed pin and one fixed nut. I can't express how relieved and excited I am to have accomplished this climb, my proudest climbing achievement to date. I started working this route just over a year ago, and it involved many stages. I first climbed the 13c on bolts, then toproped the extension clean, figured out the finicky gear on TR, and lastly sent the whole rig placing my own protection. Each year I set a big climbing goal and it's one that if I achieve I'll surprise myself. I've run the gamut of emotions on this route, from fear and sadness to utter bliss. There were nights I'd wake up in a sweat thinking about the route. It was super scary at times. The opening bulge crux of the 13c has finicky small placements, and my first time leading it I took a nasty fall, ripping two Metolius offset cams and fell onto a 000C3, hitting the ledge below. I've never tried so hard in my life, and blacked out on the thin upper crux. My partner said I let out an animalistic scream and next thing I knew I was at the last rest before finishing on 5.11 terrain. It feels like a dream, I can't believe I sent! One try would take about an hour, it was epic. I trained hard this past winter focusing on power. I did a lot of bouldering, campusing, and lock-off training. The past month I tried to get out there every other day as much as weather would allow. I'm not sure how many days it took or tries but I'm guessing 70 or so tries maybe 50 days? Kind of a guess. I worked it last June, August through early November, then started back this year in late April.

Klemen Becan has done his second 9a+, Papichulo in Oliana. The Slovenian was previously a successful competition climber, having won one event, but later he later became one of the best onsight climbers in the world. Last year, he has more focused on bolting and redpoint and once again, he becomes one of the best in the world. This summer he runs training camps with Chris Sharma. (c) Anja Becan - Tried it in the winter after Joe Mama 9a+ but too many people were trying it all the time. Not so motivating for me since I like to climb, so I abandoned project for a while :-) Now when conditions were perfect (after March) there were less people here and time to put more time in the route. So last month I came here once a week and made 2-3 trys in it (altogether arround 10 serious tries, 4 sessions). Today I basically surprised my self since I thought finally I can do some training attempts to get stronger and after I came over the crux I just crused over the rest of it without any big rest. The hardest part for me was still minichulo (first few meters) and I did this part only 2 or 3 times :-). At the end I was basically a bit disappointed since I was expecting a bigger fight in the route, but I guess all the training pays of