Michael Gunsilius has done his first 9a, Frontman Deluxe in Allgäu, which was opened by Christian Bindhammer in 2009. -I tried the route the first time three years ago with a good friend of mine, Fabian Buhl. It felt pretty tough back then. The following Season I made a couple of nice linkups and noticed some progress on this project, but the time was limited as I started working for a consulting company during 2015. I then tried the route again more often in fall 2015, mainly on weekends when commuting home. Unfortunately, the year ended without success, but I was super psyched and motivated to master this climb and started strict training during winter. After a few tries in spring I felt I had the needed preparation for this route. A good time management and a supportive boss helped me freeing up some hours during the last two weeks to do a a couple of tries. The conditions were good last Sunday and I was lucky enough to finish this amazing piece of rock. I really enjoyed to do this climb together with Fabian.

How long should I rest in between attempts depending of different type of routes? One of the things that Adam Ondra is famous for is taking very long rests, sometimes more than 60 minutes, so that could be a guideline. If we are talking about short routes where you did fall after just a minute of climbing, you could actually try again after just some minutes. However, in general, you should rest longer than you think, which might also relate to the desire of climbing. If you feel like you are fresh after 30 minutes and you are eager to climb, add some 50% and you will just get more psyched. Stretching is perfect for killing time in between burns.

During the last 12 months, a total of 103 ascents of 9a and harder have been recorded in the 8a database, 20 out of which are 9a+'s and there are 5 9b's. In comparison with previous years, this is an almost 20% increase. In total, the number of 9a ascents and harder done in the world is believed to be at least 150 last year. The first 9a's were Action Direct and Hubble, which, during the four last years, have been repeated three times in total. One might speculate that one reason why these old school routes are so seldom repeated is that they are in fact harder for modern climbers?

Giorgio Bendazzoli, who won one Euro Youth Lead Cup last year and was the European Champion in 2014, has done his first 9a, L'attimo in Covolo. - L'attimo is the connection of the hard part of two 8c' which I did last years. I started trying it last year but it was a bit over my level...the hotter conditions after winter came in march but the climate was cloudy and humid, not so good for the crimps! This month I also got a contraction in my back that didn't let me to do my best. Now that both physical and weather conditions are perfect it came out the occasion to do this very beautiful line.

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I do not know where to rest and I normally do not feel that I recover when resting. How to optimize recovering rests? This is of course very personal and it depends on each route. If we are talking about real shake-outs, try to get into a yoga meditation mode where you can count your breathing. Chalking up should be done in slow motion. Try to create your bubble. If you are very pumped sometimes you actually need to rest with your arms above your head or just skip the rest if you are close to the anchor.

8a and its members have been working actively against chipping by marking it in the scorecard for many years. Adam Ondra is one of the most active ones with some 59 routes marked as, "Poor / Mainly Chipped". It seems that chipping routes has become much less common lately, which is just great. Another way of reducing the risk that first ascentionists would start chipping again could be to mark the routes as chipped in topos and also stop giving stars to such routes? Sure a nice crossover move is often pretty cool but to manufacture such sequence and then say it is such a nice 3-star route is passing the wrong message.

Alexander Feichter has done the FA of The Walking Dead 9a in Pursteinwand, which is mainly a slab Climb with many Bouldery passages. In practice it is a 35-metre-long link-up of an 8c with an 8A+/B boulder crux and Feichter's third 9a. "The line is a mental killer, because there are so many Boulder parts on the slab where you can really fall on every move. Therefore you have to be very calm during the Ascent. After the ascent I was stunned happy that this project became reality. Slab climbing is a crazy thing. What I liked was the natural Gneis-Granit stone in this line. Normally I train exclusively force on my pull up board. Additionally, I'm practicing sometimes some indoor training in climbing halls but three-quarters of the training I'm doing at home with my own utilities."

Shauna Coxsey, who won the first WC two weeks ago, won all three rounds in Kazo and in the final she was so superior that she has already secured the title after three problems. Melissa Le Neve was the runner-up as she was also in the first event and in total she has been #2, four times. 1. Shauna Coxsey GBR 4t7 4b7 2. Melissa Le Neve FRA 2t2 4b5 3. Miho Nonaka JAP 2t3 4b6 Complete results

Rustam Gelmanov, WC winner in 2012, won the great event in Kazo with excellent route setting and commentary. The big sensation was that the 20-year-old Michael Piccolruaz, who was #45 in the first event, got the silver after being #17 in the qually and second last into the semifinal. Interesting is also that nobody from the Top-8 in the first event made it to the final in Kazo. 1. Rustam Gelmanov RUS 3t3 4b4 2. Michael Piccolruaz ITA 2t2 4b8 3. Kokoro Fujii JAP 2t4 3b6 Complete results