Loic Zehani has done the FA of Carnaval 9a in Cevennes. The route, which is a link up of two 8b+'s, took him seven sessions. The 14-year-old has done one 9a previously and gave it a personal grade of 8c+. "The route is an amazing big overhang (20 meters with 12 meters of overhang). The first pitch was bolted by Jean-Marc Oberli (8b+).This part is almost in roof with crimpy crux and a hard part with little tufas and the second pitch was bolted by my father (It is 8b+ too but with many two fingers Pocket in very big overhang). There is no rest beetween. The difficulty of the route is the big level of stamina. I am so happy because during the last days I think about this route all the time...even at the school!

Fanatic climbing reports on Facebook that Carole Palmier has done her first 8c+, La Rubia in Vilanueva del Rosario.
Photo: Henning Wang / Madskills Media "I'm so glad to have sent "La rubia", for me one of the nicest routes of Spain, bolted by Christian Lupion. I was dreaming about this line all the year et after 2 weeks of hard work I did it finally. It's a 50 meters routes in the Chilam balam cave.

Jacopo Larcher has wwritten a nice story in the North Face Journal about a successful ascent of the 30 pitches of El Nino 8b in Yosemite, which took a week. (c) François Lebeau

Megan Mascarenas has done her fifth 8A+ for 2015, William Shatner in Newlin Creek and is currently #3 in the female ranking game. "one of my absolute favorite climbs in the world." Having won Adidas Rock Star and one World Cup, Megan has an even more impressive 2015 competition record. Her worst 2015 international result is #3 in a WC.

James Webb has done three 8B+'s in ten days including the FA of Kings of contortion in Obed. "Another day and another classic hardline for the southeast! This one 'kings of Contortion' v14 has to be one of the funkiest roof lines I've done. Big up to @sendclimbing for hookin me up with the best knee pad on the market making this rig possible! So psyched to add another stunner FA to my homeland. @paulrobinson87 also hooked it up for the 2nd ascent shortly after. Not a bad day in the woods!" Meanwhile, the #3 in the ranking game has also done another five FAs graded 8A and harder. The picture from his Instagram, which is loaded with great pics.

Ramon Julian, the best combined rock and competition climber of the last ten years, has done the FA of Ficció digital 9a in Berga. "Good route bolted by Oriol Maraver." Last week he also opened one 8c+ and onsighted Corrida 8c in Osp/Misja Pec. In total, the 159 cm tall climber has done 45 routes 9a and harder. The only climber to exceed him is Adam Ondra who has sent 110 routes 9a and harder.

The more of your muscle fibers you use, the more blood you shoot in circulation. In general, when up to 20% of the muscle fibers are in use, the blood vessels are fully open meaning that you can more or less go on forever. When 50% or more of the fibers are used, the blood vessels are completely shut. In other words, as you get stronger, using smaller percentage of your fibers, the better your blood circulation gets, i.e. you get better endurance. If you have low maximum power, especially when it takes long time to recruit maximum power, you will get better endurance by including some maximum moves in your warming up. In practice, this can mean that instead of using 50% of your muscle fibers during a hard sequence doing your first hard route, you might only use 40% of them. This means that recruiting maximum power on warming up will ensure better blood circulation and thus better endurance. On the other hand, if you have high and fast maximum power, it might be that a very soft and relaxed warming up will get you better endurance. The reasons of it are that you will not overgrip on the easier sequences, which might hinder your blood circulation. Another way to improve your endurance, might be compressions sleeves, as in the picture.

Matyas Luzan has dedicated almost two years of his climbing life to trying to jump from 8b to Action Direct 9a. This means that just during the last 16 months he did 200 sessions on a replica, including hang board and campus boards sometimes with just one finger moves. Three months ago all was set but as soon as he started trying hard, he injured himself and had to go back home. Now on his blog, he reports that he is stronger than ever and he plans to have another try in April.

Tom Randall wrote an interesting article in the latest issue of Rock & Ice - World's Hardest Cracks. Out of the Top-10 listed, Tom has done the FA of four and Sonnie Trotter of two. The most interesting story in the article is this about Beth Rodden's Meltdown 8c+ put at a pedestal much higher than any other trad route in the world. It took Beth five months to do it but in reality she never gave it a grade. At the time, Beth was married to Tommy Caldwell and they both said it was harder than any trad climbs that they had done. Beth did previously the Optimist 8c. Old interview in Climbing and here is one from Crux Crush. "After a few hours of working the moves, both Pete (Whittaker) and I walked away having done only 10 percent and scratching our heads over how the crux was even possible". Taking into consideration that when the best trad climbers in the world, such as Sonnie Trotter and Nicolas Favresse, go sport climbing, they often perform two grades harder doing 9a's, Meltdown might be equivalent to a 9a or 9a+ sport route, and possibly the hardest female ascent ever? (c) Corey Rich