The webmaster has improved the crag maps so it works quicker and more smoothly. Over 2 500 crags have been marked on our maps which you also will find in the 8a Topo App. Go to a crag and click on the map for detailed description or try by continent: Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Vladyslav Shevchenko and Fedor Samoilov (16) have been on a good trip to Misja Pec where both have done Strelovod 8c and also 8b+'s. Last year Vladyslav, see picture, did his first 8c+ in Nikita located by the sea in Crimea in Ukraine.

Fabian Buhl, who the last two years have done 12 boulders 8B+ and harder, has made the 4th ascent of Beat Kammerlander's Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ at Bürser Platte. (c) Stefan Schlumpf "After my second ankle fracture within 6 months, I was walking again, but jumping down was forbidden to me for another 3 weeks. So I searched for some alternative experience where I didn't have to jump down, therefore I started trying the trad climb from Beat Kammerlander Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ E9-10. Due to the reason that I hadn't climbed on a rope since two years or so, I was quite astonished when I could climb it on toprope on my second day. From this point on I wanted to try it on lead, but I had never climbed with gear, so I didn't know how my mental strength was. But luckily I fell only once in my first try, after this I had more trust in the micro protection and could climb more relaxed, for me this was the key to the redpoint. I was really happy, that I could climb my first 8b+ route, for me it is even nicer that it is also a trad climb and that it has such a great history. I want to thank Jacopo Larcher and Chri Bindhammer for the support and a special thanks go out to Beat for this amazing climb! Really amazing and technical tard climb by Beat Kammerlander, thanks for the vision! Thanks to Jacopo and Chri for the support. Maybe some more rope climbing in the future ;-)

Grades are important for selecting your challenges and to measure real progress. At the same time, many climbers want to stay away from personal gradings as it sometimes create polemics. Time Comparison Grading (TCG) can be used as a grade reference for both the guys who want to share or stay away from personal grades. If the prerequisites are the same when it comes to; Beta, Style, Condition and Form, one could speculate that there are one grade step in between; Onsight, Flash, 1, 4 or 30 sessions invested, see the TCG diagram. There are of course many exceptions and some climbers have a more steep or flat performance curve, also depending on type of rock. Once you have done a personal best you should be able to enjoy personal best' in all other Time/Effort categories. TCG is the base 8a have used when we have speculated on both down - and upgradings over the years and it might be the best way to explain how gradings work in practice. Please feel free to share your opinion.

Three weeks ago, Jakob Schubert ripped a pulley when he was flashing Nagual 8B in Hueco Tanks. His plan plan is to start climbing easy again next week and he hopes to be back 100 % after another two weeks. "The goal is now to make the other pulleys stronger so they take the function of the ripped one, which will probably stay ripped forever. After a while the other pulleys should be strong enough and it doesn't matter that there is one pulley less. That's how they treat a pulley rupture nowadays." Prior to the 8B flash, the #2 in both the Lead and Boulder WC last year, had over just 2.5 days of bouldering done six 8A+ and flashed three 8A's, including several personal grades. Jakob plans to do all Lead WC's and some Boulder WC's in 2014.

José Luis Palao 'Primo' (pic with him on 'Digital System' ©Christian Checa) trained for a week under Patxi Usobiaga's advice in order to get the power-endurance needed for his projects in Sta. Linya and it was well worth it cause he quickly sent two hardcore routes there: Analógica Natural (8c+/9a in the topo) and Fabela pa la Enmienda (9a in the topo), both 8c+/9a in his opinion. We had a short chat with him in this interview in Spanish. A month ago, the strong woman with an eternal smile in her face, Raquel Hernández (pic© Eudald Ros), sent her first 8c, Fish Eye in Oliana. In the Spanish site we had a great, long interview with her decorated with beautiful pics, where she, amongst other things, tells us that the process was a "story of patience and self-improvement" with an unexpected setback in the middle which forced her to "completely stop climbing and start from zero level."

Santoku - Ticino Bouldering from Marina Cotting on Vimeo.

IFSChas had their 9th Plenary Assembly and informs that the World Championships 2016 and 2018 will take place in Paris and Innsbruck. This means that the event for the fourth and fifth time in a row will be held in Europe. IFSC has also rechanged the dates for the Youth World Championship to September 20-24 in New Caledonia. This will be the third in a row outside Europe and it means that most competitors will have to take at least 1.5 week leave from school.

Isabelle Faus has done Trice in Flagstaff which has been considered the first 8A+ in the world established by Jim Holloway in 1975. Here is an 8a article about the legend. Carlo Traversi did the second ascent in 2007. Isabelle (20) has previoulsy done one 8A+ and six 8A's, the first one being 16 years old. Last year, she was #25 in the Vail Boulder World Cup.