NEWS

Two 8A's in Hueco by Mina Leslie-Wujastyk

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has had a great trip to Hueco Tanks where she during the last ten days have done three 7C+' and two 8A's Chbalanke and Le Chninkel. During the last year, she has done 14 8A's and harder. In 2013, Mina was #9 in the Boulder WC and her worst result in seven events was #14.

Good progress for the 8a world wide Left-to-Right Topo App

You can now also add a route description as well as delete trash routes in theLeft-to-Right Topo sorter. Steve Golley will now continue adding some more advanced features like median grades, maps, add photo upload and route line drawing to the sorting site, add image topos and weather forecast etc. In the long run it means 8a will provide topos with maps and drawn images for most of the crags in the world in your smartphone! We hope it will become the rock climbing Bible actually! Please try it out - It takes like 10 minutes to create a left-to-right topo, that later can be complemented with drawn topo images. The topos will be visible in your 8a topo App, available both for Android and iPhone, immediately as soon as you have uploaded the crag.

Since 2005, there has been at least five Lead Euro Youth Cups/Championships excluding 2013 with three and in the 2014 calender, there are only two events! Bouldering youth Cups have been organized since 2011 with two events each year but 2013 with four events. In 2012, a total of 12 Euro Youth Cups were hold which can be compared to the plan for 2014 with five. Another fact that has decreased the competition for the Euro Youth are that the World Championship since 2011 has taken place in Singapore, Canada and in 2014 it will take place in New Caledonia. One problem with this is of course that it will be harder for the juniors to prepare for taking the step top the World Cup 2015.

Elan Jonas Mcrae has done his first 8B+, The Reckoning Sit in Squamish. "So psyched to finally send this thing, singularity is next! 2nd ascent?" The 18 year old did his first 8B in 2011 and his first 8c route in 2010.

Which solo ascents should be reported?

Great article by DPM discussing the low interest from the media to report solo ascents. What do you think? The picture by Cedar Wright is taken from Alex Honnold's amazing send of the 600 m 15-pitch Luminoso 7c (b+) in Potrero Chico a few days ago. Alex Honnold, suggest a personal grade, "Solo! In dos horas. And then another hour to get to the top of El Toro. Amazing experience!" comments the DPM article, "I loved this article. Perfectly sums up how I feel about media coverage of soloing and arguments about influencing kids and all that kind of stuff. Genius!"

Based on close to 2 000 unique votes, Best climbing shoes - 2014?, we can see that the result are similar to the polls carried out in 2012 and 2010 even if especially Boreal has made a nice progress. 52 % La Sportiva (54, 52) 17 % Five Ten (22, 25) 11 % Scarpa (9, 7) 07 % Boreal (2, 2) 04 % Evolve (6, 7) 02 % Tenaya, Mad Rock, Rock Pillars, Edelrid

8C in Font by Gui-Gui
23 January 2014

8C in Font by Gui-Gui

Guillaume Glairon-Mondet has made the first repeat of Jan Hojer's Jour de Chasse 8C in Fontainebleau and it only took six sessions. "And on my third try of this session, I was on top of this incredible problem, with totally crazy mouvs!" More info and pics on his blog and here is the nice video. Gui-Gui, who is #6 in the 8a ranking game has been a very succesful competition climber since 2000 when he become the Youth World Champion. Last year he was #2 two times in the Boulder WC and in 2011, he won two events finishing overall #3.

Here is a list of some features that we think need some further explanation. Starting from above to the left you will find. "Add Via Mobile": The quickest and easiest way to add ascents. My Updates: You can select which "friends" and crags you get updates on. Updates - Search: Plenty options to search the 2.8 million ascents Scorecard Tried/Hang-dog: Updating beta progress at your project DB Ascent: Adding climbs to the data base to make a crag complete One Hang: Remembering how close you were on an onsight? Crags: Trend Rating: How many percent of total ascents added last year "Add": The quickest and easiest way to add the most popular climbs You can also ask for log-in to correct spelling etc Anything we need to highlight and explain?

Everyone wants to get better endurance and the quickest way for this for everyone who have been training hard for few years are normally through technical and tactical training: Stop - Rest - Go. In order to be prepared for the outdoor, you need to know all the tricks how to rest because this is what finally matters high up on your onsights. Just ask your friend where and how long you should rest on some specific indoor training routes. This will make you focus and concentrate and you will technically improve your resting skill. We are talking 100 % resting focus including focusing on your breathing, looking down and hanging deep. This will improve your resting skill and it will also force you to optimize how your fingers and hands can create maximum friction. The best thing is to combine this exercise with climbing faster than normal both before and after your rests. Good Luck :)

David Firnenburg has done two 8c+ in Siurana, Rastro and Broadway, "Another great line at El Pati! A boulder problem at the very end with a dynamic move from a little crimp to a sloper after a pre-climb of 8c. 6 tries after El Rastro. 8c+/9a." During the last five weeks the 18 year old has done five 8c+' and one 9a and he goes to #10 in the 8a ranking game.