1. Alex Puccio USA 2. Mina Markovic SLO 3. Hannah Midtbö NOR Tierra Boulder Battle video

Pedro Bergua has done Supernowa 9a in Valdiello which is a double extension of Nowa 8c and Powerade 8c/+ which he did 3.5 years ago. Four months ago he fell seven times at the upper final crux. All in all, we are talking 50 tries for Nowa, plus four more tries on Powerade and then another 25 days on Supernowa. It is great to see that dedication pays of. Pedro is also a climbing coach and here is his training blog in spanish.

Angy Eiter, the best ever female competition climber, has done the FFA of Bibita Biologica, 8c in Arco. "Just another hard climb for me. Good vibes. Friends surrounding!I am very happy to see that I can still climb hard routes. :-) I really like the fact that I don’t have to climb in a gym anymore. On the contrary, I want to climb as many routes on rocks as possible and to travel together with Bernie to different areas I haven't seen before." Angy still have some connections to the competition scene as she works as a coach at the company K3-Climbing together with her boyfriend Bernie and Emanuel Soraperra. "We offer route setting to climbing gym owners and prepare young motivated kids for their comps.

Anna Stöhr blogs her recent trip to Leonidio in Greece together with Kilian Fischhuber where they set up some new routes including Kili's Capricorn 9a. "All in all our climbing trip to Leonidio was great fun and I cannot wait to come back!" Leonidio, with only 53 ascents in the 8a data base, is located some three hours on the mainland some three hours south west from Athens. Climbing-Leonidio.com: " Hundreds of sectors with the potential for thousands of routes on high quality tufa-limestone lie waiting to be developed. Currently (August 2013) there are around 100 routes from French 5b - 8b. The number of new routes is growing rapidly.

Jon Cardwell has done Daniel Woods Mission Impossible in Clear Creek Canyon for which he gives a personal grade of 8c+. He needed some six sessions to do it out of which five days in 2014. In between of his attempts, he was #6 in the Bouldering nationals after having been #2 in the semi. "The breakdown could be 8A boulder to 7b climbing to 8A+ boulder. So maybe it's power endurance but you definitely have to keep your mind together to completely the final boulder. Sometime's you feel recovered but your full power is not there to finish the final crux. I love this style of climbing and I think it suited my strengths. Always, huge thanks to the route's developer Jay Samuelson, and Daniel for piecing it together, showing people that it goes!

Reino "Nicki" Horak, national coach for both the Senior and Juniors in Sweden, give thumbs up for the new "Click Up" by Climbing Technology beside that that safety symbol is fading away after some hours of use. It is like 25 % cheaper compared to the Grigri. Instructual video. "I had, what proved to be a pleasure, to try the new "Click Up" from Climbing Technology. It proved to be a very light and as well easy to handle belay device with built in auto brake with similar brake effect as for example Grigri. Clear and obvious marks makes it basically impossible to fail during to improper handling. Today I let a couple of climbers who never had seen the device before test it during climbing at Blocs & Walls in Copenhagen. They compared it with their ATC's, Grigris and SUM and were very positive surprised. So positive that they wanted to purchase one immediate. The only disadvantage I have noticed is that there is a lot of resistance, works a little bit blockish, while using older thicker ropes. The device tends to lock too easy using those ropes. I would sum it us as a perfect device when belaying equal heavy or heavier climbers than yourself and it´s now a standard and obvious part of equipment in my climbing bag.

Giuliano Cameroni - climbing in Chironico from Inside of a dog on Vimeo.

Felix Neumärker has done the hardest route in Frankenjura, Corona 9a+ which was set up by Markus Bock in 2006. One year ago, Felix did his first 9a+, La Rambla. There exists three other routes that originally was 9a+ in Frankenjura but they have all been subject of being down graded. Felix says he spent five days last year and four days this year and that it is his style of route, "filigree/ precise power climbing on small pinches/crimps, not painful at all." Have you done any specific training? What is your next plan? Last weekend, I was there with Daniel Jung and we tried 3 days in a row, so this could be called specific training… Next plan? Mmh, what about enjoying life and climb as much as possible meanwhile finishing my studies? ;)

James Webb takes it to a new level also in redpoint by doing his fifth 8C in just over two weeks, The Story of Two World's in Cresciano. As he did the first four so quickly, he gave them all a personal grade. He has also flashed, including personal grades, five 8A+'. "Was SO wrecked on this thing today but somehow managed to climb it! Fell off the finish yesterday 4 times and really had no expectations to send.. Climbed it from the lower start like Carlo and Paul though really I think it makes no difference in difficulty. Took about 3 days of trying last year, and 3 more this year. Stoked to finish it but my real battle is on the other side of the bloc with Dreamtime!! Amuerte!!!