Is the potential to climb in freezing conditions a positive marker for being a top climber? Over the years, I have heard and seen many top climbers that can climb in very cold conditions. This has also been confirmed by four polls where actually 6 % say they prefer hardcore bouldering in freezing conditions and another 33 % voted 4 degrees is optimal.

Some are born with warm fingers and this should relate to having great blood circulation in the forearms. When such a forearm is exposed to climbing training, the size of the muscle and the number of capillaries might increase the possibility to climb on the rock in freezing conditions. What if you could test how warm fingers 100 beginners have and that you later could find a correlation with climbing performance?
This theory could be backed up from a medical point of view as one symptom of compartment syndrome is actually cold fingers and toes. The syndrome stops the blood circulation and the forearm will swell and could remain stiff for hours after a climbing session. What is your take on this new theory?

In the picture, Eva Hammelmüller climbs an 8b+ in minus 2 degrees, no sun and a nasty wind.

This is a pretty tough one comparing the female climbers who through the First Female Ascents and their onsights have pushed climbing the most during the last 40+ years. Please comment to make changes in the draft Top-10.

1. Josune Bereziartu: FFA of an 8c, 8c+, 9a and 9a/+. First female to OS 8b and 8b+.
2. Lynn Hill: FA of The Nose 8b+, FFA of an 8b+, Masse Critique. FF onsights; 7b, 7c, 7c+ and 8a
3. Angy Eiter: Four 9a to 9b FA. FFA of a 9b, La Planta de Shiva
4. Barbara Zangerl: Several FFA of big walls and trad climbs
5. Laura Rogora: 22 routes 8c+/9a to 9b and OS up to 8b+
6. Margo Hayes: FFA of a 9a+ and also 2nd female to do a 9a+, La Rambla
7. Anak Verhoeven: 12 8c+ to 9a+ including a 9a+ FA
8. Janja Garnbret: First and second female 8c OS
9. Charlotte Durif: 2nd female 9a and 8b+ OS
10. Julia Chanourdie, Robin Erbesfield, Isabelle Pattisier, Catherine Destivelle, Ashima Shiraishi, Beth Rodden

Bayes Wilder (10), who did his first 8c+ route two months ago, has during a two weeks trip to Hueco Tanks done ten boulders 7C and harder, including two 8A+, Barefoot on Sacred Ground and Rumble in the Jungle. The latter the 10-year-old actually did in just one day. We asked his father Matt, who back in the days made 8a news by doing a 9a, if he could share their story.

How did Bayes prepare for the trip?
Since our RRG trip in early Nov., Bayes has just been doing his 3 * 2-hour practices per week at Team ABC. Those have been all bouldering practices.

How are the climbs selected and how does he normally project them?
I'm very familiar with Hueco and many other areas from my years of climbing so I often will select potential climbs that I think might fit him well. He'll look through the guidebooks and pick stuff out as well. Things like Barefoot on Sacred Ground were goals he had from watching videos of Ashima in Hueco. Rumble in the Jungle wasn't even on our list, but he wanted to finish up a cool V6 nearby and so we decided to look at it and he got psyched.

When he's working on a problem, I'll often support him. Generally, it's a long process because he has to figure out the unique beta for his size. It's like in the old days when you couldn't watch videos of other people doing a problem before going out and you just had to figure the moves out yourself. He's pretty creative and knows his climbing style really well and so often comes up with a sequence himself. I'm pretty analytical too and so I'll often throw out different ideas if he's stuck somewhere. Sometimes I'll give him coaching on how to approach the problem and what parts to try, etc., but usually, I just let him do his thing. He has definitely gotten pretty good at figuring out the beta. What about your impact versus his own driving force?
Bayes has a love for climbing and he is super psyched on most problems. He is not overly goal-oriented so he doesn't usually have a long list of problems he has to do. He just likes to go out and challenge himself. He did have the goal of climbing V12 on this trip and was working Right Martini V12 a bunch. That problem didn't pan out for him, but a couple of the other ones did. I don't have strong goals for him either and just try to help him find problems that are classic and challenging so that he can direct his psych and love for the sport.

Eva Hammelmüller has onsighted Zona 0 (8b) and Sexo sentido (8b) in Siurana. This was the 21-year-old's first two 8b onsights and including also four 8a+ and some 8a onsights, she is #2 in the female onsight ranking game. "It was way too hot to climb in the sun, and also in the shade it was very warm for my taste🙈."

A couple of weeks earlier, she had done an equally impressive ascent in a contrast temperature, Get Hungry (8b+) in Martinswand. "Coldest ascent I have ever done; -2 degrees, no sun, and some wind. Thanks for the good vibes boyz!"

How was it possible to make a route is such freezing conditions?
At first, we thought that it was not possible at all to climb, because our fingers were numb within three moves. The friction was pretty good, but that doesn’t help when you can’t feel the holds😅😋 When I sent the route, I climbed it until the last move of the crux, came down, waited for ten minutes, and then my fingers were warm enough to climb it till the end🤩.

Did you do any special trick to keep warm? What clothing did you wear?
We tried hot stones from a fire, but the resting positions were so poor that I couldn‘t keep my hands in the chalk bag long enough, so I decided not to use them😉. 2 trousers, 4 long sleeves, a buff and a headband😂😂 Felt like I couldn’t move but it worked out😂😂

Martina Demmel becomes the first-ever female to have won the 8a annual onsight ranking game. In total, the 20-year-old onsighted 18 routes 8a+ and harder in 2021. If we start from 7c and harder she has done a stunning 138 onsights the last year. Amazingly, she did her first 7c onsight when she had only climbed for 1.5 years and that was just 2.5 years ago. In 2021, she did also her first 9a and she won also the overall female ranking game and among the boys, she was #16. During the last three years, she has almost exclusively been climbing outdoors, besides training specifically for the World Cups.

Here is a sum up from her Insta: "I had the opportunity to spend 265 days for more than a single day away from home🏡! Enjoyed 194 days of touching rock in all kind of conditions👐☀️❄ and luckily only 50 days on plastic including 6 international comps🇦🇹🇨🇭🇨🇵🇵🇾🇷🇺 + my foot injury🦶 which also forced me to change my habits but definitely has a better effect on progressing💥.

Reached the 🔗 of 655 routes, 189 had been 8a and harder out of which 55 lines had been on the lucky side with an onsight🤯👀. The top destinations this year have been the 'Hautes Alpes' around Briançon with 40 days on rock🏔🧀🇨🇵, followed by my homecrag with 33 days🏞, 30 days in Chulilla to survive the winter😜🌞🍊, 25 days of a nonstop surreal send-🚂 in Oliana🧚‍♀️🇪🇦, the magical Frankenjura with 12 climbing days🌲, 9 days in both Seynes and Margalef to kick off a supposed to be longer road-trip🏕😅 and lots of more unique places with rather short trips closer to home😍😍!"

During the last three weeks, she has only been training indoor as she broke her foot in a bad fall in Oliana but from her Insta we can see that her psych is high, training harder than ever. She broke her foot by crashing too hard into the wall after a big fall. Showing the spirit, she continued the route and two days later she was back on the rock just about to tie in until she was convinced to go to the hospital.

Adam Ondra takes Magnus Midtbö into his private wall and Midtbö is very impressed. "I have never seen something quite like this."Later he joins Ondra for a session in the sauna. "I think he prepared harder than...pretty much anyone."

Staša Gejo has done Delusion of grandeur (8A+) and The Arete With the Pocket (8A) in Chironico. "I planned to project the Dagger (8B+), spent one session on it and got very disappointed, so I wasn't keen to hike up to Cresciano, as my partner had nothing to do there and we spent only 4 climbing days. So we switched to Chironico.

Matthias really liked the Delusion of Grandeur and I tagged along. When we arrived, there were Italian and Austrian crushers, like Schenk, Piccoloruaz, Uznik and others. They worked the moves of it and did it super quickly. I tried a few sequences, but it was too crowded at the block, so I went to The Arete with the Pocket and did it in a few tries. In the next session, I worked on the moves with more devotion. Had a real scare at the mantle, took me a while to figure it out and trust my feet. I was too tired for a send as my projecting was inefficient. I sent it the next day. It was pretty tough for me, this boulder. But I am not very fit at the moment."