Jesse train/climbs six times a week although having a full-time job and indoors he has flashed 7a+. "I'm a weekend warrior on the gritstone. I have never repointed a route, my background is very much trad non-sight. I have to do everything by feel or if my belayer, Molly can see something from the ground she uses a radio to tell me, but Molly hasn't climbed the routes beforehand so has no extra beta other than what she can see from the floor. Sometimes it's wrong."

Bernd Zangerl, one of the hardcore boulder pioneers, especially in Magic Wood, has done yet a new FA, Grenzenlose in Valle dell'Orco. No suggested FA grade but as it took him quite a while it should be at least 8b trad. More info to come. (c) Jacopo Larcher

"I could have built a landing zone or organized 10 crash pads that have now become "the norm", but I'm not friends with these trends. Adapting the challenge to a personal comfort zone would have made the first ascent easier and more quicker for sure. But, isn`t mother nature the director and sets the level of challenge for us, also in terms of protection? Physically I knew straight away that I can do this project, the crux was the mind. I prefer to work alone or with my best friend on mental physical challenges like this. I am oldschool, but choosing the longer way also means a more intense examination of the project." Full story

How did you warm and keep warm during the send?
I had a self-made fingerboard and I tried to do a few single moves to kinda get warm. The go where I sent it was actually the „warm-up go“ 😅 At the two crimps just before jumping out to the edge, my fingers were so cold that I didn’t feel anything.

"As for questions, it would be good to cover where the idea for 8a.nu came from, how the site has evolved over the years, what your day-to-day role looks like as the editor in chief, and some of the most rewarding/challenging aspects of managing the website/community." More info on Tenaya. Tune in at 9 pm Euro Time - Tenayaclimbing

Nicolai Užnik, who won a Bouldering Euro Youth Cup in 2019, has done his first 8C, Bügeleisen sit in Maltatal. The classical line has an 8B+ stand start that was put up by Klem Loskot in 2001.

”You climb 3-4 moves until you‘re in the stand start position. The moves are not really hard (7B+ish) but you get tired, so obviously it makes it a lot more difficult to climb the whole boulder from the sit. (about 12 moves in total) I started trying the sit start this summer where conditions weren’t the best but then it was wet almost the whole fall. So now was the first time after a few months that I got to try it and I sent it in my first go of the day. So psyched!”

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi, 15, who lately has been living in Turkey where he has done 17 routes 8b+ and harder, tells us about a Citdibi 8a database, a potential new hardcore Mecca. (c) Pim Shaitosa

"Citdibi is near Antalya. The place is almost like a quarantine zone itself. No people or shops around, just a tiny village which has not more than 10-20 houses. Complete peace resides here, so it's really nice during and after Covid-19.

For a long time being Turkey and its Geyikbayiri obtained the title of an "amateur climbing crag". No hard and confirmed routes and a huge load of easy climbs made it an ultimate area for beginners and pre-pro dudes with seemingly no potential for hard grades. Even though it could be called my home crag and the place had a major influence on my climbing evolution, it starts to seemingly run out of its potential for progression.

That's when I discovered a magnificent crag of Cidtibi, which was mainly developed and discovered by Tobias and Duygu Haug and some other locals for quite a while now. It's an enormously huge, slightly overhanging wall full of beautiful tufa strips and crimp sections. The tick list already has more than fifty routes starting with 8a and harder, not counting all the unclimbed projects and potential routes. And developing here gets faster and faster! Numerous new FA's in 8c and higher grade, hard routes that start to border with the mythical 9a's and projects that are seemingly much harder than that! The "new" route that already had two ascents but no grading is supposed to be one of those bordering ones.

One of the shortest and hardest lines in Chidtibi, which goes solely on crimps and doesn't have any proper rest. It could be described as a hardcore non-stop finger killer with a stretchy dyno at the very end, which kept shutting me down for almost ten goes! In my opinion, this route, with a bunch of other not-climbed harder projects on the Chidtibi wall will slowly lead us to Turkey's climbing evolution."

Christian Bindhammer, who did his last out 14 8c+/9a and harder in 2012, has done his second 8c+ in 2020, Perfect Link in Pinswang-Schloss. The 44-year-old was one of the best competition climber in the world in between 1997 and 2005. He is working as an IFSC route setter so he has had more time going outdoors creating a nice peak in 2020. (c) Dominik Bösch All together a quite "complete" climb, as holds are also quite mixed up from supersmall crimps to slopers and some pockets climbing meters around 30 to 35m Was already close last year but as it is a winter area, you have to wait for cold but sunny days. Did several 8c‘s this year - much easier - so the route could check in with 8c+ in my opinion. ...and as it‘s another lockdown here - I had a bit more time than normal for climbing😉😁 which makes it a lot easier to try hard when conditions are good.

Katie Lamb, who did five 8B's this summer, has done her third 8A+ during the last two weeks, Power Slave in Red Rocks. In the 8a ranking game, she is #5.

"This climb was meant to be a training step toward my big rig goal. After a session of being blown off the climb by a demon wind, I came back to bring the heat. The boundless energy of life and death was speaking through my every motion that told me to toe hook through the move I fell on previously. It was the piece of me I wish I didn’t need, chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don’t know why. Next time I crimp instead of using my hook."

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