While we continue to stand together and keep our communities safe, many of us have had the chance to start climbing again. It's time to reward ourselves with some quality time on the rock this autumn, and along with that, we're offering you the chance to win some top-shelf prizes. Zlag your climbs and uncover hidden prizes along the way. Prizes may be hidden behind any climb; routes and boulders at the crag and in the gym are all in play. All climbs logged during the months of September and October are counted. The more you Zlag, the higher your chance of winning! Get Zlagging, win prizes, and stay safe! #verticallife #climbing #treasurehunt #zlag

Chuck Odette has done his first 8c (b+), T-Rex in Pipe Dream after roughly 80-100 tries over two years. The 64-year-old started climbing at age 23 back in 1978. Turning 35, he decided to try to start pushing his limits, reaching his first 7c+ at 37 and first 8b+ at 44. (c) Eric Steiner

"It was cold and wet yesterday (9/9/20) here in Maple. There was a skiff of snow on the trail up to the Pipedream. It was a huge change from two days prior when the temps were 75f (24 celcius) and 14% humidity. My dry skin doesn't adhere well below 20% humidity. We (Maggie & me) almost didn't make the trip up for our Wednesday climbing ritual. The warm-ups were numb-outs. Maggie offered to stay and belay but it was too cold for her to climb... :(

Temps made it up to a balmy 49f (9 celcius) with humidity at 33%... I figured I'd give it one go and wait for hopeful better conditions on Friday. T-Rex is 40 meters long... too long for cold temps. I almost fell at the 3rd bolt... not a good start for a route that's 26 bolts long! Somehow I reeled in the bad left hand pinch that was attempting to thwart my efforts for the day. Instead of monitoring heart rate and pump, I focused on how numb my feet and hands were before moving on from rests.

Taking one move at a time I passed the crux and eventually the anchors of Millennium (8b+). I felt strong on the moves connecting Millennium to the T-Rex extension and just kept knocking down section after section one move at a time. Before I knew it, I was making one last big move to a jug at the lip of the cave, a place I'd fallen on previous attempts while on redpoint. The last four bolts were totally on lock down and anticlimactic. Done... whew... I announced my retirement from climbing to everyone at the crag immediately after lowering off the anchors and touching the ground... then... I qualified it... I'm retiring from climbing until Friday. Time for a new project... something fun... stay tuned :)

PS: I know some strong climbers have started giving T-Rex a downgrade to 8b+ recently from the original long standing consensus grade of 8c. I feel that it's deserving of the 8c personally. It's a full step harder than any 8b+ I've done in the past, but I'm also a full step older than most of my previous 8b+ routes... oh well... ratings... kind of like religion... totally subjective and worth about 2-cents on a good day... lol."

Eliminations are quite common at the same time it reduces the quality of a climb. One elimination definition could be that you need to be within reach of the bolts another rule is that you are not allowed to use holds on neighbouring routes or boulders. One dilemma is that such definitions are not fair based on different sizes of the climbers, especially when you climb onsight.

Personally, I am more liberal and I think that you, first of all, are being challenged by the rock and not how the bolter has placed the bolts. It might be that you can not say you did repeat the listed climb and grade in the topo but actually made a FA of an easier climb if you did go too long to the side. Sure in many cases, the eliminations are obvious but in most cases, they are in the grey zone.

I think, in general, taller guys should be allowed to place their feet further out as long as they are following the sequences of the climb. In many cases, using handholds to the side as intermediates should also be considered as ok. However, if you move further out to the side and do not follow the "graded" sequences, one might say you have not repeated the original route and grade.

To sum up, climbs with eliminations should not be considered as a high-quality routes especially, when instructions are needed to understand which holds are ok to use. The best style of climbing is onsight and you should never ask, "Can I use that hold?". You are challenged by the rock! Taller climbers are allowed to go further out following the same sequences as the original graded ones.

Solveig Korherr, who did her third 8c+ as well as first 8b onsight last month, has done Der schwarze Schwan 8c in Ötztal. "It is a very crimpy line with bad feet which finishes in a really big jump. The route suited me quite well up until the jump crux since I’m quite good on smaller holds and getting my feet high. The jump seemed impossible to me when I went up there for the first time. However, with some practice, I was able to find the correct body position for the dyno. I surprised myself by doing it on my third try of the day, on my second day on it, despite being quite fatigued."

The 22-year-old, who is #1 in the 8a ranking game, has also onsighted Seewurm 8a+ onsight, "That was a good fight! The kneebars saved me." as well as redpointed Minas Tirith 8b+, calling it one of her favourites in Ötztal. More great pics by Jon Shen on Solveig's Insta or by clicking on the headline.

"I’m very psyched about my latest onsights with „Seewurm“ (8a+) and „Nostalgie“ (8a) at Piburger See in Ötztal as well. I find that it helps with onsight that I have a quite static climbing style and good endurance. Having a variety of techniques (kneebar, crack climbing) and experience on different rock types definitely helps."

Daniel Woods has made the FA of Dicktopia 8C which adds an 8A left exit to Little Richard 8B+ featured in the Mellow video. "Overall, Little Richard took me 4 days to do. I put up Dicktopia the same night after doing LR. After sending these two lines, I added a left entrance into LR. This addition is a 7 move 7B+ straight into the crux of LR. Didn’t change grade, just made it a bit harder."

The 31-year-old, who is #2 in the 8a annual ranking game, has in total done 25 8C's and 6 8C+', which is most in the world. In 2010, he won the Boulder World Cup in Vail and he has also won the USA Nationals nine times in a row.

Jernej Kruder, Boulder World Cup winner overall in 2018, has made the FA of Ellipsis Mix; 7b+, 7a+, 8a, 8b+ and 7c in Bila Pec. The 200-meter line was put up ground up together with Gašper Pintar and David Debeljak in 2018, using mainly trad gear and also some 40 bolts and pitons. All anchors bolted and the 30 meter hardest pitch was protected with two big cams and six bolts. "Opening it up, they were doing the "alpine" parts. I was the guy with the drill and skyhook." (c) Mark Grmek and Luka Fonda

Fun fact: The day before the multi-pitch FA, he made a 9a in Slovenia. The next day included 2.5 hours driving to Italy and one hour walk before starting to climb. Ten days ago, he won a DWS event in Ljubjana based on a no-feet format he invented. Last weekend the 29-year-old was #2 in the Slovenia Boulder Nationals although the whole summer he has spent only three, rainy days, in the gym. His possible next plan is to go for Jacopo Larcher's potential 9a trad climb, Tribe. The long term plan is to make it to Tokyo during the Euro Combined Championship in Moscow in December! (If that event is cancelled he will make it anyway due to his result in the 2019 Combined World Championship.) Including also three 9a+', out of which one DWS, and four 8C boulders, the Slovenian was recently listed as #2, after Adam Ondra, as the best all round climber in the world.

Marco Müller has done two 9a's; Le Cadre Nouvelle Version (in July) and La prophétie des grenouilles in Fournel. "I went to Céüse this summer for three weeks with my main goal of climbing "Le cadre". I tried it twice last year, but couldn't stick the jump. It felt much better this year and I could climb it in 10 tries total over 5 days. This gave me also some time to check out the moves on Biographie ;) maybe a project for next year... After Céüse, I went back for some exams and then wanted to climb a bit in Switzerland. But due to rain and wetness, I went south again, but this time to Briancon, and could climb "La prophétie des grenouilles" rather quickly."

Escalade9 list 507 climbers that have done 841 routes 8c+/9a or harder. Originally, only 9a's were listed but later, due to many of the most popular were subject of being down graded also 8c+/9a were included.

39 ascents Era Vella 8c+/9a
39 ascents Estado Critico 8c+/9a
30 ascents Underground 8c+/9a

Out of the 18 most repeated ones, eleven are now being subject of being downgraded. It should be mentioned that La Rambla is included twice. First as Alex Huber's FA from 1994 originally given 8c+ but now 9a due to grade inflation. Secondly as the Ramonet's 9a+ extension. Action Direct, the probably most famous 9a route in the world, although put up as 8c+/9a by Wolfgang Güllich in 1991, has 27 ascents listed. However, during the last 3.5 years, it has only been repeated three or four times at the same time as other listed routes have been repeated multiple times only in 2020. Furthermore, almost everyone doing AD have done it after many months or even years of projecting at the same time many other "9a's" have been done after just a few sessions. In other word's, it seems like Action Direct is harder to repeat than most other 9a's which once again confirms the grade inflation. The big dilemma now, as has been mentioned here on 8a before, is how to deal with this, also from the media position? The two only options are either to upgrade AD or to downgrade many more 9a's if we want the grading system should, in a more correct way, reflect the 9a difficulty.

In practice, the number one reason for the current grade inflation, could be said to be driven by knee pads. I guess, many former 9a's are actually not that hard once you can find good resting positions or find new easier beta with due to a knee pad taking most of the load. Ïn the picture, "The Down Grader".

Antoine Kauffmann reports on Insta that he has done his first 9a+, No pain no game in Rodellar. The name of the route pretty well describes the process as he in fact has torn his pulley five times during the last five years, when he did his first and only 9a. (c) Sébastien Berthe

"I tore the first one in 2015 but I did not stop climbing so it became chronic and it lasted for two years. After this, I learned from my past errors and I threatened the new ones way better most of them lasted for 3 months which is more normal. I think it happened because a kept training when I was injured (doing musculation, pulls up, etc) and when I was able to climb again I put to much force too quickly. For the moment it goes better but I climb most of the time open-handed because I feel that my fingers are still strong but fragile. (No pain no gain was a super route for this because I crimp only two holds in all the route).

I started trying the route at the beginning of July. I choose this route because it’s super powerful and overhanging and it suits me really well. I tore my pulley a few months ago so I needed a project with some « good holds ». It felt possible so I started the process: training hard and working the route as much as possible. After two weeks trying the route, I felt not strong enough, I needed more stamina so I returned to Belgium for 7/8 hard training days. The training paid and I started to feel way better in the route. I kept improving in route but had to try it a lot (40-50 tries?). Finally, I could clip the anchor in what could be my biggest fight ever.

Next, I want to train hard for "The story of two world's" and Off the wagon. I will be in Ticino this winter and I want to improve in bouldering before setting the bar higher and I’m dreaming about 9b, especially in Flatanger."