Iker Pou did put up Artaburo in 2018 but he did not give it a grade. Now he says it is either 9b or 9b+ meaning it is potentially the sixth hardest route in the world. He bolted it in 2012 and tried it every year and frequently the last three years. ©Jordi Canyi "It's been over a year since I sent Artaburu. At that moment I felt that it was a very difficult route, the most difficult thing I had ever done and on the route that more time and never invested. I didn't feel like giving it a specific degree, for me it's not important, I wanted people to try it for its uniqueness and beauty and not for its degree. But this seems impossible today, people only notice the number and not the lines. The line is above 9a+, so encourage people to try it, "Artaburu" is brutal!!!"

Drew Ruana, who just did his first 8C+, has done The Next 8C in Red Rocks. "Today I went by myself. I worked it with my friend Nathan Williams every other session. He got really close. It is like an hour if you walk fast, and maybe an hour 15-30min with crash pads." Very nice video from the send. In the Combined World Championship, Drew was #13 meaning he will most likely get to Tokyo through the Tripartite ticket if a Canadian qualifies from the PanAmerican Championship. "That was the only good comp I had last year and still I messed up in every round a bit. Either way, I am happy because if I do not get the Tripartite I can just keep climbing outside. After a while of getting unlucky every comp I got tired of it and wanted to just go outside... and here I am. " What about structured training and how is it organized? By myself. I know what works for my body and mind at this point. The last time was in December for three weeks and I probably will again in early April. Lot's of strength training in the weight room after sessions. Lots of limit bouldering and power endurance exercises. I campus boulders but I don't campus hang boards. (c) Alexander Sway

Iker Pou, who did his first 9a in 2000 with Action Directe, has done the FA of La Nave de los Locos 9a in Mallorca, which was bolted by José Luis Palao. "It has 25 meters very collapsed of pure resistance with holes, tufas, and crimps, where it stands out for being the hardest, several extreme movements one finger pocket. A route therefore very varied from which Iker gets his first ascent." © N.Colom "The route I did in 6 days more or less if I remember correctly. Usually, I did very few indoor training, I training directly trying the routes and climbing outside on the rocks. Always I'm looking around for new projects and bolting new routes. When I'm at home and not in expeditions, I love to search for new projects and try it hard. I love rock climbing!!! When is bad weather I like indoor bouldering if the boulder area is nice." In 2018, Iker did the FA of Artaburu 9b (+). Including also several 8B+ boulders, multi-pitches up to 8c and big walls in all seven continents, the 42-year-old has one of the most impressive tick lists in the world.

Drew Ruana, #13 in the Combined World Championship, has done his first 8C+, Sleepwalker in Red Rocks, which was put up by Jimmy Webb one year ago, video. (c) Cameron Hörst "I just dialed all the moves perfectly before considering redpoint attempts. I did it on my 4th rp try today but I made sure over the last seven days before that I could do all the sections perfectly each session. I was going for "low points" and yesterday did it from the 2nd move to the top which gave me confidence." The boulder is like 50-55 degrees overhanging and with three pads stacked Drew was able to work all the hard moves. Drew has previously said that his focus is not the Olympics and he was not selected to participate in the Continental Championship. However, if a Canadian gets the spot, Drew is likely to get the Tripartite ticket, based on his WCH result.

Stefano Ghisolfi comes with bad news on his Facebook. "Attention! Very bad news... The crag Laghel, the hardest crag in Italy and possibly one of the hardest in the world (with the King Line Project, a possible 9c, and few other extreme routes), is on a private ground. We already knew it but nobody ever complained and everything was going fine, the owner used to know about the crag and used to let us climb. But last month, the owner came to the crag and "kindly" told us to stop climbing and go away from her ground, so we went immediately away." They will try to find a solution and ask for suggestions about what to do? Such problems are getting more frequent around the globe and will most likely increase in the future.

117 James Webb USA (2 last year) 61 Daniel Woods USA (0) 44 Adam Ondra CZE (0) 31 Paul Robinson USA (4) & Matt Fultz USA (7) 30 Gabri Moroni ITA (2) 27 Jan Hojer GER (0) & Daniel Fong USA 27 (2) 25 Jernej Kruder SLO (1) 24 Thilo Schröter NOR (9) & Mark Heal USA (0) Above are the ranking of the active 8a members, measuring 8A and harder flashes in total. James Webb has flashed almost double as many 8A and harder as the runner up Daniel Woods, who has almost flashed double as many as Adam Ondra. Interestingly, is that the last 12 months, most of the best have actually almost stopped flashing 8A and harder, see ascents in brackets.

I do not like slash grades as a difficulty rarely can be so accurate for the whole community. Furthermore, detailed grades just make them more important. Luckily, few climbs have slash grades but for some reason, there are relatively many graded 8c+/9a. Almost all of them were originally 9a's but which later have been subject to being downgraded due to many have set personal best on them. For some reason, other downgrades mean normally a full grade down. Escalade9 has ranked the most popular 8c+/9a and harder and interestingly, ten out of the Top-18 is currently listed as 8c+/9a. Noteworthy is also that almost all hardcore slash grades are found in Spain. Anoher interesting fact is that once the routes have been given a slash grade, they normally become less popular.

Fanatic Climbing reports that hugo parmentier has done the first repeat of Adam Ondra's Eagle-4 9b in St-Léger du Ventoux. The 20-year-old, who has eight podiums in IFSC youth comps, has tried it regurarly the last six months. "THE battle came to an end. 5trips 23days on 5month. Incredible sequence on mini tufas. 2 hard boulder problems in a row making it spicy with the pump. Long and risky finish with only two hard jump moves. Not the line you're looking at first but finally the traverse line is mega. Thanks Elie" Fanatic Climbing has the full length interview where he among other things says; "I would say it’s 2 boulder sections with 2 goods holds between for clipping the draw and for taking a breathe. It’s more or less an 8B boulder into an 8A+. The route is very resistant. Around 18 moves for the hands and an extreme footwork too." (c) Aurèle Brémond