Jorge Diaz Rullo, who just did his first 9b, Planta de Shiva and two more 9a's in Villanueva del Rosario, has moved to Cuenca where he did the FA +f Circo total 9a. This is a link up in between Circo ibérico 9a+ and Seta total 9a. Talo Martin helped out with follow up questions and Javi Pec with the picture. After having done four routes between 9a-9b's in 3 days, what will be next? I have many projects but overall I want to keep enjoying as I have been doing, and also I have vacations time now and many trips in my mind. Do you feel that this could be the beginning of your life as a professional climber? Yeah, I would like to hear that, live about climbing is a dream for every climber, but the truth is that here in Spain is very difficult ... So now I'll keep studying my career, training and climbing as I always do.

Sarah Kamf (born Seeger) has done her sixth 8c, Headcrash in Frankenjura. Ten years ago she did her first 8c and when she had done three she had two children. Since 2017, this was her third 8c, all of them in Frankenjura (c) Markus Bauer "I tried Headcrash for the first time rather by coincidence as we were looking for a child friendly crag and ended up at a sector nearby. I was immediately psyched to try it as the line and moves are amazing. Due to work and family obligations I had to plan my sessions strategically and sometimes went there on my own. It was very enriching to experience full focus and tranquility during these sessions. I also had nice days with family or friends at the crag, making the whole journey full of contrasts between absolute silence and lively family routine. On the send day, we were there with the whole family and maybe that was the key to success - not being fully focused and thus not feeling pressure or nervosity at all." More info and pics on her Insta.

Alex Puccio has done her 27th 8B, Epochalypse in Flagstaff. Adding another five 8B+' and she has the most impressive female scorecard. In the annual ranking game the 29 year old is #3. (c) Ben Spannuth "First time trying this extension to Trice. We went up to just hang out and have a little climb and then I found that I could repeat Trice pretty easily so decided to put some extra moves into it and sent! Went quite quickly. Now for a fun park day tomorrow!"

Quite frequently we get mails in regards questioned grades and ethics used by the top climbers. These guys always want to stay anonymous but they send them in, in order for the news to be correct. Take it with a pinch of salt but here they are. It should be noted that historically, when we get this type of news frequently, they are often down graded once the news is out. 9a: Papichulo 9a and Thors Hammer 8c+: Estado Critico 8c+, Era Vella, Underground, Cabane au Canada, Esclatamasters, Bain de Sang, Jungle Speed, La Reina Mora 8B+: The Big Island, Practice of the wild, Spray of Light 8B: The Never ending story, Golden shadow, Mooiste Meisie It should be mentioned that many of the above have previously been questioned. Further more, we sometimes receive info in regards climbers using bad ethics in regards onsight ethics or using too many crash pads etc. Normally we inform the climbers but clearly we do not publish such info as we expect it also sometimes come from "competitors".

Christof Rauch has done the first repeat of Michael Piccolruaz' La grosse Tarlouze 8C in Magic Wood. It is a 40+ moves link up combining the famous Unendliche Geschichte with La Tarlouze. "You continue on the big rail to the left. From there its about 16 moves (for me) to a good rest on the top jug of Massive attack (till there is the crux) then there is another little sequence where you can fall when you are too pumped or you have bad luck, then you mantle into the slap (no hand rest) and climb a easy highball slab to the top. Only tried it here and then as a little sideproject, but since I can’t crimp properly at the moment I decided to give it some tries. Seems like all the open handed and slopertraining the last weeks payed of and I managed to make the second ascent of this great endurance testpiece. Already had a pretty good session last year, where i fell 4 times at the last hard move. Today, I fell another 2 times at the very end but then I was lucky enough to fight my way to the top. Thanks to Markus for the huge support and the essential beta."

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done his first 9b, Planta de Shiva in Villanueva del Rosario which Adam Ondra put up. It has previously been repeated three times including Angy Eiter. (c) Javi Pec The day after he also did Mangarbo and Mandanga total, both 9a's. In the 8a ranking game, he is #1 in the Combined ranking game. More info to come.

The ethics in trad climbing is very strict. In order to make a valid ascent you are supposed to place all gear on lead. This means that you have to clean all gear after each try which especially makes overhanging routes very hard and time consuming to do. In the late 70's, climbers started to rappell down in order to manually drill bolts and this sport climbing ethics came to USA in 1983 creating a big controversy. According to Wikipedia the term trad climbing was invented by Tom Higgins in 1984 with the definition that the gear should be placed on lead as it had been done traditionally. Historically, routes where the FA were done hammering in pitons and even drilling bolts on lead where considered trad routes. The dilemma is of course that anybody repeating routes with fixed pitons and bolts will do it with pre-placed gear, aka not the best style in regards trad climbing. Another problem is also that hammering in pitons could be considered as chipping as once they are removed, often due rust, new holds have been created. As a matter of a fact, it is said that Lynn Hill could take advantage of such holds for her small fingers as she did the FA of the Nose in 1993. If fixed pitons are needed for safety reasons, it might be better to place a bolt and define the route as mixed. From a strict ethical perspective, any route with fixed pitons could be called mixed as they do not follow the trad ethics, i.e. all gear should be removed before the next try.

Tomi Nytorp, who previously has done a couple of 9a's, has made the FA of Piratvägen 8c in Finland, an open project since 20 years. The Finn had placed a fix piton as well as some preplaced trad protection. "All together I visited the cliff about 15 times, and of them: serious projecting maybe 5 sessions. I personally thing the grade could be closer to 8c. I did lead it on my second lead try, with gears placed. The line itself is such a beautiful clean crack, hard, and trad. I train about 4 times a week, outdoors when possible, otherwise I train by bouldering in my own home climbing gym at home. I seldom visit commercial gyms."

Here is the result from the Japan Combined this weekend where the Top-5 qualified to the World Championship in Tokyo. The biggest sensation was that Futaba Ito, worst result in Boulder WC 2019 is #9, did not make it as she was #6. ClimbersJP 1. Miho Nonaka 7 - Tomoa Narasaki 6 2. Akiyo Noguchi 12 - Kai Harada 12 3. Ai Mori (15) 12 - Kokoro Fujii 36 4. Natsuki Tanii (15) 72 - Keita Dohi 40 5. Nanako Kura 128 - Yushiyuki Ogata 22

Peru Pt. 1 || A World Less Traveled from Cold House Media on Vimeo.