Oriane Bertone continues her rampage in Rocklands by doing Law and order 8A+, Pendragon 8A and onsighting Tail of a Caracal giving it a personal 8A grade. To make it even more impressive, the daily max temperature have reached 35 degrees the last days. "Cool traverse, called 8A+ on the topo. I felt it 8A soft (à single hard move at the beginning). May be 7C+ in comparison with Atomic Playboy in Font, that I climbed in october. Very happy to send onsight this crimpy traverse." In total, the 13 year old has done 36 boulders 8A to 8B+ out of which half the last year. The video shows her amazing spider women technique with the feet sometimes like 1 meter above her head! Truly amazing!

Laura Rogora, who did her first 9a when she was 14 years old, has done her fifth, Esclatamasters in Perles. It was put up by Ramon Julian Puigblanque in 2007 and we have seen some 8c+ suggestions but then a hold broke in 2015 and the 9a grade has been confirmed again. (c) Marco Lacono The 17 year old has been a successfull competition climber for several years and in 2017, she was #6 in the European Championship and also #6 in a World Cup. Last year, she won all three European Lead Youth Cups she entered as well as the Youth Worlds in Bouldering.

Jakub Konečný, #6 in the Lead WCH in Innsbruck, reports on Insta that he finished off 2018 by doing Catxasa 9a+ in Santa Linya. This means he has done four 9a or harder just the last two weeks. (c) Vojta Vrzba "Last possible try of the day, last climb of this year. I’m glad to finish this already great season by clipping the chain of my dream route."

We are expanding our team in Brixen/Bressanone, Northern Italy. If you are a climbing enthusiast and would love to work in one of the climbing industry’s most innovative and passionate teams, send your application and CV to [email protected]. Head of Marketing Develop innovative marketing strategies for B2B and B2C, create engaging campaigns and put communication ideas into practice. Required skills: - Strategic marketing planning - Campaign planning and execution - Independent working and team leading skills - Experience in social media and digital marketing - Excellent English language skills (preferably also German and other languages) Content Manager Organize and process content of climbing guidebooks and gyms, such as topos, climbing walls, 3D sketches. Coordinate and communicate with content owners and integrate data into our system. Required skills: - Very good computer skills - Precise working skills - Ability to work fast and persistently - Preferably experience with various applications such as Adobe CC / Sketch-up - Very good English language skills

Jernej Kruder, boulder World Cup winner in 2018 and famous for his multi-discipline focus instead of training indoors before the comps, reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Dugi rat 9a+ in Vrulja, Croatia. Old projecting video. "Incredible line! Bolted it 3 years ago and had to spend 5(6) visits to finish it, including one month trip that was too rainy. Braking some holds made it way harder during the tires, but so happy it remained climbable. Had a huge fight with a bit easier upper part because of numb fingers. Still dreaming about the line <3." In the 8a Combined ranking game, the Slovenian is #5 including 8b+ DWS FA, 8b+ MP, 8b+ trad and 8C Boulder FA etc. In the 8a Climber of the year, he is #6.

The easiest way to measure progress in climbing is to try to repeat the same boulder or even try a new campus board move. Sure it feels great to be stronger on a specific move but, in reality, it does not make you a better climber. In reality, the same thing can often be said even when a new personal grade have been sent. Any coach or experienced climber would instead "measure" you based on multiple styles and factors. In order to improve as a climber you should focus to widen your skill base of your pyramid. Many of us are pretty optimized when it comes to max power so only limited improvements are found there. Becoming a better climber means often to focus on our weaknesses that are seldom trained like technique, tactic and flexibility. Focusing on each challenge instead of trying to do the short cut by finding a specific route in order to set a new personal best. Technical improvements can be done be climbing more dynamical by doing moves with three contacts using just one foot or one hand. Other options could be to focus on knee drops or cross over moves. Tactical skill are easiest done by route reading before climbing, trying to find resting points etc, and then analyse your climbing together with a friend afterwards.

Adam Ondra has been chosen 8a Climber of the year for nine straight years and in fact, there has not been much of a competition from the runner ups. In 2018, Ondra has again done many astonishing ascents like a 9a+ flash, two 8c+ onsights, two 9b FA's and an 8C boulder. In the Comp scene, he was #2 in both Lead and in Combined in the World Championship. These great performances would have been enough in any of the previous nine years but in 2018, there is a great challenge from Jakob Schubert. Double World Champion and World Cup winner in Lead and three times Top-4 in Bouldering speak for it selves. Then he has done two 9b's and two 9a+, out of one originally called 9b/+. When it comes to bouldering Jakob flashed Catalan Whitness the Fitness giving it a personal grade of 8B+ and the same down grading suggestion for two more 8C's. Clearly, Ondra is a superior #1 when it comes to outdoors and the same goes for Schubert on the competition scene. So the big question is who should be considered Climber of 2018? Only measuring redpoints outdoors, Schubert should be #1 but then Ondra has his remarkable onsight record as well as having done ten 9a to 9b FA beside also impressive multi-pitches and trad climbs.

Iker Ortiz has done his first 9a, La Negra in Gandia. "What an illusion! A good physical and mental struggle, third ascent after Pedro and Jonatan."

Some 15 years ago, very few climbers downgraded climbs and even if everyone did know that the grades were too soft in general, for example on Kalymnos and in Ticino, very few reacted. As 8a wanted to present correct news we said the situation was like in the Fairy tale 'The Emperor's new clothes'. Downgrading, aka screaming that the Emperor is nude, was quite controversial and it had not started before David Graham put up The Story of Two World's as an 8C in combination with an article on 8a where he talked about the grade inflation. Later, 8a started to use the term "personal grade" instead of saying, "downgraded it", which now is actually the way the whole community defines it in order to reduce controversies. Still, most stay away from giving personal grades and instead sometimes use the words "soft" and "hard" and that is just fine. On the other hand, it seems that some use personal grades to show off or just in order to be disrespectful to the FA-ionists and repeaters, which happens especially in Bouldering. If you honestly feel that a Boulder is more than two grades wrong and you do not say it in a nice way, you can imagine that you are stepping on some toes. Sure you might be correct but when we are talking about three grades differences, maybe you should try to write it in a polite way in order not to offend some. Maybe you did not do the same Boulder, you found new beta, some holds have gotten bigger or you did not start in the same way etc. In the 8a system you get the score and the news is based on your personal grade, which hopefully makes the provocative people calm down. We also think that it is good enough to say "soft" if you are not just sure if the line is clearly one grade easier for you personally. What I am critical towards is that in some databases you can downgrade a boulder with three grades but you still get the fame for having done the original grade! I mean that this system creates unnecessary and sometimes unfriendly controversies.