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."

Oriane Bertone is as usual in Rocklands during the Christmas break. Although fighting 30-35 degrees, the 13 year old has quickly done two 8A+', Leopard Cave and Green Mamba. In the 8a ranking game, she is #2 after Isabelle Faus. Nice video showing her amazing feet over the head technique.

Starting 14th January in Stockholm, the celebrated documentary Free Solo that has received 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, is on a tour around the Nordic countries. Free Solo is a stunning, intimate and unflinching portrait of the free soloist climber Alex Honnold, as he prepares to achieve his lifelong dream: climbing the face of the world’s most famous rock ... the 3,000ft El Capitan in Yosemite National Park ... without a rope. The New York Times writes: "Alex Honnold’s Free Solo climb should be celebrated as one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever." Dates: 14th Jan Stockholm SOLD OUT 15th Jan Stockholm SOLD OUT 15th Jan Malmö 16th Jan Norrköping 17th Jan Göteborg 22nd Oslo SOLD OUT 23rd Oslo 24th Stockholm Bio Roy More cities and dates will be updated on www.strang.se Requests to screen Free Solo at other cities in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, please contact [email protected] Photographs © 2018 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

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.

Christof Rauch has done his third 8C in 2018, Der mit dem Fels tanzt 8C in Chironico which Martin Keller did put up. In total, Christof who works full time, has done 144 boulders 8A and harder this year which should be most in the world. In the 8a ranking game, based on the Top-10 ascents, he is #5. The pic is from Big Kat 8B+ which he did three days ago. (c) Largegon Damien "Already tried it when I did „Insanity of Grandeur“, back then it felt way to hard to link it from the bottom, this trip it was different and I managed to do it on my third day of the trip. Great problem with sick moves, especially the feet first part and the compression at the end. Syked!"

We have been informed that although it has been raining a lot in Fontainebleau lately, many climb as soon the holds have dried. This should not be done as holds can break and it has actually happened many times. If you cannot wait 36 hours after a heavy rain in areas with limestone or sandstone, you should opt for slabs or Boulders with really solid holds.

Eric Hörst, one of the leading climbing trainers and authors the last 25 years, have made a review of Vertical-Life's new Route Setter Magazine, which can be bought for 5 Euros. Alternatively you might check it up in your gym as Vertical-Life has sent out one magazine to 1 000 different gyms around the globe. "Just received this copy of the new #RouteSetter magazine published by @vertical.life.climbing. All I can say is “WOW!” @matthiaspolig (and his crew) have created a stunning publication—it’s the most amazing first issue of a magazine I’ve ever seen. NOTE: This magazine is about much more than routesetting—I believe this will become THE worldwide trade magazine for everything gym oriented...including gym management, holds & wall manufacturing, gym software, training area design, “player” profiles, gym gear, new products, and more! Kudos to the @vertical.life.climbing crew for their vision and execution!"

Jakob Schubert, double World Champion and World Cup winner in 2018, reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Chris Sharma's Neanderthal in Santa Linya from 2009. (c) John Campbell "On my first day working this 115 moves (!!) monster I thought it will take a while to be able to send. But I quickly made a lot of progress and today (my 6th day on the route) I stuck the crux move and kept it together until the top." Gareth Parry, winner of Arco Rock Master 2007, witnessed the ascent. "Classic Jakob, a cool, calculated and somewhat precision perfect ascent of another hard route. He looked well within his maximum. Back on the ground he said one of the hardest moments was to stay focused after the dyno and not let the mind play tricks and take over.

Based on 800+ unique votes, "Best hard core bouldering temperature?", we can see that single digit temperature are preferred. Interesting is that 5 % think below freezing is the best. In comparison to a previous poll in 2015, the results are very similar. 05 % Below Freezing - 7 % 2015 32 % 4 celsius (39F) - 34 % 33 % 8 celsius (46F) - 29 % 17 % 12 celsius (54F) -14 % 12 % I enjoy the sun - 15 %