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.

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.

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!"

The picture shows in which months the ascents in Leonidio have been recorded in the 8a data base. In Europe only Geyik Bayiri and El Chorro of the popular crags have a similar concentration in the winter season as Leonidio. Other great winter destinations in Europe are San Vito lo Capo on Sicily, Osp/Misja Pec, Arico on Tenerife, Fenda near Lisbon, Mallorca and crags around Malaga, Valencia and Barcelona.

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 %

Oriane Bertone has repeated Madame X assis in Les Avirons giving it a personal graden of 8A. The next day, she did the FA of Agamemnon Assis 8A. "I send the sit version after 3 work sessions. I felt it harder than "Madame X", 15 meters from Agamemnon in the same area, which was called 8A+ in the topo. Wery happy for this second hard FA of the month, after Le Spartiate Sit Direct !" In total, the 13 year old has done 13 Boulders 8A to 8B+ in 2018 and she is #2 in the female ranking game after Isabelle Faus. Video of her last four done boulders.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did an 8c+ being 12 years old, has done Staring at the sea 8b+ in Blue Mountains.

"The Kalymnos guidebook by @ariskaly and Roussos has been completely updated since the last edition was published in 2016. The digital version is now available in our app! The update has over 1,000 new routes and 12 crags that are only available in the app. Enjoy a total of 3,800 routes with full-color photo topos." More info⠀

Hopefully this year has been full of good climbing and successful trips to beautiful crags and we wish you strong motivation into completing new challenges in 2019.

Last week Iker Pou did the FA of Artaburu in Margalef. In his words the route is by far the hardest he ever climbed but he never graded it. Now he says it is probably 9b but as such type of finger pockets is his strength, "it just might be harder."©Jordi Canyi When did you bolt Artaburu? I bolted the line in November 2012. I just tried it a little but couldn't do many moves... :) Did you try it a lot or you also trained specifically? It took me a lot of effort. I have tried the route every year when I could but I took it seriously in 2016. In both 2017 and 2018 I was close to send it but it didn't happen. Then recently I felt fitter and knowing the moves perfectly I did it. I have trained myself as usual but I did little changes. I did many meters outdoors but this year I went a lot of days to the gym Es Cau in Palma de Mallorca spending a couple of hours on the moonboard, after climbing outdoors. And in fact it worked cause I was stronger than ever. Do you feel stronger being 41? To be honest I feel really good, fit and maybe stronger than ever. The biggest difference is that I have to rest much more days than when I was younger but when I have a good day I see myself experienced and looseness (old dog!). The clue was train on plastic and lose 2kg. Have you plans for harder routes? Currently I don't have plans to try something really hard. I just want to stop sport climbing for a while and do some alpinism that motivates me a lot. Soon I will be psyched again to climb hard. Maybe if I find a cool line I will get focus onto it but now I need adventure and less sport climbs.