Connor Herson (15) has done the sixth ascent of Lynn Hill classic almost 1 000 meters The Nose 8b+ in Yosemite (originally graded 8a back in 1993). Being 13 years old he French freed it during a day and last year Connor did 15 routes 8b+ and harder including one 8c+ second go. The two last years he has been Top-11 in the Youth World Championship. Old 8a interview. "The Nose is a very interesting route to me; it only has about 20 feet of really hard climbing in the changing corners pitch, as well as a few other pitches of still hard but slightly easier climbing. I'm definitely so psyched to have done it! In total, it was my sixteenth day working on freeing the route (10 days either rapping in to changing corners or climbing up to the great roof, as well as 2 three-day pushes), and those were mostly weekends or school holidays. Last weekend, my dad and I went up to get our systems dialed and try the route (it was my first multi-day bigwall), and I surprised myself my sending the great roof and coming very close on changing corners. We decided to go up again this weekend when the weather forecast over Thanksgiving looked bad and school was cancelled due to poor air quality last Friday. I definitely wasn't expecting to send, but I did everything up to changing corners without falling and, to my surprise, sent changing corners on my fourth try! I still can't believe it!" (c) Jim Herson who also belayed him and comments. "The breakthrough of his ascent is not so much his young age but how quickly he put it together without using fixed ropes. El Cap is overrun with climbers these days. Fixed ropes on El Cap's popular routes are untenable. I'm most proud that he was able free El Cap without using fixed ropes and interfering with other climbers. And most importantly, he freed the Nose without missing a day of school!"

Calrin Curtis from South Africa is a full time lawyer that has great chances to be the male African representative in the Olympics. The 24 year old who trains six times a week plans to stop working in six months and then only focus on climbing and the Olympics. In the last world championship he was #72 out of 87, with 9.05 in Speed as his best result and the only African competitor. "I started climbing at my school when I was 16. I competed in the world youth Championships in Imst in 2011 and Singapore in 2012 and was the highest placed African Athlete at both events. I plan to head overseas to climb and gain as much training and experience as I can until my money runs out. I would love to go to Innsbruck and train and also try and find sponsorships to help extend my trip as long as possible. Perhaps this article could help:) I don't have too much structure to my training at the moment but I train all 3 disciplines equally. I'm looking forward to learning new training structures when I go overseas."

8a and Vertical-Life are hiring: We’re looking for motivated User Experience / User Interface Designers for mobile and web projects! If you love climbing as well as designing user experiences, this could be your chance to combine your greatest passions. You will be joining our highly motivated team of climbers, business strategists, product managers, designers, engineers, and merchandisers. You will be working on user experience strategies for our existing apps and websites, and for new projects from the ground up. Get in touch to receive detailed information about the job. Send your application, CV and portfolio to: [email protected]

Sachi Amma stopped competing after he won the World Cup in 2014. Next year he reached his goal to do ten routes 9a or harder. Then in 2016 he stopped doing hard routes. ""I can not find any value to be a better person by comparing myself with other climbers. That is why I stopped competing and climbing hard routes. Why do I need to be better than the others?" Changing horizon interview. Now he rises again but no grade on his Insta so we had to beg for it. In total he has now done eleven 9a+ and two 9b's. "This route is in Shirakabe Face area, 30m long almost vertical with 16 bolts. I bolted original line this April but it was too difficult for me. So I made a connection to the route “Akirameruna” (No Surrender, from Kenji Iiyama 7c+). Original part is 7 bolts, about 20 moves of hard 8b+ then you directly go to a 4 moves 8A+ before continuing into “Akirameruna”. Crux move is from two micro crimps to far under cling. The wall is vertical so you need to be strong on your finger and sensitive for the movement. I started working from ground from middle of October but kept falling at the crux move. After about 25days of working on it, I finally stuck that move on beautiful sunny, cold and windy day in this November 15th. It was beautiful days with Autumn leaves. In Japanese, Kanji, Climb(登) and Rise(昇) are same pronunciation. We normally use Climb(登) for climbing. But I found that if you are really into the climbing, you are out of control by yourself. I think it is not climb but rise. This route taught me this. I would love to finish the original line in near future. So many things to climb in Japan!"

"Energia Cosmica is the name of the route that I had bolted one year ago in the Bilico’s crag in the Canali valley (Dolomites). This place is simply wonderful and is near my home in the mountains. The approach is one hour and twenty minutes but all the routes are amazing and is perfect if you like slab climbing. Now the crag have seven routes from 8a to 9a+. My favorite climbing style is the slab and Energia Cosmica is my hardest slab route ever, a lot more difficult than Bain de Sang 9a and Bimba luna 9a/+ that I had done in 2017 in few attempts. For this route I did somthing like 60 attempts and 20 days on the route and I think that could be my first 9a+. I hope that one day someone try to do the first repetition. I’m very happy to have completed this challenge, the perfect slab in the perfect place with the perfect rock!"

Alex Garriga has done his second 9a in just three weeks, Seta total in Cuenca. © Marc Pinyol "Completely unexpected, without worrying about it everything comes. A magic try."

Alexander Rohr, who previously has done four 9a, has done Chromosome X in Charmey giving it a personal grade of 8c+. "Unfortunately fell in the last hard move in my second go and again in try 3 and 4 yesterday..... 2 degrees is just too cold! Did it first try today.... Never 9a but a good route and a cool resistant style on small holds..." In regards the two different sequences to the right by FA Pirmin Bertle and first repeater Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi used to the left, Alexander found a method in between. He also says that Chromosome Y, which Adam Ondra flashed, feels harder.

The qualification to Tokyo 2020 will start in just six months and here is the 8a prediction of the final ranking. 1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Miho Nonaka JPN 2. Adam Ondra CZE - Janja Garnbret SLO 3. Jakob Schubert AUT - Jessica Pilz AUT 4. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN - Akiyo Noguchi JPN 5. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA - Stasa Geijo SER 6. Jernej Kruder SLO - Jain Kim KOR It should be noted that max two from each country is allowed to participate so here are some Japanese names with almost equal chances to get a spot and also become Top-6: Meichi Narasaki, Kai Harada, Kokoro Fujii, Keita Dohi, Futaba Ito, Mei Kotake.

karoline sinnhuber, who previously has done four 8B's, has done her tenth 8A+ The Anthem in Zillertal, in just three sessions. "After falling from the lip last week I finally did it! Quick ascent today, thank god I don‘t have to hike up there again hahaha." "@my next plans: Not sure yet. I‘ll definitely be in Ticino again after xmas for 11 days. @comps: Definitely trying to climb as many boulder worldcups as possible depending on how it goes I‘ll decide what 2020 brings." In the very last World Cup boulder this year she was #8 in Munich.