Take part in the 3rd Leonidio Climbing Festival on November 1-4, 2018, in Leonidio, Greece. Join the festival and climb alongside Angela Eiter, the first woman to ever climb a 9b (5.15b) and Petzl team athletes Klemen Bečan and Said Belhaj. Remember to take part in Vertical-Life's Zlagboard contest! The event is organized by the Region of Peloponnese and the Municipality of South Kynouria, and sponsored by Petzl!

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has done Raining Bats and Dogs in Malham. " Great route, fell 11 times on the big move on the headwall before doing it. Powered by hairdo strawbs :)" (c) John Thornton In 2009, Mina did her first 8A and she was also a successful competition climber having been #10 in a World Cup. In 2017, she did her first 8B (A+) but since her focus seems to have shifted to doing routes.

Cathy Wagner has done her 81+ #148, Walk of Shame in Verdon. Just during the last 12 months the 53 year old has done 17 8a+, which is a new personal best. "No misunderstandings possible, it is 8 and very high class thanks to the vision of the talented Mr. P'tit Louis. a big thanks to him!"

Jain Kim won the last World Cup in Kranj and with 28 victories, she has won most the in IFSC history. Overall, the 153 cm tall worst result since 2009 is #3. (c) Eddie Fowke 28 Jain Kim 25 Angela Eiter 22 Mina Markovic, Sandrine Levet 22 Anna Stöhr 21 Ramon Julian Puigblanque, Kilian Fischhuber, Akiyo Noguchi, Alex Chabot 20 Jakob Schubert, Muriel Sarkany 18 Janja Garnbret 17 Francois Legrand 14 Robin Erbesfield, Adam Ondra It should be mentioned that the first Lead World Cup was held in 1989 and the first Boulder W in 1999. Note that in the early years there were normally less events per year meaning that probably that climbers like Chabot, Levet, Legrand, Sarkany and Erbesfield would probably been higher up in the list based on equal competition conditions.

On October 6th Alannah Yip and Matt Fultz won the 8th Portland Boulder Rally, one of America's premier bouldering events with a $10,000 cash purse and all-day festival. (c) Rich Crowder Event highlights

David Firnenburg, #3 in the Combined WCH in 2016, has done the first repeat of Gerome Pouvreau's Le Cadafist 9a in Saint Léger. "Yeah!!! 2nd ascent after Gerome. Very good job for the FA mate! Such a nice line! Bouldery sections at the start and at the top on crimps, mini pinches and pockets. Pumpy when you link it. Was heartbreaking to slip with my foot once at the very top after I climbed the hardest moves but today I came back, excited and with strong will and did it with style. Proud ascent! "

Laurent Vigouroux is clearly in the best shape of his life having done one more 8c+, Dur sexe in Lubaron and now he goes for his first 9a. In the 40+ ranking game, he is #3. "Without doubts, I benefit actually of a really good shape and I also benefit of a series of success. For this one, I was under pressure since I knew that the weather forecast would not permit one more session in this route before the next summer. So, very happy to succeed in such mental pressure conditions, which is not my best quality. Mathieu Bouyoud also did it one hour before me. Mathieu helped me a lot with some new methods. Next step for me in this spot is to combine this 8c+ with the hard end of "Le moutchiky, 8c" for a probable 9a. So I'm still on the way for my dream ;-)"

Lukasz Dudek has done another two 9a's, Der Lange Atem in Höllental and Sid Lives in Arco. "Short bouldery route. Looks ugly but it's a good piece of rock with some bad pinches and tiny crimps, 2 days." In total the Pole has now done 18 routes graded 9a, 31 8c+ and 61 8c's, so the base is ready for a 9a+ cherry on the cake.

La Sportiva celebrates its 90th anniversary with a reboot of its climbing line: there are 3 classic models involved in the modernization operation with more modern designs and aesthetic solutions in line with the times. Make way then for the new versions of Miura, Futura, Cobra, Katana and Solution!

Edu Marin is back home in Spain after driving back from Flatanger for almost four days, where he among others did Valhalla 9a/+. They stopped in Rodellar where Edu did Nilbru 9a in four sessions. (c) Esteban Lahoz Edu Marin is one of the best multi discipline climbers in the world, from winning the Lead World Cup in Chamonix in 2006 to do world class big wall ascents.