Paul Robinson has done his 18th 8C, Delirium in Mt Evans, up at 3 700 meters, after five days of projecting. " The climb is 18 moves long out this big roof. Relief! too many mishaps on the end of this one. should have done this days ago but i just kept messing up the top! very happy that this mini epic is OVER! onward to the next one on the list :) 7 more to go! According, 99boulders Dai Koyamada and Daniel Woods have done 22 8C's which is most in the world. In total, Paul has recorded 909 boulders 8A and harder so on that list he is probably #1. Here is his latest video featuring New Zealand.

William Bosi, #13 in the Lead WCH in Innsbruck, has done a quick ascent of Practice of the wild 8C in Magic Wood. Next is the World Cup in Kranj this weekend. (c) Eddie Fowke, who also got it on video. "The routes in Kranj revolve around a hard boulder in the roof half way up where I always fall, so I decided a hard boulder in a roof would be perfect training for this. It’s been really good fun training everything, I actually enjoy speed training the most..."

Marta Palou Carol spent the whole summer in Rodellar out of some 15 days projecting the 40 meter Florida 8c. During the La Sportiva Festival celebrating the 90 years anniversary, she sent it. (c) Edu Ruano "The hardest part it’s on 35 meters! I’m so happy that this line has become my first 8c! I’m so psyched right now! My next big goal is to take my driving license :) Maybe next summer having finished my Sport science studies, or this winter if I have time, and I'm psyched to try another 8c or 8c+.

The hardest thing in climbing, for most, is to always give 100 % during onsight and flash. On the other hand, this mental skill is what differentiates the very best from the rest of us. If you could fight as hard as the obsessed unique top climbers like Ondra you would immediately onsight two grades harder and also do much better in competitions. At the same time, such experience will produce more adrenaline and your climbing energy will be more awarding for you and your friends in several ways. One way to train the obsession to always fight 100 % and get rid of the fear of failure is to do orienteering exercises on steep boulder walls. Instead of just following and working on a specif color marked boulder you need walls fully covered with different holds. Set up some control points on the bouldering wall and ask your friend to give you directions and exercises at your level. This means that some holds need to be out of bounce or that you are just allowed to use one foot etc, in the beginning of the circle. Your "coach" could also say that a maximum of three moves are allowed to reach the next control point etc. Such orienteering will also train your tactical skill but the main point is to make you do 20 times as many 100 % fighting flash moves then you are used to in a training session. It will not take long until you feel you are mentally stronger to more often fight 100 % during onsight and flash. You will be fully pumped with adrenaline, very long from doing the robot training, repeating the same routes and boulder over and over again. Picture from Adam Ondra's Insta. "I have been taking annual two-week-break, so I could start working on changing the setup of holds in my gym @kotelna.brno. One part is almost finished, my dream of having the wall as full of holds as the japanese gyms or @chonjongwon96's gym has not been reached yet, but getting closer..." Possibly it is not a coincidence that also the best bouldering competitors train with fully covered walls so they can use their creativity to fight and enjoy as many challenges as possibly, to get mentally stronger.

Gareth Parry, #3 in a Boulder WC in 2003, has done the 55 meter long Nordic Flower 8c in Flatanger. (c) Esteban Lahoz "Last year I went for a short trip to Flatanger where I mainly climbed os up to 8a+. I had a quick look at Nordic Flower but instantly knew it would take a more focussed visit. This time I returned with one aim. More time and a relaxed and systematic approach to working it as 3 sections rather than considering it as one massive route meant it kept the progress coming. After climbing the 8b+ 1st around 4 times I managed to pass the boulder after the belay and clip the chains. It was a a dream end to the trip with the route going down on the last go of the last day. That evening we drove home."

Oriane Bertone has done Chykungunya in Ouaki giving it a personal 8c grade. In the Combined ranking game the 13 year old is #2 in spite of frequently suggesting personal grades. "Harder (right) variant of "Pari". The last section and the specially the final boulder is really hard. It was called 8c+ on the topo, but as I downgraded Pari (8b+), so Chykungunya seems to me more 8c. Very pumpy and cool to climb". Video.

In the Youth Nordic Championships in Finland, they divided the eight finalist in two groups and let them start on all four boulders at the same time. Including the fixed 5 min interval, the finals took just 40 min each for eight participants. If they would have used the normal final format, identical to WC semis, the finals would have taken 70 minutes each. Instead of finishing at 17.30 and some missing the flights back home, the competition was finished 14.30. In the competition the new format worked perfectly, Norway with Nicki Horak as Head coach and who took the format initiative, got more than 50 % of the medals. In the youngest girl category, Norway was 1 - 6.

Seb Bouin has done the FA of the 60 meter long La Côte d’usure in the Ramilore cave in Verdon. Previously he has done six routes 9a+ and 9b. " I bolted this route 9 years ago, when i was 16 years old. It's by far the most beautiful route I have ever bolted, and climbed." (c) Tilby Vattard

Cathy Wagner has added two more 8a+' and three 8a's to her impressive scorecard the last two weeks. In total the 53 year old has done 687 routes 8a and harder out of which one third second go. During the last 12 months she has done 70 routes 8a to 8b. She has previously said that one laziness but also explanation for her sending so much is that she skips warming up and go right on it. Cathy started climbing being 21 yers old back in 1985 and did her first 8a in 1994 and her first 8b when she was 35. You might wonder how hard she would be capable of if she started projecting a route for some months, instead of just doing multiple rather quick sends of routes up to 8b.