Mina Leslie-Wujastyk, with a personal best of 8c, started projecting Rainshadow 9a almost three years ago. In august lat year, she fell up-side-down and was taken to the hospital with a helicopter. In a Tedx event she explains her drive in climbing and that she is actually looking for uncertainty to meet her goals. In all, her talk is a lesson in mental training and part of why we all love climbing.

Adam Mach has done two 9a’s; Acapulco extension and Stal Milec in Dolina Kluczwody. The katter was originally an 8c+ with artificiell holds which was taken out in 2012. ”Probably I am the first who did both the most difficult routes in poland. At the beginning of this year I was able to train 2 times a day which probably resulted in some degree of success. When I work abroad I spend a lot of time on the trx handles of the wheel and kettle. I want to thank everyone that came with me to the cave and everyone who belayed me.

Jakob Kronberger who did his first out of six 9a's when he was 14 years old, has done Schneller als der Schatten 8c+ in Salzburger land. "I've never sent a route this hard so quickly. The crux includes one of my favorite dynos in any route I've ever climbed. More info on his Insta.

R&I has published a long article where Jerry Moffat explains how he dealt with mental pressure. Jerry was one of the best climbers during the 80’s on rock but had problems to perform in comps. A week or so later the proverbial light went on. I realized I didn’t need more power, or endurance. I didn’t need to lose weight. I needed to be strong mentally. I needed to know what exactly I should be thinking. If I couldn’t utilize my power or technique under pressure, I would never win."

Jon Cardwell, who previously has done three 9a+' and often gives personal grades, has done the FA of Z Nation in Rifle, calling it a hard 9a. (c) Bearcam "It's actually a link-up between three existing routes; Zulu, The Crew, and Bad Girls Club. I envisioned the link because another project I have in the canyon had some wet holds and I figured it would be a nice endurance challenge in the meantime. After climbing the first few bolts of Zulu, which is pretty bouldery, you get a good rest and then connect into the Crew via a pretty difficult boulder problem. After that, it's a pure endurance challenge to the end with the most difficult section coming at the last bolts of Bad Girls Club.

Based on some 1 800 unique votes, Female Climbing Hero?, with 2017 figures in brackets, Margo Hayes were voted #1. Here is a short 8a interview after she did La Rambla 9a+. Later she has also done Biographie. (c) Matty Hong. 18 % Margo Hayes (15) 14 % Angela Eiter (11) and Lynn Hill (35) 13 % Alex Puccio (10) 10 % Barbara Zangerl 08 % Janja Garnbret (9), Akiyo Noguchi 04 % Shauna Coxsey (6), Josune Bereziartu (8) 02 % Sasha Digulian 05 % Other

In 2013, Japan was runner up in the Boulder World Cup ranking with 1 523 points behind Austria at 1 946. In comparison to the total Top-5 countries score, Japan got 21 %. This figure has been on a steady increase over the years and in 2018, they are 43 %.

Katrin "Kaddi" Lehmann has done Franz Widmer's Kryptos in Balsthal becoming the second women to do 8C. It has previously been repeated by Fred Nicole and Kevin Heiniger. She discovered it 15 months ago and since the end of last year she has been projecting it hard. More info on Black Diamond “I knew in May I wouldn’t have much time. Since it was so warm already, I drove to the area after work late in the evening. I only arrived at midnight. Slept there, got up at 6am, had coffee and some breakfast, cycled or walked up to the boulder, tried some moves, cycled down to the car, drove back and went straight to work. It was hard to get up so early and try hard. People who know me, know that I am not really an early morning person. But all that effort was worth it. I thought even if it didn't work out, I had a nice time outside. And then on the 14th of May I was able totop out this boulder”. (c) Michael Steimle FA video.

The seventh and last Boulder WC will take place in Munich 17-18/8 and it is a two + two person battle. Jernej Kruder and Miho Nonaka are in forefront. Tomoa Narasaki needs to be #9 or better and beat Jernej to win and Akiyo Noguchi needs to be #2 and beat Miho to win. Complete rankings