Shoes: Climb easier routes with a high quality shoe with thicker and harder rubber. Resole before it is too late. Rope: Change side after having taken many small low down on a route. By a long rope and cut off some meters. Use a rope bag (IKEA bag or similar) and wash off dirt frequently. Harness: A harness can be used for several years but check the belay loop. Quick draws: Cheaper ones are often almost as good as the expensive ones.

Alex Puccio has done her fiftieth 8A+, Wing Chun in Ibex and she extends her lead in the 8a ranking game. "First day ever climbing in Ibex! Amazing line, always wanted to try this one!!!" (c) Joel Zerr When it comes to outdoor bouldering, the silver medalist on the WCH in 2014, has more or less dominated the scene the last ten years beside having got some bad injuries actually competing. Last weekend she was #3 in the USA Lead Nationals. What are your competition plans and what about the Olympics? I plan to do some Bouldering and Lead World Cups this year, but not the whole seasons and I will be at World Champs for sure competing in at least Bouldering and Lead.

The Boulder World Cup 2018 starts in Switzerland 13/4 followed by one in Russia, China, China, Japan, USA and Germany. A lot of travelling like last year so there are probably not more than 20 male and female who will do the whole circuit. In 2017, the Japanese male dominated with five guys Top-8 and nine guys Top-16. Bare in mind that they were just allowed to send a maximum of nine guys to each WC last year but based on the result from 2017, they will be able to participate with up to 14 guys. Remember also that in the Youth World Championship last year, the Japanese boys got six out of nine medals. The bouldering competition scene is booming and for sure there will be more participants in Meiringen compared to the 115 last year, where Japan had three male in Top-4. What about 140 participants and five Japaneses Top-10? For the full season, with the big Japanese travelling budget and Olympic focus, there just might be six or seven guys Top-10 overall. The picture shows the qualification results from Vail where all the nine participating Japanese were Top-10! What is interesting to note is that their coaches and some athletes have said that they do not follow a strict physical training plan. Instead it is mainly about a team challenge and experimenting jumping around to get the adrenaline. After the last WC event 2017, in Munich, the Japanese male team entered the stage again and tried to repeat the boulders in sneakers with smiling faces, when their opponents already had entered the big party downstairs.

Dani Furtes has done his 36th 8c+, El Rastro in Siurana. "Around 10 tries but I have been working La Rambla and 2/3 of the route is same." Nice to see is that the 37 year old who started to climb in 1995 is actually at his peak and approaching 1 000 routes 8a and harder. In the 8a ranking game, Dani is #4. (c) Dan Krauss

Thomas Blaaberg, who walks with crutches to the crags since a bad accident in 2013, has become the first Dane to do a 9a through Joe-Cita in Oliana. (c) Tor Johnsson "Been trying this line for a while now, and after falling tree times in a row on the last move in the crux, I decided to take a break from it and try some of the other classics... it worked well for me, so after a 10 day long break I was extremely excited to go back and give it everything I had. It went down on my second try that day!" So what is next? Relax and enjoy that’s it’s done! No need to rush at the moment !:-)!!

There are close to 5 million star rated ascents in the 8a database. Through the advanced search you can find the highest rated climbs by stars, grade and onsight percentage etc for different crags and countries. You can also check directly through the crag Tick List and some of the crags that stick out are; Phalz, Montanejos, Schleier Wasserfall, Donautal, Bohuslän, Wild Iris, American Fork, Terradets and Verdon. Among boulder areas; Val Calanca, Eldorado Canyon, Devil's Lake, Newlin, Brione, Poudre Canyon, Mt Evans and Yosemite.

Sebastian Bouin: "My hardest challenge process at the moment. Hopefully the place is incredible, that's keep me motivate to come back this year." Really great video, enjoy!

Jonas Winter, who previously has done The Big Island 8C and Underground 9a, reports on Instagram that he has done the 30 moves long Quoi de neuf 8C in Orsay roof. "The boulder got my attention after seeing a photo of Jacky Godoffe shaking out in the no hand rest before the second part of this line wich is 8a+/8b on its own and has an amazing 180° campus move in it which is unique for a outdoor boulder. I could do the the second part two years ago but the complete line stayed in my mind ever since."

The Big Island in Fontainebleau is the most confirmed 8C in the world with 17 ascents, including Any Gullsten yesterday, and everyone on 8a has given it three stars. It was put up with as a stand start by Vincent Pochon in 2010 after Dave Graham had made a two moves in FA, The Island, two years earlier. Over the years, many boulderers have checked out the sit start where Jan Hojer and James Webb have done some good linking. As it is so steep and climbs diagonally into the starting position, the sit start in itself, could be considered a boulder possibly around 8C. Adding the equally long, The Big Island 8C on top of this, with absolutely, no rest might be that we are talking about the another 9A? James Webb: "The sit start is an incredible project. For me personally the bottom is at least 8B+ and maybe even harder than The Big Island itself. The intro (10 moves for my method) is very powerful, yet technical with a tricky kneebar that links you through to the stand. Once you’re there you just have to take a deep breath and with absolutely no rest climb the Big Island. It’s a mega line! I would say that it is is somewhat a serious project for me. I've tried it now for about three seasons. I just made a trip there in Jan/Feb but the weather only allowed me to have thee sessions on it in total which was quite frustrating. It's a mega line though and I'm excited to return next year for another round of attempts! I had a good try this season where I entered the stand start and stuck the big right hand move to the sloper. After that you stuff the left heel and go to the crimp and this is where I fell. Seems close! Though the next few moves require a lot of tension and from the bottom you're exhausted. So its definitely not over!" On the picture, James is doing the move out to the start of The Big Island. The sit starts all the way down straight below his right foot. So have you have in fact linked the whole sit start to like 3-4 moves into the stand? Yup. Many times actually.