You are an experienced sales manager or web developer? This is your chance to combine your profession with your passion, rock climbing. 8a.nu and Vertical-Life are searching for motivated people to expand their team in Brixen/Bressanone, Northern Italy. Send your application to [email protected]. Sales manager Support our high-performing sales team in strategic planning, customer acquisition and key account management. Required skills: - Experience in sales planning and sales processes - Thorough knowledge of the climbing and outdoor industry - Excellent negotiation skills - Language skills: English, German; preferably Italian, Spanisch or French Web developer Develop and maintain our various web applications. Required skills: - Ruby on Rails - Javascript - HTML5 & CSS - Object oriented programming - Relational databases Desired skills: - Vue.js - Node.js

Throughout the years, 8a has repeatedly said that the grades are too soft around Lleida. Until now, at least a quarter of the popular 8c's and harder are subject of being down graded and possibly 10 % have already been. The reason why we could speculate in down gradings were; High number of personal best and personal down grades, many marked routes as "soft" and also that some guys have been whispering to us. Based on more such recent info, it just might be that within two years the official down grades will have doubled as there might be a chain reaction when the grade brick of some popular routes will be placed one step below. The dilemma is of course that it does not feel awkward to spread "fake" news reporting ascents based on a too high grade. To get around this we sometimes report 9a (8c+). At the same time it is important to say that we do understand climbers who just take the topo grade in order to not offend friends etc. A good example of the down grading dilemma is Mind control, see picture by (c) M. Leśniewski, which we already in 2013 said it should 8c. One year earlier, Gabri Moroni commented in his scorecard, "Everybody knows it's only 8c...but nobody will ever downgrade it :-P." The easiest way to predict down gradings is simply by looking for the most repeated routes, as many climbers, like water, naturally are looking for the easiest way to their destination.

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!