Moritz Welt has done Bloodgammon 8B in Frankenjura and it only took the 16 year old one session. This was his fourth 8B just in the last two weeks. Including also one 9a, Moritz is #3 in the Junior combined ranking. In total, he has done 12 routes and 37 boulders 8a and harder in 2017. In the preliminary 8a Junior of 2017, the German is #11.

Today climbing history was written by Moonboard Masters where five teams competed on a live-streaming simultaneously in Sheffield, Barcelona, New York and Osaka *2. The invited set ten new problems and you did get 200 points, + 20 bonus points for a flash, for a top to the 18th row on the board. Reaching and controlling a hold on row #10 gave 100 point and row #15 150 points etc. The maximum score was 2 200. Video 1. Alex Megos/Margo Hayes 1 920 points 2. Jongwon Chon/Miho Nonaka 1 730 3. Tomoa Narasaki/Akiyo Noguchi 1 700 4. Rustam Gelmanov/Katja Kadic 1 370 5. Daniel Woods/Kyra Condie 1 240

Alex Puccio has done her 11th 8A+ the last 12 months, Brown smurf in Hueco Tanks and she aims for more. (c) Sarah Filler "Another fitness boulder. Skin will be god for the project soon. Right Martini into the end REALLY small holds of Esperanza. Just as fun as right Martini. slightly harder moves at the end then Right Martini, but shorter." In total, the runner up in the World Champion in 2014 has done 75 boulders 8A+ to 8B+ which is way more than any other female, in spite having had several bad injuries.

Seb Bouin, who previously has done some 30 routes 9a and harder, reports on Facebookthat he has done La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. (c) Tillby Vattard "This route is a piece of climbing history. For me it's a revenge to do it in 9 goes this year, because I injured my back 2 years ago on this route. In fact, I injured a herniated disc on the crux during a working session. It was really bad, but now it's really finish because I take my revenge. It's time to close french projects."

Anak Verhoeven, #3 in the World Cup 2017 and who just established the very first female 9a+ FA, reports on Instagram that she has done Ciudad de Dios in Santa Linya which is 9a/+ in the topo. (All ten entries in the 8a data base selected 9a.) (c) Monika Vetinka During the same day, the Belgian also did La Fabela 8c+ which in practice is an easier version of Ciudad de Dios. Based these two ascents, the 21-year-old has been moved up to #6 on the 8a Sport climber of the year list.

Björn Alber, aka Dr 8a, has put together a instructive video how to get stronger gripping power including both the theory and practical exercises. The new thing is a greater focus on muscle growth, through more and longer repetitions, and also to combine several new and normal maximum power exercises, aiming to get synergy and injury free forearm muscles. His son Ymer has successfully followed the program for some years.

1. Janja Garnbret 2. Ashima Shiraishi 3. Margo Hayes 4. Yoshiyuki Ogata 5. Sam Avezou 6. Claire Buhrfeind 7. Laura Rogara 8. Filip Schenk 9. Brooke Rabotou 10. Loic Zehani, Moritz Welt, Meichi Narasaki, William Bosi, Kai Lightner, Alberto Lopez, Laura Stöckler, Sandra Lettner, Elena Kravsovskaia, Pietro Biagini, Jorge Diaz-Rullo, Natsuki Tanii, Naile Meignan, Semen Ovchinnikov, Rudolfh Ruana, Baptiste Ometz, Mikel Asina, Shuta Tanaka, Lara Neumeier, Ai Mori, Colin Duffy, Rei Kawamata, Moritz Perwitzschky, Keita Dohi, Nico Ferlitsch, Jan Vopat, Futaba Ito, David Naude, Philipp Gaßner, Pablo Hammack, Jakob Kronberger, Leo Skinner, Zach Galla, Marketa Janosova, Ema Seliškar, Clay Gordon, Maya Madere