Ryohei Kameyama has had an extraordinary three weeks trip to Fontainebleau where he did two 8C's The Big Island (c) Takuya Nakamura and Jour de chasse as well as three 8B+'. Interestingly, the 20 year old Japanese have done three Boulder World Cups with the best result #43! We will follow up with comments.

Emontana has put together long article including all details how the climbing grades have eveloved from 6a to 9c. At the same time Climbing has put together a list for female achievements since 1799.

Patxi Usobiaga, one of the best competition climbers in the history, has updated his scorecard and goes to #4 in the ranking game. In total the 37 year old has recorded 20 routes 9a and harder. Soon to come a follow up interview from his recent 9a+/b personal best. (c) Ignacio Sandoval Buron

Most of the best competition climbers did take one more trip to China to finish of the season. Janja Garnbret won in Lead, climbing faster than Jessica Pilz, who also topped both rounds. In bouldering, Miho Nonaka won and and Garnbret was second. Miho was also the fastest among the Combined competitors with 10.30 and Janja Garnbret did her debut with 13.60. Overall, Janja would have won the Combined if such multiplication would have been done. Among the male, Jakob Schubert got one more victory and in bouldering Jongwon Chon did also win again. When it comes to Speed, Jan Hojer was superior among the Combined guys by being #11 which also was his results in Lead. In Boulder he was #4. The best Combined male result was however achieved by Ogata Yushiyuki (19), who was #3 and #3 and #17, third last, in Speed. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke

Vertical-Life is about to redesign and improve the 8a.nu platform. Are you a software engineer and would like to work together with a highly motivated team? Please send your application to [email protected]. Required skills: - Object oriented programming - Experience with relational databases - Basic web development skills (CSS, Javascript, DHTML, HTML) Desired skill: - C# / ASP.NET - Ruby / Ruby on Rails

8a has suggested a new bouldering format to IFSC allowing more finalists. The Norweigian Sports manager and National coach Reino Horak, hope to see 12 finalists next year on their national competitions. - 12 finalists mean that double as many get the opportunity to challenge themselves and have fun in the final. It also means a bigger interest to travel to a competition as many more will hope to be able to do two rounds. It is a waste of route setters time to just allow six guys in the final and further more, the more finalists, the greater chance for tied score and drama on the last boulder. I think all coaches and athletes would agree that more finalists would be more fun. The simple solution for increasing the # of finalists is simple to make three participants rotate on the first three boulders. After a short break, the Top-6 athletes will make it into the "super final", starting in reversed order. This means an increasing drama where everyone will exactly know what the last guy out needs to do to get the best overall score. When it comes to competition time, the rotating format, including 8 or 9 finalist, will save around 20 minutes. Also though having 12 finalist will not increase the competition time. 8a has also suggested a new point scoring system that will be presented in a few days.

La Sportiva Legends Only will take place for the seventh year in a row in Klättercentret in Stockholm 25/11 and it will be a live-streaming. The line up is impressive as always. Shauna Coxsey, Petra Klingler, Staša Gejo, Katja Kadić, Fanny Gibert and Mélissa Le Nevé.

Vertical-Life Climbing App recently integrated the Tarragona Climbs guidebook by Pete O’Donovan and Dani Andrada in its topo collection. This means that there is now a digital version of the famous climbing guide, which presents some of the major crags of Catalonia, among others Siurana and Margalef. Tarragona is known to be a treasure trove for sport climbers and one of the most important sport climbing destinations in Europe. A very active climbing community has turned the area into a true climbing mekka for pros and for amateurs alike. The second edition of the guidebook by Pete O’Donovan and Dani Andrada contains more than 100 crags, which represent only part of the huge range of available sectors. However, the authors have taken their choice carefully and made sure to present the most worthwile areas. The digital guidebook is now available in the Vertical-Life App, where climbers can purchased the full guidebook or smaller chapters. The printed guide will be out by the end of November.