NEWS

Eternit and many Manolo routes have been destroyed
One week ago, Adam Ondra published on his Instagram that he had problems doing Maurizio Zanolla, aka Manolo's Eternit 9a and said it is possibly 9a+. "one of the hardest vertical face climbs in the world for sure." In the aftermath of this we have received many comments explaining that actually most of Manolo's hard core routes have been altered since the FAs was done. Jolly Lamberti published the picture on his Instagram, showing the status of Eternit.

Andre Neres has done his second 9a, Peixe Porco in Sagres, which is the only 9a in Portugal.

Peixe Porco 9a by Andrรฉ Neres from Hands Up Creations on Vimeo.

9a by Luis Rodriguez Martin
luis rodriguez martin has done Chilam-malenum 9a in Villanueva del Rosario which is a 70 meter link up. He says he practically run of of friends belaying him as every try did take like one hour. His legs were just destroyed by all the tufas. (c) M. Kwiatkowski

Second 8B+ by Anna Stรถhr
Anna Stรถhr, the best female boulder competitor in the history, reports on her Instagram that she has done Penrose Step 8B+ in Leavenworth. This was Anna's second 8B+ after New base line in Magic Wood. (c) Kilian Fischhuber

Estato Critico 9a by Tomรกs Ravanal
Tomรกs Ravanel has done Estato Critico in Siurana which makes him the first Chilean to do 9a. He started climbing 12 years ago when he was 21. After the last attempt the last year, falling in very last movement, Tomรกs injured his right big toe, which prevented him from finishing the process. "I am very happy to have done this route, because for me this means finishing a process and being able to release the energy that led me to injure my toe in that way, i hope end this process would led me to heal once for all". Interesting is that after just 18 months of climbing he did his first 8a+ and his first 8c, he did after three years of climbing. The Chilean is based in Spain, living in a van where he intends to travel in Europe, traversing the best climbing sectors and training for his next projects.

3 November 2017

8B+ by Jack Palmieri

In the aftermath of Mina Leslie-Wujastyk's accident we have tested several harnesses and last week we said that Hirundos and Sitta from Petzl have a very safe construction. However, and this is the case for all harnesses with flexible leg-loops we have tested, they stretch too much. Personally I just barely fit small for the two Petzl harnesses at the same time I also just barely fit Large. It says in the description that Small has 48-53 cm width and Large has 55 - 60 cm. It should be mentioned that I could stretch the Small at least one cm to get the maximum at the same time the Large does not stretch at all, but stays in place anyhow. It should be mentioned that in comparison to other harnesses on the market, Petzl stretches more or less the same as all other on the market. Lesson learn for the industry, on order to do safer harnesses, would be to let them stretch less and force me to use Medium as I should.

First 9a by Nico Ferlitsch (16)
Nico Ferlitsch has done his first 9a, Martin Krpan in Misja Pec and it included some 50 day trips driving almost 500 km. "At the age of 12 I did my first 8b route Hyperlink, Kanzianiberg, Austria and with 14 years my first 8c Intermono, Sella Nevea, Italy. Last autumn I first saw my 9a route called Martin Krpan in Slovenia. I had to try it and from this moment it was my project. It is an extremely long overhanging traverse in a cave. I tried a whole winter-season to send it and as the spring came closer, I got something like stress. It got warmer and warmer and I knew that it will be too hot to try it again. Hard routes like this one, canโ€™t be climbed when it is warm and humid. So I had to wait for the next autumn. In summer I really trained hard on my beastmaker and campusboard to get more strength in my fingers. I just wanted to be prepard for the 9a. I dreamed of it every single day.

Full house in Leonidio and Megos flashes 8c+
The Climbing Festival in Leonidio did start today and in comparison to last year it seems to be twice as many climbers. In some of the popular crags, there are climbers on most of the routes. Luckily there are plenty of crags to be spread out on and Aris T and many others are bolting new lines. Alex Megos has done two 8C FA as well as flashed Capricorn 8c+ which actually was put up as an 9a. (c) Micha Schreiber - Megos on the FA of Pantysgawn.