Said Belhaj is back in Sweden after a two months road trip. One of the high lights was Kryptonite and amazingly he worked it for a week without a belayer. (c) Matt Pincus/Training Beta - Quicktick 8a in Rifle "After I had spent some time in the US not feeling in tip top shape, climbing all over the place I finally decided to get to work on Kryptonite. As my friend who I was going up with had a change of plan I set out there alone with a long clipstick, Mini and Micro Traxion and worked it alone for about 1 week in total. Its pretty steep so some sections are a bit tricky to climb in this way but at the same time I like working routes alone as you can really take your time and not feel bad for your belayer! Then I took a break and climbed in the desert and did some "touristing" in the Navajo Nation. When I came back to Kryptonite the conditions were cool and perfect and it was once again amazing to be up there. Fortunately I was also feeling in pretty good shape after having my usual unstable autumn form. I needed 2 more days with a "real" belayer to finish it. I hope more development and attention will be happening at this futuristic crag in the near future."

Our sever provider has told us that they will do the server migration this afternoon. The whole website might be down for 10-15 minutes and then everything should be running much more quickly again. We have updated to much more capacity based on the latest technology. It might be that the very last ascents being added just before they migrate will not be copied to the new one so it might be wise to wait uploading new ascents until everything is ready. The last info is that on Wednesday, they will run a test to see that nothing have been broken and then the old server will be placed in a museum :)

Shauna Coxsey, the best female boulderer the last years, will make her first Lead World Cup appearance in Kranj 11/11. In the Euro Youth Cup she only participated in lead and normally she was Top-5. Also Stasa Gejo, who won Bouldering in World Games, will do her first Lead WC in Kranj. Further good news is that also Alex Megos, who won the semifinal in Arco, will participate. The German was #7 in the Munich Bouldering WC so let us hope for some more good results for him and he might also go for the Olympics. Japan will send eight males almost all of them their bouldering specialists guys. Further more, Jongwon Chon who won the Boulder WC will try Lead again. Hopefully most of the athletes will have good results so they will continue to go for Tokyo 2020.

Jakob Kronberger and Stefan Scarperi, in the picture, have done Sid Lives 9a in Arco which Gabri Moroni put up. "I think it's a hard 8B boulder into another 7b/b+ boulder. All in 10meters of climbing. 9a? Let's see what other people think!" For Jakob it was his fifth 9a although just 16 years old. For ten years older Scarperi it was his second and amazingly he did it on his first session. Two weeks ago he did 8c and 8c+ so he seems to be in the best shape ever.

Loic Zehani has done Le Cadre Nouvelle version in Céüse which means he avoided the chipped hold which makes the grade jump from 8c to 9a. This was the seventh 9a, out of which three FAs, by the 15 year old who did his first when he was just 13. (c) Chris Frick and here a video. "MAGNIFICENT line that have obsessed me for a few months. Fell 25 times at the end of the middle block section ... luckily the other hard section (on the pockets) and the end suited me really well. A major path in an exceptional site."

Adam Ondra reports on his Instagram. "The hardest route Manolo (Maurizio Zanolla) has done - Eternit 9a (maybe 9a+). And one of the hardest vertical face climbs in the world for sure. No success yet. " (c) Petr Pavlicek Beside climbing, Ondra has been a role model on 8a when it comes to take a stand against chipping and giving personal grades, actually since he was 14 years old. Reporting failure in order to give credit to others, he has done before, and here he is almost unique. Manolo put up Eternit in Feltrine as a 9a in 2008 when he was 51 years old. In 1990 he made the FA of Appigli Ridicoli at the same crag and graded it 8b+, nowadays some say it is 9a. If Manolo would have used the modern (Lleida) grading, he would have been much more recognized. Thanks to Ondra, this will very soon be a reality.

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk had a bad accident on a 9a where she rotated up-side-down. On her blog she said it was because her harness was too big. Later we discussed this with Mina and addressed that also the construction of her harness could be part of the reason for her accident. In the aftermath of this we have tested the Hirundos and Sitta harness from Petzl and found out that they are safer, i.e. less of a risk to rotate as Mina did. In the picture of the Sitta you can see that the length of the strap connecting the leg loops with the tie-in point is rather short, red color. This means that the tie-in point can not move as long towards the hip as it most likely did for Mina. Flexible leg-loops with a long strap to a big and loose tie-in point (black) is what you should avoid. The Petzl harnesses are just two great and comfortable light weight harnesses but most impressive is actually it's buckle making it super fast to put on and adjust. Hirundos info. The Sitta, more info which at 240 grams (small) is like 12 % lighter is at the same time more than 60 % more expensive (~140 Euro) than Hirundos. Other then that, it feels the same due to a more advanced construction. At the same time the leg loops (blue) stretches a bit more.

The 8a data base consists now of 4.5 million quality rated ascents that will help you to find the best crags and climbs in the world. Go to "Crags" and you can search the Ticklist to find the highest star rated, the most popular, the most onsighted or flashed etc. Through the mobile adjusted beta.8a.nu you can also find the nearby crags closest to your position and driving instructions etc.