David Firnenburg, who was #6 in the last Boulder WC, has done Chris Sharma's Practice of the Wild in Magic Wood giving it a personal 8B+ grade. "If I compare POTW with New Base Line for example I would say they are the same challenge more or less. Though, POTW didn't feel like a real 8C to me. Not like this significant step towards another higher level compared to the other 8B+'s I've done in the past. I really want to be convinced by the difficulty of a climb to call it my first 8C boulder." Last year, the full time psychology University student got the bronze in the Combined World Championship and the 21 year old is going for the Olympics. He also plans to do most of the World Cups in 2017. In the 8a Combined ranking game, the German is #6. "Bouldering and Lead work well. Slowly improving in every area in trainings. I started to train speed as well but need to integrate it more into trainings. My personal best last year was around 8,5 seconds." (c) Eddie Fowke

Alex Puccio has had yet another amazing day doing an 8B, 8A, 7C+ and a 7C flash in Leavenworth. (c) Joel Zerr of The tea cup 8B. "Wow.... had the most AMAZING first day EVER in Leavenworth! This place is BEAUTIFUL!! This line took me a couple hours or less. Sent Coffee Cup, Abstraction, The Practitioner and the Tea Cup all on my first day here, psyched for the rest of the trip!!!" The runner up in the Boulder World Championship 2014, is also runner up in the 8a ranking game. In total, the 27 year old has done 139 boulders 8A to 8B+, including four flashes which makes her the best overall female boulderer. In 2017, she plans to do the Boulder WC in Vail and Munich beside Arco Rockmaster and Adidas Rockstar. In the long run, she might also go for the Olympics. The next day she did one 7C+ and Monarch 8A on her second go, "Another good day in the woods. Should have been a rest day since my skin and body felt wrecked, but apparently the rain is coming tonight so forced rest day tomorrow! This place is amazing!!! :)"

In some old school crag, a 6b can feel like a 7a and the locals are just laughing. Such info often misleads climbers to get a good experience. In fact, it just might ruin the whole day as there is no route to warm up on or actually try to onsight. On the other hand, it is very hard for a topo author to make drastic changes just to make the grades correspond to the new inflated modern grading system. One option is of course that the topo author can just write that the grades are one or even two or three grades harder than modern grading. When it comes to recording such routes, just feel free to give your personal grades which can help others avoid that bad experience. I am currently in South Tyrol and almost all the routes I have done, I have upgraded! ST is by the way one of the best climbing areas I have been to and an article about it is coming up soon.

Moritz Perwitzschky has during the last eleven days recorded 24 routes 7c and harder, of which seven onsights. After the first rest day after his big Frankenjura marathon, the 17 year old finished off by doing his second 8c+, Pain makes me stronger, every day! In February, Moritz did do a similar strike in bouldering with 23 ascents 7C to 8B over 13 days. Then we asked him, "Is it not time to raise the bar and go for something really hard?" I think not. I just want to climb as much as possible and the result doesn't even matter. The fitness and the sends will come sooner or later, if you don't get injured. And as I don't do any systematical training, I don't really know, what I'm capable of so let's see. (b) Simon Weisser

Lucie Watillon came to Siurana with a personal best of 7c from 2015. During 2016 she did almost not climb at all outdoors beside a trip to France. A couple days into her trip to Spain she started working on Kale Borraka 8b+ and did it on her fourth go. Previously this year she won the Belgian Champion in Youth B. Her trainer for four years is Nicolas Dejeneffe and she trains some 15 hours a week, beside practicing yoga.

William Bosi, who has done two 9a's before, has sent Jungle Speed in Siurana confirming down grading suggestions to 8c+. "So pyched I managed to do this amazing route in a day." Hubble, the former 8c+ by Moon in 1990, took six sessions so Bosi's very quick ascent of Jungle Speed, once again confirms the grade inflation. The 18 year old also did his first 8b+ flash by El Món de Sofia where actually half the route was onsight as he only had beta for the first half. What is the plan and ambition 2017? I am here till the 22nd so I'll hopefully do some more stuff. I have been working on a film with Hot Aches Productions due out at the Kendal Film Festival this year so my goals are to get ticked some of the U.K.'s hardest routes. Still focusing on lead comps doing lots of the youth and some seniors.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did her first 8c when she was 11 years old, has done Lucifer 8c+ in Red River Gorge. "The conditions haven't been the best at the Red and I definitely didn't believe in myself at times." (c) Melissa Mooney What is interesting is that nowadays, the top young girls perform at the same level as the top boys at the same age. However, still Adam Ondra's track record, especially when it comes to onsight, is not yet beaten. He did his first 9a redpoint when he was 13 and first 9a+ when he was 15 years old. Here is an 8a interview from last year where she says she started climbing in trees at seven years old and once she fell down her non-climbing parents took to a gym. "I don’t have a trainer, I tried for a couple of months having an online trainer but it didn’t work out, so I just went back to training myself. I write my own programs and have done this since I was 8. I find that this really works for me. The hardest thing for me is keep myself motivated. I do this by setting goals, climbing with my adult friends and traveling overseas."

Alex Totkova has done her first 8b, Bqlo sladko in Dryanovo (Bulgaria). Recently Alex won gold and broze in the Boulder and Lead Championships. More info on her facebook