Stefano Ghisolfi has done the FA of Ultimatum in Arco, which is the connection of three already hard routes in Massone. Stefano, with three 9a+'s done during the last year, is second in the 8a.nu route ranking game. "Last connection in Massone, connects The first boulder of Underground, Reini's Vibes, downclimb some moves of Pietra Murata, the crack boulder of L'ultima Pietra with a crazy finger lock, and the last tiny crimps of Stonehenge. More than 100 moves. Not a hard 9a+ due to good rests between the hard sections".

Laura Rogora has onsighted her fourth 8b, Bella Lu in Collepardo. On the same day she also made the FA of Super crack 8c. The 15-year-old is #1 in the 8a female ranking game and when it comes to onsights, she is #7 among the guys. What goes through your mind while onsighting? I do not know. When I feel tired I try to climb speedly without thinking about what I am doing because I only want to reach the next hold. In the last two years, she has won the Italian Championship in both Bouldering and Lead categories and the amazing thing is that she trains in a not so big bouldering gym.

karoline sinnhuber has done the FA of Schluck du Bruder sit 8A+ in Felbertal. In total she has now done 50 Boulders graded 8A and harder. "Props to Norbert Grugger for spotting this line during our last session. Also a big shoutout to my dad (8a note: also an 8A boulderer) who drove to the bloc 2 days ago for brushing the snow away <3. Perfect conditions today, first go after the warmup." There is just a handful female who have done an 8A+ FA. The 21-year-old Austrian is also a successful competition climber and in the 8A ranking game, she is #3.

Andrej Capko je náš nový editor pre slovenskú verziu 8a.nu (čaute!). Zatiaľ teda máme editorov a prekladateľov zo šiestich krajín: Španielsko, Taliansko, Francúzsko, Švédsko, Poľsko a Slovensko. To je v doterajšej histórii 8a.nu najviac! Najväčší počet návštevníkov ja však z USA a Nemecka. Ak by si mal záujem reportovať o lokálnych novinkách a prekladať doterajšie do svojho jazyka, stačí poslať mail na [email protected] a môžeme ti upgradenúť účet.

Andrej Capko is our new editor for Slovakia meaning that we now have country specific editors and translators for six countries, which is a record high: Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Poland and Slovakia. Most visitors come from USA and Germany and if you would like to be able to report local news or translate to any language just send an email to [email protected] and we will upgrade your account.

James Webb has done Nalle Hukkataival's Kintsugi, an 8C boulder in Red Rocks, Nevada. As he comments on his Instagram account: "Feels so damn good to do this Boulder. Hands down one of the best lines you will see anywhere". James is known for being the best flash boulder in the world with 13 8B's and he is also #1 in the 8a boulder ranking game.

Having done 21 (25) routes 9a or harder since 2011, including ten FAs, Sebastien BOUIN is Top-5 in the redpoint world in the last five years. Last year he did Chilam Balam and gave it 9a+/b, calling the FA grade of 9b+ a huge joke. He has also given personal 8c+ grades for Era Vella and Esclatamasters, and a couple more routes. Since last year, the 23-year-old has worked in Paris as a sport teacher during the autumn. Being a fanatic outdoor climber, he's put up 50+ FAs, and he's traveled every other weekend to sunny crags in the south. His spring plans include La Rambla (9a+) and Jumbo Love (9b) plus repeats of classic hard core old-school routes. For the summer, there is Flatanger. "For my training, I have no habit. I use what I find in my way (climbing gym, gym, trees, barn, rocks). I have only plans in my head about what I need to progress. Sometimes only abs, sometimes musculation, sometimes force or resistance, or pull ups to destroy yourself before the rest day. I do it with feeling, but also with a lot of harsh. That's why I start to work with PUC series, you can train everywhere. I did compete when I was young, but now, I am not strong enough to do both compete and cliff, like Adam. If I want to compete, I have to train a lot in gym, but I loose motivation like that. And, if you loose motivation you die. I find exciting to travel and find a project. I also like the approach. The project give you the way to train. How could you do to crush this route? You have to think to find a good training to progress in order to be stronger in the route. I progress with the difficulties I find in the projects. I also find interesting the travels, you learn a lot about life. In competition, it's not the same kind of travel, you don't learn about culture, language, people. " Picture by Raphael Fourau from his 9a+ (b) project La rage d'Adam in Verdon. Mangarbo 9a/+ FA video.

Sebastien BOUIN recently did the first repeat of Salida del Sol in Cantobre, suggesting a personal downgrade to 8c+. He stated that it was considerably easier if you dropped one shoe before the final crux. (c) Etienne Tafary "Interesting in this route is the way to do the crux. I had a problem in the last move of the hard section as I couldn't put my left foot in a hole and go to the next good hold. So with a friend we tried it without the shoe because the toe could enter in the hole. And in fact, the move was easier... Hopefully, after the crux, we didn't need the left foot. The problem was to quit the shoe before the crux! So we decided to drop the left shoe on the last rest before the crux, and to do first moves of the crux without the left shoe. Like that, I think the route is around 8c+. It's a funny beta, we have to think more often on our foot possibility without climbing shoes. Sometime it could be a real help."

Having talked to several of the best competition climbers and some coaches, you can understand that there are a lot of things going on in IFSC. 8a has also sent our format and qualification ideas and this is how Jerome Meyer from IFSC answered. "For example, the issues with new format, such as the duel, is that they represent a very high risk since not mastered as the current format are after so many years. Quite often in our different tests (yes we did some already) the advantages these new formats were bringing could also be attained by changing a little bit the existing format. However as said it’s still a work in progress." Here is a list of some speculations on what to expect from the Olympic race, based on the assumption that IFSC will move away from the fixed Speed route, which is the most crucial obstacle. How the format and qualification will be run in detail is of much less importance. 1. Most of the best Lead and Boulder competitors will run for the Olympics but they will be joined by very few Speed climbers. 2. Almost all of the best juniors will start competing in Combined in Youth Worlds. 3. The non-climbing media hype will start during the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in October 2018. 4. The competition scene outside Europe will grow the most. 5. By 2020, there will be 33% more walls and climbers as compared to 2015. 6. Europeans will dominate Youth Olympics in 2018. 7. Shiraishi and Ondra will get the Olympic golds. 8. There will be four set up medals in 2024.

There is a risk that there is no excitement left as the last climber starts in Tokyo, as the podium ranking might already been set. One possibility is that the last climber was #5 in Boulder and #15 in Speed. Even if that climber wins the Lead final, he/she gets a total of 21 ranking points which most likely will not score podium. On the other hand, the climber starting last might have been #1 in Boulder and #3 in Speed. Even if that person is last in the final, #8, he/she could have secured the overall title before climbing. On the other hand, if you decide to have eight guys in the Duel final, the Lead final might be dead boring as possibly most of these guys will have qualified for the Duel Top-8 final anyway.