Jain Kim reports on Facebook that she has done Spicy Noodle 8c+ in Yangshuo on her second go. Earlier on the trip she flashed an 8c. Add to that one 8b+ redpoint and two 8a onsights. "It was huge present for me after the worldcup season." In the history books, Jain Kim is already a name in the competition arena and an 8c+ second go should be in the Top-10 most impressive female ascents ever.

Stefan Koechel has made a nice interview with Christof Rauch, the person who has done most 8A's in the world since 2015. Looking at your ticklist of 2015 and 2016 I count incredible 176 ascents fb 8A and harder and the year isn’t even over yet. That means every 4th day you topped out a problem in the 8th grade. How does your body cope with this constant strain? Any advice for injury prevention? Basically I do a lot of stretching and I have to apply a special massage to my forearms and fingers every day due to chronic tendinitis in most of my fingers. I got the inflammations a few years ago when I did 5 sessions a week without any stretching. Now I never climb more than two days in a row and everything is fine. Sometimes I still get some small injuries but in the past I was lucky enough to get nothing too bad.

The Spaniard Alberto Ginés, had a very productive trip to RRG, where he sent a few hard routes: a few 8b's, Ultra Pern and Thug Life, Black Gold 8a+ and Bohica 8a onsight. It's his second 8a onsight during this year after he did El Ramallar, in Chulilla, and his 6th 8a onsighted. He's #5 in the junior route ranking game as well.

The classic Mandala 8A+ in Bishop, which 132 ascents in the 8a data base, has got its third flash ascent, Alex Khazanov. The first two flashes of the Chris Sharma great problem were done by Tony Lamiche and Brian Voges. "Andy Lamb and Solomon Barth helped me during the ascent. Solomon did it on his first go this time so I pretty much saw the perfect beta. Unfortunately, as no one really expected this flash, I just have some phone pictures that Andy took on the first moves. In some point he had to come spot. Cant believe I have actually flashed it! A dream come true for me! Ever since I have seen the footage of Chris (Sharma) climbing it, I was dreaming to try it some day. What a feeling it was toping that boulder."

If you use 50% of your max power on each arm, your blood circulation is almost non-existing and you will quickly get a burning pump. If, instead, you climb with a technique where you try to take as much load on one hand and let the other rest, you can go on for a long time. The best way to train this technique is simply just to let go with the lower hand as soon as you have reached the next hold. Start practicing directly during your warm up on juggy routes. In practice, it means that you will move your feet several times in between you move your arm movements. Do not dyno. After a couple of hours you will notice a change while climbing or bouldering also on harder moves. The biggest gain of this technique is, nevertheless, found on relatively easy terrain. Hopefully this orangutan climbing style will improve your ability to rest and give you better endurance. This focus on one arm climbing will also make your shoulder and biceps muscles stronger which is especially good for overhangs.

Ak prerozdelíš 50% svojej maximálne sily na každú ruku, potom krvný obeh v každej z nich bude skoro nulový a tebe rýchlo nabehnú bandasky. Ak sa však zameriaš na techniku, pri ktorej zaťažíš jednu ruku maximálne a necháš tú druhú oddychovať, môžeš vydržať dlhšie. Dobrý spôsob, ako túto techniku natrénovať, je sústrediť sa na pustenie spodnej ruky hneď ako dosiahneš nasledujúci chyt. Začať treba už pri rozohriatí na jednoduchých cestách po madlách. V praxi to znamená, že treba upraviť pozíciu nôh pred tým, ako spravíš ďalší pohyb rukou. Neskáč, riskuješ zranenie! Už po niekoľkých hodinách môže byť zmena badateľná, či už v cestách alebo na bouldroch, dokonca aj v ťažkých krokoch. Najviac je však táto technika nápomocná v relatívne ľahšom teréne. Zároveň však môže pomôcť vybudovať silnejšie bicepsy a ramená, čo je výhoda hlavne v previsoch. Dúfame, že Ti táto technika pomôže lepšie oddychovať a zlepší vytrvalosť!

Návrh zoznamu najlepších lezcov roku 2016. Komentáre a názory sú žiadané a vítané! Tak ako predchádzajúce roky, aj tento rok je zoznam založený na výkonoch v športovom lezení, pričom väčší kredit dostali tí, ktorí robili viac prvovýstupov (FA) a boli úspešní vo viacerých disciplínach. 1. Adam Ondra CZE 2. Janja Garnbret SLO 3. Ashima Shiraishi USA 4. Domen Skofic SLO 5. Alex Megos GER 6. Anak Verhoeven BEL 7. Nalle Hukkataival 8. Jain Kim 9. Jakob Schubert 10. Jernej Kruder, Jongwon Chon, Tomoa Narasaki, Sean McColl, Stefano Ghisolfi, Alex Puccio, Megan Mascarenas, Melissa Le Neve, James Webb, Alexey Rubtsov, Ramon Julian Puigblanque, Dave Graham, Daniel Woods, Laura Rogara, Jonathan Siegrist, Ryuichi Murai, Paul Robinson, Shauna Coxsey, Seb Bouin, Chris Sharma, Karoline Sinnhuber, Isabelle Faus, Romain Desgranges, Dani Andrada, Margo Hayes, Edu Marin, Sebastian Halenke, Jessica Pilz, Kokoro Fujii, Petra Klingler, Piotr Schab, Jan Hojer, David Firnenburg, Christof Rauch, Gabri Moroni, Katharina Saurwein, Martin Stranik, Miho Nonaka, Akiyo Noguchi, Gauthier Supper, Daniel Fuertes, Mathieu Bouyoud, Toshi Takeuchi, Michaela Kiersch, Carlo Traversi, Angela Eiter, Nina Caprez

Black Diamond has made an interview with Adam Ondra's belayer and photographer, Pavel Blazek, who had never tried a multi-pitch before the Dawn Wall. "Any scary moments on the wall? Oh yeah. One was maybe pitch 10, and he started climbing, and the protection is not awesome. Actually it’s pretty sketchy. And he’s maybe 10 or 15 meters above me and five or six meters runout, and suddenly three copperheads pop out. Ping, ping, ping! I was thinking, if he falls he’s going to be flying way below me. And it was dark. I didn’t even tell him though, and he got through it."

As he writes on his Instagram, Patxi Usobiaga has sent Seta Total 9a in Cuenca. In total Patxi has sent some 20 routes graded 9a or harder and including his extraordinary competition results, he is one of the best climbers ever. Patxi had to stop climbing for several years due to a serious injury in his neck. Now he's back with full strength and shares a nice video of the send.