Planet Mountain has made an interview with Jorg Verhoeven after his second ascent of Tommy Caldwell's Dihedral Wall opened in 2004 on El Capitan. He says an interesting thing there: "climbing the Nose (the 8b+ he did in 2014) is a piece of cake compared to Dihedral wall," The overall lead World Cup winner 2008 thinks that Caldwell's 8b+ grade is equivalent to a sport 8c. In total, ten out of the 25 pitches are graded 8a and harder. In total, it took Jorg and his partner Katharina Saurwein five days to do it including a 20 hour push on the last day. (c) Jorg Verhoeven

Emontana presents an in depth interview with Adam Ondra and amazng photographs. Here are some of the most interesting quotes translated by Tendon. (c) Heinz Zak "There are basically two different types of foot holds – you either stand on scales of millimeters in size which I would not normally consider to be foot holds and I would not even look at them… And then there are bigger foot holds but they are reclined and sleek." "In my opinion the 14th pitch is a bit easier 9a, so it fits the guidebook. The 15th pitch, and Tommy himself said it too, should be 8c+. I would agree with that. But then there are a lot of 8b+ pitches which I could rate 8c on some rocks. Lots of those 8a+ could be 8b or even more, I reckon. So, I find the most difficult pitches a little bit overrated but it is compensated by the fact that any of those 8a could be rated higher." "Here it shows that what pays is slow climbing with certainty, literally like a snail. When I start this slow pace I feel out of sorts. But gradually, I am getting used to it. I have found out that slow climbing is not so much more tiring and at the same time chances for making no mistakes are getting higher." "The motivation of finishing the ascent in 24 hours could emerge. But I admit it really is an insane idea."

National Geograpic has presented a sum-up story of Adam Ondra after his ascent of the Dawn Wall. Here are some of the more interesting quotes. “This is one of the best feelings I've ever had in climbing. Wow, so good. I think it'll be a long-lasting happiness and joy due to the length and effort of the route.” “What Tommy and Kevin did was even much more impressive than what I did,” says Ondra. “I arrived with all the information, they told me the beta, and all I had to do was climb.”

Adam Ondra's push on the Dawn Wall has created a new all time high. Measured by Google Analytics, last week 144 186 sessions were made on 8a.nu meaning that the total number of visits was over 200 000. In comparison to last year, the traffic has increased with some 20% and we now have 13 000 unique visitors daily. The biggest country was USA with 13% out of the total visits followed by Germany and Spain with 11% each.

Daniel Jung has done Black Label in Frankenjura giving it a personal grade of 8c+ as he found new beta. The route was opened by Markus Bock and as Alex Megos, who just repeated another of his FAs, Daniel has doubts about the use of sika. "I have some mixed feelings about this route, the first boulder is on perfect rock, super nice, but the second boulder has one hold with Sika... I'm not sure if it's for reinforcing a thin rock struckture (what I think is just ok) or if it makes a very bad hold better. I was optimistic and I'm hoping it's just reinforced, otherwise I wouldn't be motivated to try it. But at the end I'm not sure if it is a natural hold, that's just the point why I can't feel super happy about an awesome route, if it isn't natural I can't take it as a rock climbing route."

It is not so unusual that an 8a route is mainly 7a until the last bouldery crux. Such routes are seldom popular but there is a great possibility to increase the quality and popularity of such routes - simply add one bolt creating a logical ending of the 7a climb. The same idea can of course be applied on any grade meaning that more great climbing challenges can be created. In practice, the idea with more first anchors also means that you could invite your friend to join you at the crag even if they do not climb at the same level as you. In reality, you do not have to wait until one more bolt has been added in order to create a new anchor and route. Just start climbing and see if you can add a new quality route to the crag and record it with a new name and grade on your scorecard/log-book. Possibly, the FA of the route and the topo producer may think it is a good idea and it would soon become official.

Jorg Verhoeven is probably the second best all-round climber in the world with outstanding achievements in all climbing disciplines. In 2008, he won the Lead World Cup and this year he was #3 in a Boulder WC and just recently he did the second ascent of Dihedral Wall 8b+ on El Cap. The only climber in the world that can match Jorg's extraordinary multi-discipline track record during the last ten years is Adam Ondra but the amazing thing is the performance gap in between them. Adam/Jorg: Decathlon 135 versus 2: Redpoint 9a or harder 21 versus 0: Onsights 8c+ or harder 9 versus 1: Boulder 8C or harder 13 versus 4: WC/Championships Lead victory 5 versus 0: WC/Championships Boulder victory 9a versus 8b+: Big wall You might wonder if there exists any other athlete that is so superior in comparison with the runner-up in any other sport. Possibly the best way to make a quantitative measurement would be to use Decathlon examples. Jorg would probably win such an event being world class in all disciplines at the same time that Adam could win all events competing with a specialist. To be practical, this means that Adam had to run 100 seconds in 9.5, marathon 2.10, high jump 2.40, javelin 90 meters and pole vault 6 meters. Already seven years ago, being 16-years-old, Adam was the best sport climber in the world and possibly one of the best youngsters in all sports. As of 2017, maybe it is about time to put him on the cover of Sport Illustrated asking if he is the best athlete overall in the world? Picture Heinz Zak

Combined sport climbing will be a part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. During the World Championships 2016, it took IFSC several days to publish Combined results and the same thing happen for the Youth Championships. IFSC's problem was that they based the results on wrong criteria and 8a presented this also saying that one podium actually was wrong. IFSC deleted the link showing the results but now, 48 hours later, they have still not presented the correct Combined results. In fact, in their sum-up article on the wrong podium is still visible.

More great news from Adam Ondra on his Instagram account which now has 34 000 followers. "Made it to the Wino tower tonight! Deep satisfaction, peace and fire at the same time in my heart and soul. Perfect conditions today and perfect focus. That means only 11 "easy" (5.10 - 5.12) pitches left. We would have continued, but looks like it will rain soon. Which means forced restday tomorrow and hopefully finishing it off on Monday. Detailed report on @blackdiamond and @mytendon soon." Photo @pavelblazek The weather forecast says that it will be raining until 10 am on Monday and then Adam will have to be really quick as the temperature is already dropping to minus 6 at midnight.