Adam Ondra comments on his Black Diamond blog that he has topped out the Dawn Wall after two more days on the wall. National Geographic has also presented an interview with Adam. (c) Heinz Zak “It has been a productive 48 hours on El Cap. After the first night and ‘climbing’ pitch 15, I rested the whole day, slept as much as possible and at 10:30 p.m. we set off. The first thing I wanted to do was send pitch 16, which did not work out—soon after getting up I was not feeling very well. But I didn’t give it more tries and continued. Above us, there was untouched terrain (untouched by us). I led (with a few falls) the remaining four pitches up to the Wino Tower in the dark, finishing at 5:30 a.m. All these pitches in the 5.13c range felt quite good. “From Wino Tower we faced 11 more pitches and around 400 meters of climbing. Even though the hardest pitch is only 5.13a, there are some bold pitches too with fairly loose rock. I felt pretty good, and onsighted all pitches except two where photographer Heinz Zak made me stop. I was extremely happy to onsight the 5.12b flare (worst version of offwidth) three pitches below the top. By 2:30 p.m. we were on the summit. This ground up ascent made fixing the ropes justified (according to our ethics), so now the whole line is fixed with ropes and easy to work. “Now we are down in the Valley, recovering and getting ready for more work on the wall, especially pitch 14 (first traverse) [5.14d] and all the pitches below.”

Rock & Ice reports that some 30 Boulders in Little Cottonwood Canyon have been changed due to a vandal. Some of them got easier and some harder. In fact, a few years ago some Boulders in Fontainebleau were damaged and it has also happened in Ticino.

Christof Rauch has done three 8B+ Boulder Problems (two of them FA) in the last 2 weeks. The third best positioned boulderer in the 8a ranking game did an 8C FA last year, which is still his personal best. He comments in his scorecard about Insanity of Grandeur, one of his sends: "Felt so unreal to stand on top of this huge boulder! A real kingline with full value climbing. Checked out the moves when i did "Delusion" for the first time, then I had a few sessions last winter and now it took me 3 more sessions to put it down. Syked!!!" (c) Stefan Kürzii

Danny Robertson, who started climbing in 1995, has done his first 8c+, The Crew in Rifle. (c) Derek Franz "I get to claim two categories of distinction: the OLDEST (with holds in their current form) and by far the WEAKEST person to ever climb this route. EPIC number of tries, EPIC! Ironically, as it often happens, did not feel the slightest bit pumped on the send. 3 years of effort. 2 times injured trying to get strong enough to do the climb. 2 times flipped upside down going for crescent jug."

Oriane Bertone, who did her first 8A being 9-year-old, has done her tenth 8A, Evita assis in Ravine du trou. "One of the best lines of Reunion Island. Difficult for small climbers who have to take a swing on a little crimp on the first crux."

Adam Ondra comes with great news that he, at 11 pm, has done the second 9a traverse pitch starting five meters in due to a wet hold. Then he continued doing great progress also on pitch #16 and here you can listen to his sum up recorded at 1 am.

David Firnenburg, #3 in Combined in the last world championship, has done his eighth 9a, Action Directe in Frankenjura. It was put up by Wolgang Gullich in 1991 and it has been repeated 21 times now. (c) Lars Scharl 'IT’S DONE!!! A DREAM COMES TRUE. Last Saturday David finally repeated „Action Directe“ (9a) in Frankenjura after falling 9 times at the very last move. That was heartbreaking. The process of hard work behind this ascent makes the success even sweeter. It’s a big motivational boost to have achieved something that hard and iconic. It’s a feeling of satisfaction and pride which definitely remains active in our memories longer than usual."Action Directe" is a true masterpiece.'

Jernej Kruder came to Mallorca with no real DWS experience and immediately onsighted Weather man 8a+ with a crux 18 meters high up. Then, he started working on Es Pontas. During his five weeks on the island, he only spent one day climbing other routes, onsighting two 8as and an 8a+. Regarding the grade, about which Chris Sharma told 8a ten years ago that it is personal but anyhow agreed that it could be a 9b, Jernej seems to be of the same opinion. (c) Kerstin Helbach "I'll just stick with Chris' thoughts. This thing is so specific. For sure it's about the 9th grade, but there are so many different factors, like the dyno. If there are 200 people in the world climbing 9a, maybe just 10% of them can do it. There is a fear factor and a mind battle trying it all over again without knowing if you're able to the all the moves or not. At the moment I don't feel like superman to climb all the hardest climbs in the world, but I feel lucky to have all of this skills that you need for this route. Maybe I'm just one of few chosen guys, who can actually climb this thing." The Slovenian also said that he could not do the crazy knee drop sequence after the dyno so he found another solution. What's interesting is that in fact the runner-up in the Bouldering World Championship 2014 says that even after the big dyno and the "drop knee" part, he found several more cruxes. "So on my last 4 days I was so lucky I didn't fall even once on dyno (even though I was never sure I'm gonna do it or not). So at the end the main crux was a long move on the arete. I stuck it for 3 times already, but failed it after that move- 3 moves before jug. There is also a bit strange crux after the jug, but luckily I was very confident after doing all the hard parts." Next year, Kruder will compete as normal, which he will combine with climbing Boulders, routes, and MPs and at some point he might start training for the Olympic Games.

Jernej Kruder Mallorca'ya geldiğinde neredeyse hiç Deep Water Solo tecrübesi yoktu ve birden Weather man 8a+ rotasını onsight çıktı, ki bu rotanın kilidi sudan 18 metre yukarıda bulunuyor. Ardından, Es Pontas rotasına çalışmaya başladı ve adada bulunduğu 5 hafta boyunca sadece bir gün farklı rotalarda tırmandı ve iki 8a ve bir 8a+ onsightladı. Dereceyi göz önünde bulunduracak olursak, Chris Sharma on yıl önce 8a ya bunun bir 9b olabileceğini söylemişti. Görünüşe göre Jernej de aynı fikirde. (c) Kerstin Helbach "Bu konuda Chrisvari konuşacağım. Bu şey çok özel bir yapıda. Kesinlikle 9 lu bir derece fakat bir sürü etken var. Atlayış kısmı mesela. Eğer dünyada 200 kişi 9a tırmanabiliyorsa belki yüzde onu bu hamleyi yapabilir. Korku faktörü var, zihin savaşı var. Her seferinde tüm hamleleri tekrar birleştirip oraya gelebilecekmisin bilmiyorsun. Tabi şimdi kendimi en zor rotaları tırmanabilecek bir süpermen gibi görmüyorum ama bu rota için gerekli yeteneklere sahip olduğumu hissediyorum. Belki ben bu rotayı tırmanabilecek birkaç şanslı kişiden biri olurum." Slovenyalı ayrıca atlayıştan sonraki çılgın diz düşürme bölümünü yapamadığını ve yeni bir çözüm bulduğunu söyledi. İlginç olan ise 2014 Boulder Dünya Şampiyonası nda zirveyi zorlayan tırmanışçının büyük atlayış ve diz düşürrmeli bölümden sonra da birçok kilit bulması. "Son 4 günümde çok şanslıydım çünkü bir kere bile atlama hamlesinden düşmedim (ki hiçbir zaman tekrar yapabileceğimden emin olamıyorum). Ana kilidin sonunda uzun bir hamle vardı ve ben şimdiden 3 kere buradan düştüm ki bu cepten 3 hamle önce. Aslında cepten sonra da enteresan bir bölüm var ama bunca zor tırmanıştan sonra o bölümü geçecek özgüveni buldum." Gelecek yıl Kruder yarışmacı olmaya devam edecek kimbilir belki de Olimpiyatlara hazırlanacak.

"With the falling leaves I take the oppurtunity of the first dry conditions since two weeks and clipped the anchor of "The Essential (9a)" That's Christoph Hanke's comment about his send of one of the most repeated 9as in Frankenjura. He's also usually seen competing as a part of the German national team. (c) Alex Megos