Send Climbing has sent us some knee pads to try out and they are actually so confident that they present it as "The Downgrader". Earlier this summer Jorg Verhoeven actually gave an Hueco Tanks 8A a personal grade of 7B because of using a knee pad. Some have actually said knee pads are getting so good that they should be forbidden both on rock and in competitions and Send Climbing's super sticky version belongs to this group. 8a can just agree that this is the best knee pad we have ever tested and it is also very user friendly. We can also agree on all their listed selling points.

The well-known German publishing house Panico Alpinverlag has started a long-term partnership with Vertical-Life, developer of the fastest growing digital guidebook app. 13 Panico guides of the most important areas in Germany have already been digitalized, as reported by Vertical-Life. More are to follow soon. The available app guides include the brand new 10th edition of the Frankenjura guides by Sebastian Schwertner. The Vertical-Life App now covers more than 2,000 Sport Climbing, Bouldering and Multipitch spots all over Europe, as well as Yosemite. Climbing guide authors can contact [email protected] for more information on cooperation opportunities. Download the App here.

Angelina Scarth-Johnson, who did her first 8c route when she was 9 years old, has done two 7C+ Boulders and Panoptikum 8A. "The Cruxs is trying to stay off the ground."

Balázs Kovács started climbing in 1996 being 25 years old, when they opened one of the very first climbing gyms in Hungary. He started training and climbing more seriously some years later, and became successful on 7C Boulders and 8a Routes while working as an electrician and being a father of two girls. At the age of 43, he did his very first 7C+ Boulder and he is still progressing. In this picture, you can see him on one of his hardest projects, an 8b+, and he is very close on it.

Having done seven 8B+'s, out of which four were FAs,Matt Fultz has done his first 8C, The Wheel of Wolvo in Mt Evans. "Wow, such an amazing boulder! Sent in 5 days over the course of a week. Definitely my style and so much fun to work on! New beta may make it easier, but we will see what other repeaters think." Interestingly, the 25-year-old has had six years of continuous progress and he is currently #8 in the 8a ranking game.

Now all 62 000 8a members can add News including Pictures and Videos to the Global Page. Just go to your Profile Page, click Add News/Videos on the top and start editing. For Videos, we need the embed code and the file should be 370 pixels wide. Later, the News and Videos will be moderated before publishing.

Fanatic climbing reports that Genesis, a very sandbagged 8b in La Balme, with just three ascents in ten years, has been chipped this summer, which added six newly drilled holds. It was Mathieu Bouyoud who found that it was chipped and then he forwarded his critical thoughts. Some 25 years ago, it was quite popular to chip routes in France. A good example are most of the hard core routes in Gorges du Loup, which have drilled holds. 8a has been active trying to stop chipping and you can even mark chipped routes in the scorecard. Hopefully, FAs do not want to be on that list and actually Adam Ondra has been active reporting chipped routes. Another way of stopping chipping could be for topo authors to mark them them as chipped, just next to the FA name. 8a also try to avoid reporting chipped ascents. It should be emphasised that chipping an old and climbable route is probably as low as you can reach in the terms of climbing ethics.

Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi arrived to Podzamcze some two weeks ago with a personal best of 8b. There he first did an 8b+ and yesterday he stepped up by doing Pijane trójkąty 8c. - I found a best place for me to climb. Almost every crag, rock and route are mostly vertical, with small holds and balancy moves, that's my favorite style of climbing. But even when the rock is like my style it is still very hard to send this line. It is long, pumpy and has three cruxes all over the line, so I did maximum two tries a day. At first two days I did only one try though. His mother, Ann, explains that Illya started climbing some four years ago but he has never had any trainers beside his parents, who climb in the 6th grade. Most of the times, Illya climbs outdoor as his parents normally work with IT and travel abroad. In 2014, he won Arco Rock Junior being 9 years old, when he also did his first 8a+.

The video starts with the amazing Speed final where 166 cm Marcin Dzienski beats 190 cm tall Danyil Boldyrev with 5 split seconds. Check those feet!

Fanatic Climbing reports that Seb Bouin has done the FA of L'homme demain 9a/+ in Verdon, meaning that he has done 27 routes graded 9a to 9b. "The route was bolted by Antonin Rhodes. It's the hardest route of the crag, which now hosts four 9th-grade challenges. The route is 50 meters long, a stamina monster that Seb describes as an 8c+ followed by an 8c in the steepest part of the wall." Photo : Jan Novak Photography