Jacopo Larcher has made the fifth ascent of Dave MacLeod's Rhapsody, which is an 8c/+ trad elimination at Dumbarton Rock. MacLeod spent 70 days and took many 20 meter falls, which was featured in the great E11 video, youtube trailer. Back in 2006, Rhapsody was considered to be the hardest trad route in the world. (c) Richard Felderer - I spent 9 days on it and I climbed it on my 7th lead attempt. For the grade, I agree with everybody's opinion: 8c/+. That thing is hard! It also takes some time to get used to the weird glassy rock. About safety, it's completely different from the other hard trad routes I did, as the first part is very safe (a crack with bomber gear). After you place the last bit of (small) gear, you have to climb a loooong way to the top. The good thing is that you will never hit the ground, but you can take some really big falls, which could end up in injuries if the rope coils around your leg while falling. I wasn't afraid about the gear, but I was worried to hit the ledge if I would fall off the top. I know James took the falls from the top and nothing happened...but I wasn't very psyched to try that out. But yes, it's an elimination. Even if the climbing is brilliant! It's not nice to denigrate Dave's work, as he put so much effort into it. He hurt him self, but he kept on going for it, demonstrating dedication and passion. I'm glad he put up this route. At the time (and still now) he pushed the level of trad climb forward! And I think that should be respected (especially from the people who've never seen or tried the route). Jacopo is talking about the controversies all the four first ascentionists were involved in. First James Pearson, #3 repeater, questioned the grade and the nature of the route he had not done. Later Sonnie Trotter, #2, questioned Steve McClure's third ascent saying he had used eliminated holds which also MacLeod agreed upon. Steve thought their comments deamened the quality of the route defining it as an elimination. Steve also thought Trotter had done the FA as MacLeod in fact had not placed any gear on his attempt referring to that MacLeod in fact had first climbed and placed gear for on the first 25 meter of the route and later reversed to the ground. In practice, this means that MacLeod climbed on top rope for 25 meters out of Rhapsody's 35 meters and did not place any gear on his ascent.

Stefano Ghisolfi together with Jenny Lavarda won the 13th Melloblocco (results). Stefano shares some comments on the world's biggest Bouldering meeting. (c) Claudio Piscina - I think this was one of the best edition, four sunny days and a lot of people. The boulders were really cool, and a bit harder than previous years, the organization was perfect all days. There were 12 competition boulders, more than the past years, so climbers had the possibility to climb more on problems set (brushed and cleaned) by Simone Pedeferri during the past months. There were 2800 participants and the valley was full of people. EpicTV will release soon a video with interviews and climbing during these days. During the evenings were presented many videos from Jorg Verhoeven, Mauro Calibani, Stefano Ghisolfi, Silvio Reffo, Simone Pedeferri, and people had great fun. Noteworthy is that a local newspaper reported that the police had found drugs in 16 out of 23 Melloblocco "suspicious faces'" cars on Saturday night.

Alexander Rohr, who did a personal best of 8b+ 18 months ago, has done his second 9a, Ultime Souffrance in St Loup. - What a day!!! Really not expected send..... I messed it up four times in the very last move of the hard part. Good mindset and bäääm!!! This one is much harder than Non a la bombe.... The 8a/8a+ boulder in the start shreds your forearms and bodytension. With it, the easier mid-part feels already harder. Linking the last boulderproblem felt quite impossible while the first tries. But now i was lucky although the conditions were not this good....2nd ascent... Super happy!!

Tina Johnsen Hafsaas, who started training in February after 15 months of fighting with Mononucleosis, (a virus that causes extreme fatigue), has lately made great progress in Bouldering and also done her first 8A+, Steinbucken in Dirdal. - It was incredibly cool to send this boulder. I’m still exploring what bouldering is, and I think this was my kind of boulder - steep and powerful on small holds. I haven’t bouldered much outside and I recently did my first 8A. After my send of Lynx 8A I was psyched to figure out what my maximum level really is, it felt so easy when I sent it that I couldn’t believe this was my limit. After 15 months with mononucleosis it’s hard to describe how good it feels to explore my limits and do what I love. After nine hours in the car my body was not interested in climbing, but I still managed to figure out and do all the moves the first day. When I returned the next day everything felt easier and I sent it without much trouble. I expected to fall at least once at the top due to my lack of maximum endurance, but I didn’t. Once I passed the last hard move I sent it, and it feels amazing to have a body that’s working again and that my training is paying off. Still psyched to explore my limits and in three week I’ll be in Rocklands!

Loic Zehani, who did one 9a FA about six months ago, has done his second 8c+, Bronx in Orgon. The 14-year-old needed 20 tries to do the classical chipped route, which was the first 8c+ in France.

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My slab performance is like four grade worse compared to overhang and I know it is the feet that it is the problem. It is just natural that today with all good power oriented gyms many have problems with slab with poor feet. Technics on slab can only be trained on the scene. In general it is about putting as much weight on the foot as possible. Often it also relates to mantle technics, meaning you are hanging on one hand with fingers pointing downwards. Regarding shoes, they should be stiff and new. Indoors and on steep terrain outdoors, soft and worn-out footwear works great but the key on slabs are stiff and new shoes. Good luck :)

Tendon reports on Facebook that Seb Bouin has made a new link up in Villanoeva del Rosario making the FA of Mangarbo 9a/+. Seb has previously done several routes up to 9b and should be among the Top-10 in the world the last few years. (c) V. Romera

Official Similarweb statistics show that the 8a visitors stay 15 minutes on the site, which can be compared with 3 minutes for the main competitors. (UKC, Climbing, R&I and Planet M.) The average of page viewings for 8a is seven and for the competitors it is three. Furthermore, meanwhile 84% of the 8a visitors actively go to 8a, the competitors get only 41% of their traffic direct, the rest comes from Facebook and Google search etc. One possible explanation for this is that the other sites have been so active on Facebook etc so this is now their prime source of visitors. At the same time, one could assume that due to the Facebook-origin traffic, a large amount of the competitors' traffic is based on not so active climbers/non-climbing friends. Anyhow, the uniqueness of 8a not being active on Facebook etc and instead getting the real climbers' interest of getting updated on the climbing scene is what we are proud of. For 2016, we have made new records in sale and in fact, 95% of all banner placements are already booked :) This means that we have more resources to speed up the new design and functionality.