Sasha Gerzha has done his second 9a, Estado Critico in Siurana. The picture is from La Rambla 9a+, which will be his next project. - I had a couple of tries in January but just for check the moves and went back to St Petersburg for training. Then I came again in March and was close to send after one week or 10 days but get a cut finger and it took around one another week to recover. I didn't climb for this period and than I start again with no power after the rest! And the weather started to be hot! So it was all the time something wrong

How long should I rest in between attempts depending of different type of routes? One of the things that Adam Ondra is famous for is taking very long rests, sometimes more than 60 minutes, so that could be a guideline. If we are talking about short routes where you did fall after just a minute of climbing, you could actually try again after just some minutes. However, in general, you should rest longer than you think, which might also relate to the desire of climbing. If you feel like you are fresh after 30 minutes and you are eager to climb, add some 50% and you will just get more psyched. Stretching is perfect for killing time in between burns.

Last year we at the Spanish 8a.nu site had a long chat with Mikel Linacisoro in this vídeo interview just before he became the European Youth Champion. There he expressed that he wanted to send his first 9a before his 15th birthday. However, being focused on the comps at that moment he had to wait to have that goal completed until last Sunday when he was finally able to clip the chains of Begi Puntuan, 9a in Etxauri. He started trying it at the beginning of last December, projected it for two weekends before Christmas and he almost sent it during those holidays. Then, he just needed two more weekend trips to the crag to bag it. This way he's set a Spanish record again, being the youngest (he's 15 now) to send an 8c and an 8c+ back in those days and a 9a now. When we interviewed him for the first time three years ago he had redpointed an 8b+ and onsighted an 8a+. That same year and just before turning 13 he fired-off his first 8c with 'White Zombie' in Baltzola and one year after he reached the 8c+ grade with 'Koldoren Mundua' in Araotz. **Now you can read the interview we had with the Basque yesterday, where he tells us more about his new step up.

During the last 12 months, a total of 103 ascents of 9a and harder have been recorded in the 8a database, 20 out of which are 9a+'s and there are 5 9b's. In comparison with previous years, this is an almost 20% increase. In total, the number of 9a ascents and harder done in the world is believed to be at least 150 last year. The first 9a's were Action Direct and Hubble, which, during the four last years, have been repeated three times in total. One might speculate that one reason why these old school routes are so seldom repeated is that they are in fact harder for modern climbers?

Michael Gunsilius has done his first 9a, Frontman Deluxe in Allgäu, which was opened by Christian Bindhammer in 2009. -I tried the route the first time three years ago with a good friend of mine, Fabian Buhl. It felt pretty tough back then. The following Season I made a couple of nice linkups and noticed some progress on this project, but the time was limited as I started working for a consulting company during 2015. I then tried the route again more often in fall 2015, mainly on weekends when commuting home. Unfortunately, the year ended without success, but I was super psyched and motivated to master this climb and started strict training during winter. After a few tries in spring I felt I had the needed preparation for this route. A good time management and a supportive boss helped me freeing up some hours during the last two weeks to do a a couple of tries. The conditions were good last Sunday and I was lucky enough to finish this amazing piece of rock. I really enjoyed to do this climb together with Fabian.

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I do not know where to rest and I normally do not feel that I recover when resting. How to optimize recovering rests? This is of course very personal and it depends on each route. If we are talking about real shake-outs, try to get into a yoga meditation mode where you can count your breathing. Chalking up should be done in slow motion. Try to create your bubble. If you are very pumped sometimes you actually need to rest with your arms above your head or just skip the rest if you are close to the anchor.

Giorgio Bendazzoli, who won one Euro Youth Lead Cup last year and was the European Champion in 2014, has done his first 9a, L'attimo in Covolo. - L'attimo is the connection of the hard part of two 8c' which I did last years. I started trying it last year but it was a bit over my level...the hotter conditions after winter came in march but the climate was cloudy and humid, not so good for the crimps! This month I also got a contraction in my back that didn't let me to do my best. Now that both physical and weather conditions are perfect it came out the occasion to do this very beautiful line.

8a and its members have been working actively against chipping by marking it in the scorecard for many years. Adam Ondra is one of the most active ones with some 59 routes marked as, "Poor / Mainly Chipped". It seems that chipping routes has become much less common lately, which is just great. Another way of reducing the risk that first ascentionists would start chipping again could be to mark the routes as chipped in topos and also stop giving stars to such routes? Sure a nice crossover move is often pretty cool but to manufacture such sequence and then say it is such a nice 3-star route is passing the wrong message.

Shauna Coxsey, who won the first WC two weeks ago, won all three rounds in Kazo and in the final she was so superior that she has already secured the title after three problems. Melissa Le Neve was the runner-up as she was also in the first event and in total she has been #2, four times. 1. Shauna Coxsey GBR 4t7 4b7 2. Melissa Le Neve FRA 2t2 4b5 3. Miho Nonaka JAP 2t3 4b6 Complete results