Martina Cufar become the World Lead Champion in 2001 and since than, Slovenia has been one of the leading nations in climbing. In 2006, she onsighted her first 8b and last week, the 39-year-old onsighted her first ever 8a+, Allo ctave, ici Bemol in Verdon. She got the tip from Bruno Clement - Graou, who has established a new sector there, Baume aux Couillones. - Graou told me one evening that he equipped one line in the bottom of which should be written " For Martina", because there are many small crimpers and it's technical. smile emoticon So I went in one day and did it on sight. He was right , it was for me. Otherwise I try to keep my shape with climbing when I can but for sure it's less than before I had my two boys, Tommy and Paco. It's quite a job to entertain them! In the last time I climb often in Bionnassay (half an hour drive and half an hour walk up). It's the place I like, but the problem is that I did all the routes until 8b...So I got myself on the 8c now, a route with a crux with a long move, boys do a jump, that I was not able to do for years (Well I went to check once a year) ,but in december I found the solution. Well I do the move once or twice in three attempts, so I don't really know if I am close ot not. but I enjoy climbign on it. I hope I have some luck and do it this year,:-) I try to climb 3 - 4 times a week, 1,5h or 3 in the rock. I do kundalini yoga every morning when everybody sleeps, from 6 30 to 7 30 - 8.

Angie Scarth-Johnson has reclimbed Welcome to Tijuana 8c in Rodellar, which she already did last year. However, some locals did say that she had used some eliminated holds one meter to the left of the original line, disclaiming the ascent. Kind of a strange thing for a 10-year-old setting a new world standard, getting the info that it was prohibited to use some small shallow pockets where no other can get their fingers into. Anyhow, now Angie has done the straight up elimination 8c. Angie is from Australia and she is on a three-month-long road trip to Europe being home-schooled by her non-climbing parents. In March she did an 8c in Margalef.

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

Said Belhaj has finished his longest project ever and done his first 9a+, Chris Sharma's Papichulo in Oliana. Full story on Said's website. (c) Walker Emerson - I don’t think I’ve ever had a route this dialed and rarely had to fight so hard. At the headwall, after the hardest sections, I knew that I could do it if I just didn’t hesitate. And if the 1st section is my anti style, up there I was in my element climbing a muerte. This is what I’ve done and trained for all my life: go fast, go 100%, let go of anxiety and totally tune in with the freedom of moving on rock. There is always a kind of magical feeling when you suddenly succeed with something you kept on failing on before. If I would to pick a route based on the grade (a phenomenon that I’ve noticed: people climbing grades, not routes), ”Papi” would probably be pretty low on the list. The whole first section is harder the shorter you are and I’m terrible on resistance on small holds. A steep route in a cave would’ve been more in line with ”what I’m good at”. But climbing has never been about that: we climb to challenge our selves, it has never been about making climbing easy. Climb routes that we find beautiful and some of them talk louder to us than others.

Daniel Woods put up Hypnotized minds as an 8C in 2010. Already in 2012, 8a started to say that It is time to step up/Upgrade to 8C+, using Hypnotized minds as an example. The upgrade suggestion was based on the fact that some of top guys had tried it with no success. Some 15 years ago, 8a said (since we wanted to present as correct news as possible) that many Boulder grades outside Font were deflated. Complaints were put forward saying that it was only the repeaters who can suggest downgrading or upgrading, in regards to Hypnotized minds. The simple reason why 8a was able to predict grades so well is the Grading theory we have followed since 2000. "Rating is based on individual subject suggestions - and confirmed by facts and results by the climbing community." Sure feelings and opinions are important but in the long run, the success ratio for the community is a better measurement. Later we have precised it even more with the Time Comparison scale. It should be mentioned that when we talked to Daniel Woods some years ago, he said that Hypnotized minds could surely be an 8C+, which many of his friends speculated in but he wanted to be absolutely sure before suggesting the new standard grade. There are many more 8C's that should be upgraded as the community has clearly taken huge steps since the first 8C was established some 15 years ago. Within a couple of years, we should have the first 9A and one contender might be Woods's new link-up project.

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.

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.

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.

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?