KYMY DE LA PENA is one of these low profile climbers who whilst not making excessive noise don't stop ticking-off hardcore routes. With four 8c+'s under his belt, he's recently scraped the ninth dimension in his fetish crag, Cuenca, with Palestina (pic© Mathias Castaño). There are different opinions about its grade – We have talked with Kimy to understand his point of view (find the full interview in the Spanish 8a.nu site): Is it the hardest route you've ever done? Is it way harder than the 8c+'s you've sent in Cuenca? "Yes, it's the hardest I've done so far, although I've tried harder routes in order to be able to compare." Concerning the grade, what's your opinion? "I think it's an 8c+/9a since, honestly, it's a little bit easier than the other 9a's that I've been able to try and harder than the 8c+'s I've done. So, I think it's perfect with the slash grade." It's a route that has been repeated quite a lot if we take its grade into account. Why do you think this is? Is it specially beautiful? "The reason is the line it goes over. It's spectacular. Probably, it's one of the best lines in Cuenca and therefore climbers from everywhere want to try it."

Based on some 1 000 unique votes from the poll "What is the best crash pad?", Organic did get the most by 21%, which can be compared with 13% in a similar poll in 2009. At the same time, Black Diamond has dropped from 23% to 14%, The biggest drop since the 2015 poll was measured for Mad Rock, which got 7% last year and 4% this year. 21 % Organic (18 % 2015 & 13 % in 2009) 15 % Ocun (16 % 15) 14 % Black Diamond (16 & 23) 11 % Moon (8 & 6) 8 % Pad (6 & 5) 5 % Edelrid & Petzl 4 % Mad Rock, Metolius, Snap, Mammut 6 % Other (Flip, Flashed and Asana mentioned most often)

Ethan Plastic, who did Jumbo Love 9b after eight years of projecting and is now working on The Nest 8C, believes that trainings for doing projects are total nonsense....until you have spent 100 days or 5 years. Do not sacrifice to training, go and try it instead! Jimmy Webb could do a 9A if he spent 50 days on a project. Listen to the Training beta pod where he also talks about his ongoing problems with depression.

Well, as I kind of started outdoor bouldering here in Font, and its stories and boulders shaped my perspective on it, i always wished to climb this unnelivable perfect line. boulders like these kept me addicted to the sport and are kind of my source of motivation to keep going. :-) nice to see that keeping your passion alive is leading to progress.

Here is a list that was created in order to try to show how superior Adam Ondra is when it comes to ascents 9a and harder. The index is based on 9a = 1 point, 9a+ = 3 points, 9b = 6 points and 9b+ = 10 points. Picture from the Bouldering World Championship 2014, which Adam won. 226 Adam Ondra 92 Chris Sharma 69 Ramon Julian Puigblanque 66 Alex Megos 43 Dani Andrada Amazingly, when it comes to onsight, the 23-year-old Czech is much more superior. Given the same score for onsight 8b+ to 9a, Adam would reach some 300 points and the runner-up would possibly have 30 points. Add to that that no top climber gives more personal grades.

Saltyway Travel have helped us with an article giving 5 reasons why Portugal and Lissabon should be your next trip.

There exist probably no other physical sport where the shorties perform so well. The best example of this is Ramonet at 159 cm and several kids, well below 150 cm, performing world class. However, in reality, the two best rock climbers in the world are 183 cm and many of the most famous climbers are almost as tall. In the latest Boulder World Championship, the average height of the people at podium was 182 cm. Do not forget that also many of the old legends are/were around 180 cm; Gullich, Moon, Nicole, Mofatt, Manolo and Legrand. Surely, shorter new climbers perform better than the taller in the beginning. But once the taller guys have strengthened up their body and improved their coordination, they catch up and often surpass the shorties. With more gyms and trainers all over the world, it would not take long until some "basketball player" will set new standards on reachy vertical climbs as well as doing crazy 8C+ dynos. Image source: Cliparts.co

Jule Wurm, the reigning Boulder World and European Champion, has done two 8A+'s in Hueco Tanks, Rumble in the Jungle and Phantomb Limb, in the picture by Sven Böhme. "We had a fun good trip, competed in the Rodeo and had a good time with the Austrian crew around Jakob, Alfons and Elias! My plan for 2016 is just to climb outdoor a lot and it would be cool to see some new areas. I'd like to climb in the Grampians for example. And maybe some exotic trips, too. We'll see. I'm psyched to do a few fun comps such as the Hard Moves in Wuppertal, but no more World Cups:-)."

Jan Hasenbichler has produced this diagram, comparing climbers' height and their scorecard rankings, showing that the very best climbers are generally taller. Interestingly, the diagram also shows that the sub-35-year-olds are getting taller. These stats goes hand in hand with other diagrams that have been produced by hardclimbs.info and showed in the 8a forum. The same positive correlations for height and performances can also be found in the IFSC competition statistics.