Jessica Pilz, #3 in the Lead World Cup, has added two 8c+'s to her new scorecard; Mind Control and Joe Blau in Oliana. "Was sooo happy that I could send it in my 4th try, the jump in the beginning was quite far for me and the last part a mental game :P great end of the year!!" In the WC 2015, she was Top-4 in all seven events. The 19-year-old has won the Youth World Championship three times. On the 8a Climber of the year list the Austrian is #20.

Alex Beale has put together the most comprehensive 8C stats that are out there. The picture shows the great and natural progress in Bouldering. On the other hand, as there is only a couple of 8C+'s, one could suggest that the 8C scale is to wide and, some 8C's should in fact be 8C+'s.

Chris Sharma comes with great news on Facbook, (c) Ricardo Giancola "I had a great start to the new year by sending the "Catalan Witness the Fitness" at Cova de Ocell the other day... I've been trying this line on and off for quite some time so it felt good to see it through finally. It's been great process getting back into the bouldering groove! I'm not so sure about the grade but it's something like an 8B/+ into a 8A+ , so whatever that means ;) It will be really cool to see more climbers try it and get their opinion!" As it is a roof, the rest between the 8B/+ and 8A+ can not be very good so based on other link up grading and the fact it took some time, the new test piece is probably at least an 8C!?

The New Yorker presents a full length article about Ashima Shiraishi including the family background and the fact that her mother was 51 years old when gave birth to Ashima - The most talented climber in the world.

By analysing Similarweb, we can see that 8a.nu is the leading global climbing website as all competitors get most of their traffic from their country of origin. The 8a visitors are, on the contrary, evenly spread out around the globe. Furthermore, the most interesting fact is that 85% of 8a visitors come "direct" instead of just clicking on a link on Facebook or Google etc. The four main competitors to 8a get most of their visitors through links at Google and Facebook etc. 85% 8a.nu 45% UKC (32% from "Google" & 67% from UK) 33% PlanetM (42% from "Google") 24% R&I (50% come from social media) 23% Climbing (38% from "Google") In practice, in the Google and Social media era, getting 85% of the traffic direct, is extremely high and unique for a global social community like 8a.nu. This also shows a great potential to grow. To have such a high figure is also very interesting for the advertisers. If you only visit a certain domain because of a Facebook link, you are probably less interested to look around :)

Ashima Shiraishi (14) reports on Instagram that she was very close to repeat Dai Koyamada's Horizon, 8C at Mount Hiei. Japan. In fact, Dai has said it is either a hard 8C or possibly even an 8C+. (c) Yoshiko Saito - This is the project I spent a few days on but fell 3 times from the last hold that was wet. I definitely cried myself to sleep on my last night. I hope to finish projects like these in #2016!!!!

Mina Markovic finishes her Catalonia trip by sending Ingravids extension total 8c+ in Santa Linya. In practice, this means that during her two weeks the Lead World Cup 2015 winner set some kind of a record by doing; one 9a, two 8c+'s and two 8c's. Imagine Mina's tick list if she just focused on rock climbing for one year. (c) Luka Fonda

Alex Megos started up the first day of 2016 by doing First Ley 9a+, which begins at First round, first minute 9b - a route he he did on the last day of 2015. The young German also did a new 9a variation, La Ley indignanta. An interview by our Spanish editor, who is at the scene, is to come soon. 2015 was the best year ever for Alex Megos as well as for the whole climbing community and now the bar has been set for 2016. Enjoy the new year and keep pushing!

Niccolo Ceria, the winner of the 8a Boulder ranking game 2015, has as usual put together his Top-10 list of boulders 2015 including superb pictures. Stefan Kuerzi has taken five of them including this one of The Big Island 8C in Fontainebleau.

Alex Megos strikes again and today he reported on facebook, enclosing a photo by Daniela Ebler, "First ascent of today at Margalef! "Hostia, no PUC" 8c+! Bolted by Jörg Andreas one year ago. Name by @_felixfelicius_ meaning "Damn, I CAN'T" in Catalan.