David Firnenburg, who did his first 9a, Era Vella, when he was 15 years old has done his seventh and also his hardest route of this grade, Fabela pa la Enmienda. (c) Henning Wang "Yeahhhh man! What a beast. Took me the most time ever to finish a route. If you consider time to evaluate the grade, this one was my hardest route to date. Took me weeks to complete it and I had to go trough so many mental battles. At a certain point I lost hope and wasn't really committing anymore. I doubted if I could really do it. Though I didn't want to gave up and re-set my mind. After topping out the route I realized that psychology in performance climbing is the ability to switch in a productive mode at the right moment to reach an optimum mindset and also body feeling to succeed a certain challenge.

Please comment on this preliminary list and give names we forgot or should be higher ranked. 1. Ashima Shiraishi 2. Janja Garnbret 3. Jongwon Chon 4. Megan Mascarenas 5. Laura Rogora 6. Miho Nonaka 7. Jessica Pilz 8. Anak Verhoeven 9. Nicolas Pelorson 10. Nathaniel Coleman, Giorgia Tesio, Jakob Kronberger, Stefano Carnati, Baptiste Ometz, Stasa Gejo, Loic Zehani, Kai Lightner, Jani Zoraj, Bernhard Röck, Sascha Lehman, Sam Avezou, Yoshiyuki Ogata, Filip Schenk, Ellis Butler-Barker, Giuliano Cameroni, Piotr Schab, Moritz Perwitzschky, Dimitri Vogt, Margo Hayes, Pietro Biagini, Giada Zampa, Matteo Menardi, Maria Ballerini, Kajsa Rosen, Vladislav Schevchenko, Asja Gollo,

Wild Sport and Philoxenia on Kalymnos plan to run marathon competitions next year based on 8a scorecard point system with La Sportiva as the major sponsor. The concept is simple as you just try to do as many routes as possible during one day and you get points based on the 8a scorecard system. The marathon concept is also planned to be introduced to Melloblocco in coperation with the Vertical Life App and 8a. The same system can be used in gyms, where you can try to go for a personal best or be ranked every month or so. There is a possibility that you get points on how many clips you do or undo if you are at toprope. Getting to the last clip on a 7b will give you more points than topping out a 7a. The scorecard point system has been tested out at two Swedish national competitions with great results and no judges or referees were needed. 8a is currently working in corporation with Vertical Life in order to get ready the format, which will be presented to the gyms later. Any gym or event organizer that would like to become a test pilot gym is welcome to contact 8a.

In July 2013, Tito Traversa (12) was on a climbing trip in Orpierre with his Italian club. Tito, who did his first 8b+ when he was 10 years old, borrowed from a friend some quickdraws, which had been wrongly assembled. As he leaned backwards having clipped the anchor, the quickdraws fell apart and the young Italian fell 20 meters to the ground. He died in an hospital. La Stampa reports that a prosecutor will take three people to trial for the death of Tito Traversa: the president of the climbing club, the climbing instructor of the camp and the company producing the strings to the quickdraws.

Mina Markovic, the Lead World Cup winner 2015, who did an 8c+ last month in Misja Pec, reports on Facebook that she has done an 8c+ in Santa Linya. (c) Luka Fonda "After two days of climatization I used good conditions #santalinya and send nice line 'Digital system ext. 1'. Can't wait to try out more!"

Bernd Zangerl is one of the first famous boulderers. He opened many of the early hard core problems in Ticino and especially Magic Woods including two 8C+'s that nowadays are considered 8B+. UKC has made a new interview with the profile of Bernd, currently living and exploring boulders in the Himalaya. In general, the pioneer is very critical towards the modern 2.0 scene and the article finishes in this way: "There is high pressure in the outdoor industry, so there is also high pressure within the sport itself. Nowadays it's more important to wear the right clothes of the right brand with the right colours. You have to visit the "bouldering hot spots“ of the world and share your private moments on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Some athletes spend more time on social media, than on the rocks, because the smart use of various media channels, particularly web 2.0, enables almost everyone to reach a certain reputation by merely spending a few hours per day on the web. This was definitely not the case ten years ago." In the UKC article he is also critical towards grades and how the community deals with them, which he also said in an 8a article in 2011. He has stated that the reason for why his grades were inflated was because the first repeaters just kept confirming his initial FA grades. Here is a greatvideo of the FA of Shantaram 8C/+ outside Trondheim. The picture by © Ray Demski/Red Bull Content Pool is from Die Versorgungslinie, which he did this autumn. No FA grade but Bernd says it is his hardest ever and it was done as a five year long ground up project that took 150 tries. Other quotes from the outspoken great pioneer. - I want to mention that I don't support those "training camps“, where seven year old kids are following a training programme! - With the notion of „personal grading“ the rating has lost its original purpose, anyway. - In the end I (and also Fred Nicole) were indicted for inflation, for using overblown grades. - Depending on who is grading, or more importantly downgrading a problem, we accept the grade without any further discussions. The achievement of 11-year old Ashima Shiraishi climbing 8B boulders seems less important for the community. Why? Is she a special case of climber, because of her age or weight, her finger-size? But Ondra for example also has very specific physical preconditions, clearly differing from the average climber. Adam for sure can downgrade for example “Shantaram”, skipping two crux moves because of his extraordinary ape index. I am interested in their grade suggestions, but which weight should it be attributed to in the public? Is the “brave” repeater the only voice which holds true? For me “Shantaram” is one of the biggest highlights of my climbing career. It's an extraordinary climb and way harder than anything else I did before. (Personal grade: 8C/8C+)

Climbers-Fingers has created a calendar for 2016, which you can download in 16 languages.

Simon Parton has done the fifth ascent of Terremer, 8C in Hueco Tanks, which was set up by Fred Nicole as an 8C+ in 2005. It is an extremely sharp and crimpy link up of an 8A (+) into an 8B (+).

Catherine Destivelle was the first female rock star and was considered #1 sport climber during the late 80-ies and then she continued during the 90-ies with groundbreaking mountaineering ascents. Here is a documentary with the "Rock Queen. Now she is working as a publisher and her latest book is The 9th grade, 150 years of free climbing. On the picture by Uli Weissmeier she is together with Lynn Hill, whom she actually beat most of the times. How did you like comps and why did you stop so quickly? I have never enjoyed climbing competitions. The first time I took part in a competition, I just wanted to know what it would be like because until then no competitions had ever taken place in Western Europe. My friends encouraged me to take part, they said I couldn't say I hated competitions until I had actually tried. That's why I entered the first international climbing competition which took place on a natural rockface in Bardonnecchia, Italy. Taking part in a competition was really stressful for me. Why? To be honest, I was afraid of measuring myself against the others, afraid of losing. I had never competed and I was reputed to be one of the best French climbers; if I lost, my pride would be hurt. At the end of the day, despite the stress, the competition turned out to be a positive challenge. I won: I came first in everything! At the time, there were three prizes: style, speed and difficulty. Thanks to this outcome, I got several sponsors and I was able to stop working as a physiotherapist and spend all my time climbing.   I didn't consider taking part in other competitions because, above all, I found them stressful. I wanted to climb mountains. Unfortunately this ambition was rapidly jeopardized by a foolish 35 meter fall down a crevasse. I broke my pelvis and my spine and I was lucky to be alive. However, I was weakened by these injuries and I didn't feel strong enough to go back to the mountains.   As the media still presented me as the best woman climber in the world, I felt like I needed to go back to competing. I needed to prove them right, to justify whether it was true. So I returned to compete in Bardonnechia the following year, intent on winning. During that year, I worked hard to build up my strength again. My great rival was going to be Lynn Hill. I thought she was the only one who could beat me. In order to win, I studied the rules of the competition. Speed was still part of the criteria to win. I bet on that, and I won. Phew !... After that, I took part in very few competitions.

Domen Škofic reports on Instagram some amazing news, "Yesterday I on sighted one 8c and today I did La Fabela L1+L2 9a in third try but I ripped the skin of my left ring finger in the lower crux, I was surprised I could finish it of with totally bloody hand." (c) Jernej Vukotic His big project is Neanderthal 9b, "I have 4 tries on it and I feel I could send it in the next 4 or so... But you know how it is, it can go the next try or after I don't know how many. Right now I hope my finger heals back fast. In the Lead World Cup 2015, the Slovenian was #4 after winning one event and in the 8a ranking game, Domen is also #4.