Adam Ondra has extreme flexibility for drop knees, high steps and opening his legs. This is actually a part of his success story. If you could sit and rest like Adam does on the picture from Granitgrottan, you might be able to do harder routes! The training focus in the media and in the gyms seem to be finger strength and endurance. This means that most climbers have actually optimized their strength in these field, meaning it takes a lot of effort to improve. On the other hand, for the guys who do not stretch, some few hours could improve your flexibility making you climb harder. It just might be that it is 10 times more productive for your performance to spend one hour stretching than do a one hour session on the campus board.

The boulder trend is growing stronger every year and the number of 8A's recorded in the data base 2015 is a new record, but when it comes to 8B+ ascents, we can see stagnation and for 8C's and harder, the number of ascents is actually decreasing. A possible explanation for this that has been discussed here on 8a before is that there is a boulder grade deflation going on, meaning that some 8B+'s actually deserve to be 8C's etc. On the other hand, 2015 has been a record year for 9a and harder ascents. My best guess is that close to 50 guys have done a 9a and more than a dozen - 9a+ or harder. As most of these ascents are repeats of routes put up in 2010 or earlier, we cannot say that the grade progress for routes has something to do with route grade deflation.

The death statistics of climbing the Top-10 highest mountains in the world make you wonder how some can take the risk. In fact, in the last two years more climbers than ever have died on Mount Everest with and over 200 bodies it is like a cemetery above the level ground. 2012 stats below come from The Economist and Wikipedia. 5 656 tops Mount Everest - 223 dead 306 K2 - 81 dead 283 Kangchenjunga - 40 dead 461 Lhotse - 13 dead 361 Makalu - 31 dead 3 138 Cho Oyu - 44 dead 448 Dhaulagiri - 69 dead 661 Manaslu - 65 dead 335 Nanga Parbat - 68 dead 191 Annapurna - 61 dead

The CU belay glasses were introduced to the market nine years ago and lately many cheaper copies have been developed. Belay Glasses comes from the Czech Republic and offers their product for 77 Euros in comparison to the original 119 for the CUs. Comparing the two different products, having used the same pair CUs for eight years, the new cheaper ones logically do not feel the same although they still do the job, saving my neck from pain equally good, and with excellent visibility too. From a personal point of view, I like the CU's more discrete look, which is much nicer, and also how they fit my nose and head but on the other hand the cheaper ones feel much more robust. CU has solved this by including a solid plastic box and it would be good if Belay Glasses also offered such box. Overall, the Czech belay glasses seem to be of very good quality but with the current price difference, I still have to recommend the CU. They are made in Germany without almost any reclamation for several years. However, there will be a Christmas sale offering a special price of only Euro 39 for the Czech belay glasses, so it might be worth giving them the chance, even without the plastic box.

EPICTV reports that Jonathan Siegrist has done Chris Sharma's Papichulo 9a+ in Oliana. (c) Samuel Elias ""Papichulo is an incredible 45 meter route. It’s involved, with a very pumpy and nerve-racking finish after a consistently tough first half." This was the third 9a+ for Jonathan and what makes this one so special is the fact that he up had to turn on his head lamp midways the route and continued to the top.

Martin Stráník, #2 in the world championship in 2007, seems to be in his best shape ever having done seven boulders 8B and harder in 18 days, including The Story of 2 Worlds 8C. "5 days, icon of bouldering for me, hard battle with progress, moves and conditions, but luckily last day of the trip temperature allowed me to send this boulder! And good session on Il Trill, must come back! (c) ON_ OFF Productions

Jakob Schubert, one of the best climbers of the last five years, both on rock and in comps, reports on Facebook that he has made the FA of Companion of Change 9a in Zillertal. Last weekend he was #3 in Kranj as well as in the 2015 overall ranking. (c) Elias Holzknecht "The route was bolted by Markus Schwaiger then rebolted + cleaned by Gerhard Hörhager, two of the most important pioneers of Tyrol! I tried this route for the first time many years ago and came back every once in a while, a lot has changed since I first saw this route, in my life but also in climbing and on this planet in general. That's why I'm giving it the name 'Companion of Change'. I'm not 100% sure about my plans yet, I'm really spontaneous right now, done with university since May, so I can put all my time into climbing. Planing to focus on Lead next year and less bouldering so I can focus on rockclimbing a lot longer. Probably climbing mostly outside until May. On Saturday I will go to Croatia for a week, mid December Spain and Hueco in February."

Edu Marin reports on Instagram that he has done Chilam Balam 9a+ (b). This summer he was focused on multi-pitches with his father who also belayed him on Chilam Balam. This was the fourth repeat of Barnabe Fernandez's 80 meters long endurance monster, which originally was given a 9b+. Edu has previously done 8 routes 9a or 9a+ and in 2006 he won the World Cup in Chamonix.

Adam Ondra and Jain Kim won the Combined title. The fact is, however, that Jain did just participate in one Speed event, where she was second last, and in no Boulder event. The only competitor who participated in all three disciplines was Sean McColl, who did 12 out of 18 events. What does this say about the IFSC aim to include all three events in the possible 2020 Olympic Games? Here are the results from the combined ranking: 1. Adam Ondra 674 - Jain Kim 432 2. Sean McColl 486 - Akiyo Noguchi 421 3. Domen Skofic 407 - Yuka Kobayashi 286 Complete results.

Bloomberg presents "The Bulgarian Duo Leading an Indoor Rock Climbing Revolution. The unlikely story of how two friends created the world’s biggest climbing wall company in Europe’s poorest country."