Tamás Farkas has done Histerija 8c+ in Misja pec. "The first real project of my life. Around 30 tries. I felt 5 times from the last hard move in bad conditions. Milestone for me! :)" Tamás is from Hungary which has just one big crag Kis-Gerecse, so there is a lot of travelling going on for him.

Based on a poll with close to 900 unique votes, Best Euro Climbing Destination? Picture from Olof Morsing - Kalymnos. 18 % Kalymnos 14 % Siurana/Margalef 12 % Céüse 10 % Frankenjura 08 % Southern France, The Alpes 06 % Rodellar 04 % Arco, Scandinavia, Geyik Bayiri, Southern Spain 08 % Other (No other crag reached 1 %)

Herculane Climbing Open invites you to the 13th edition of their fesival based on continuous sport-climbing developement in the Cerna Valley. The dates are 1-3 of May and there will also be a competition. Video teaser

Eddie Fowke, who runs the The Circuit WC magazine and who is going to most of the WCs in 2014, will make short reports that will be published on 8a. Here he gives some interesting thoughts about the very short 2014 season. "The first thing that stands out about this season is how compact it is. This is a World Championship year and the whole IFSC Bouldering World Cup series is squeezed into two months. That’s right, from the opening round in Chongqing starting on the 26th of April to the closing round in Laval finishing 28th of June there will be 8 Bouldering World Cups!!! Over the two months there are only TWO weekends where the athletes will not be competing! This is an incredibly tight schedule that will wear down the climbers. It means that preseason prep is more vital than ever as once the season starts training opportunities will be compromised. Flying from comp to comp takes a lot of time and is draining on the athletes. If an athlete does all the competitions they will be flying more than once around the world and will be spending more than a working week (40 hours) in the air plus many more hours in airports etc. It will be interesting to see the effect this has on performances by the end of the season.

Adam Ondra has done two 9a's, the FA of Back Road in Rovereto and the classic Underground in Arco. "4 goes in total. First try flash in 2011 - fell off from the top. 2012 - retro flash and fell off from the top. 2014 - retro onsight/flash (as I forgot the sequence) and fell off from the top. Sent 30mis later." In total Adam has done 100+ routes 9a and harder and using his personal gradings, it is 92. In Arco, Adam also onsighted Warbeast giving it a personal 8c grade. "Really close to onsighting Bucking Bronco 8c+ and another 8c+ project in another area." Two weeks ago he commented, "Two months of hard training is over, let's see if it pays off." So let us see if it is possible to raise the bar before the lead World Cup season starts July 10th. This would mean to do multiple 9a's onsight as it probably is not enough time to go for a 9c.

Melanie Sandoz who was the Boulder World Champion in 2012 has signed up to 8a with four 8A boulders and she is #9 in the ranking game. On saturday she will compete in the Boulder WC in China. Mélaine is a nice exception that great progress is possible on the competition arena. During her first eleven World Cups she just made it to the semifinal once where she was second last, #19. In the last competition in 2013, she got the bronze in the European Championship. More great picture from Heiko Wilhelm at Melaine's blogspot.

Mikel Linacisoro, one of the best junior slalom skiers in Spain, has done two 8b+, Ollako Mari in Equino and Kale Borroka in Siurana. He has also onsighted two 8a's. Last year, the 13 year old did his first 8c+ and onsighted four 8a+.

Emanuele Pellizzari , who sells his Kinobi bolts, informs that you need to use a stainless steel hammer for stainless bolts. "To keep is extremely simple. Stainless steel is a material that self defend itself. It can defend itself till a certain degree of attach from external agents. If you dirty it, with less resistant materials (as an example a hit of a hammer not made from stainless steel), you start a galvanic corrosion. Galvanic corrosion, first attach the less noble material which actually protects the stainless material it will dissolve, but then it attach ALSO the stainless steel. When? No clue, it depends on where it's placed and how corrosive the environment is. So, never hit with a hammer made from steel a bolt of stainless steel, because otherwise: a) it dirty the bolt up, starting galvanic corrosion on the traces left of the less noble material. b) eventually, the corrosion left by these particles, will corrode ALSO the stainless steel. c) in case you hammer the bolt by mistake with a a not suitable hammer, you can try to clean it with this piece (for polishing shoes).

Ramon Julian has done his 38th 9a, Leire in Cuenca and it took him three tries. The 159 cm also did his 73 8c+, Seta Negra.

Philipp Gaßner has had a great trip to Misja Pec where he did his second 8b+, Missing drink. The 13 year old also flashed two 8a's and did one 8b and a 8a+ second go. Philipp did his first 8a+ when he was 10 and when he was 12 years old, he did Ronin in Frankenjura which actually almost all think is 8c.