Udo Neuman, a climbing and training fanatic who has been on the forefront since 1992 when he published Performance Rock Climbing, has done it again with - The Art and Science of Bouldering. It is an interactive e-book on 237 pages where he shares his bouldering philosophy and his latest advanced training tips and terminology. Buy it here for Euro 26. Udo is the trainer of the Germans Jan Hojer and Jule Wurm, two of the very best boulderers in the world both on rock and in competitions. In his advanced book you can start reading anywhere getting some interesting thoughts on ethics, grading and of course training and 8a is mentioned several times. "Since 15 years 8a.nu has established itself as THE internet platform for all things climbing and bouldering. Ideas and concepts, especially if it comes to "Evaluating climbing performance" are discussed controversially here - and that is a good thing in my "book"!

Patti Wohner has after 18 years of climbing made her first 8A, Gross's Roof in Cumberland. The 40 year old, started to do her first proper training just 8 months ago when she moves to Chattanooga. Before she had mainly been a weekend warrior living three hours from any good crags. "I credit my progress to training my weaknesses which for some reason had never occurred to me to do, I always focused on my strengths until I read Dave MacLeods book 9 out of 10 climbers. I saw women who were doing a lot with power and so I focused on power.

Jan hojer has done his second 8C FA in Fontainlebleau, Le Marathon de Boissy 8C. In total, the 186 cm and 78 kilo power house, has done five 8C's out of which four in Font. Last year, Jan won one World Cup Boulder.

Simon Carter has taken the amazing picture from our amazing climbing globe. The approach is 1.5 h to the Crystal cave from Telendos harbour but 7 out of 10 routes 7b and harder are world class marked. Simon: "Am I dreaming, or does that cloud also remind you of brain tissue inside a skull? And as such is a perfect metaphor for the mind-trippy nature of the route. No?

Guillaume Glairon-Mondet has made the FA of Toupie Carnivore assis 8C in Fontainebleau which is a sit start to an 8B he did some weeks ago. "This is a boulder which took me a lot of sessions to attain my goal ... But as this line, and movements are very much my style of climbing, it was almost a pleasure to go and try it... Another problem was about the skin of my right hand, because trying the same dyno to the first bad sloper (around 30/50 on each session). So, I solve this problem by going to my project only every two days." More details and pictures in his blog. Gui-Gui, who previously has done three 8C's in Font, is a very successful competition climber and the last five years he has been #4, 7, 3, 6 and 6 overall. "A video is coming, with some other nice sends in Font. It's now time for the last training before the comp season start, and if I find the time, maybe work on another project in Font.!!

The webmaster has improved the crag maps so it works quicker and more smoothly. Over 2 500 crags have been marked on our maps which you also will find in the 8a Topo App. Go to a crag and click on the map for detailed description or try by continent: Europe, North America, South America and Asia.

Vladyslav Shevchenko and Fedor Samoilov (16) have been on a good trip to Misja Pec where both have done Strelovod 8c and also 8b+'s. Last year Vladyslav, see picture, did his first 8c+ in Nikita located by the sea in Crimea in Ukraine.

Fabian Buhl, who the last two years have done 12 boulders 8B+ and harder, has made the 4th ascent of Beat Kammerlander's Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ at Bürser Platte. (c) Stefan Schlumpf "After my second ankle fracture within 6 months, I was walking again, but jumping down was forbidden to me for another 3 weeks. So I searched for some alternative experience where I didn't have to jump down, therefore I started trying the trad climb from Beat Kammerlander Prinzip Hoffnung 8b+ E9-10. Due to the reason that I hadn't climbed on a rope since two years or so, I was quite astonished when I could climb it on toprope on my second day. From this point on I wanted to try it on lead, but I had never climbed with gear, so I didn't know how my mental strength was. But luckily I fell only once in my first try, after this I had more trust in the micro protection and could climb more relaxed, for me this was the key to the redpoint. I was really happy, that I could climb my first 8b+ route, for me it is even nicer that it is also a trad climb and that it has such a great history. I want to thank Jacopo Larcher and Chri Bindhammer for the support and a special thanks go out to Beat for this amazing climb! Really amazing and technical tard climb by Beat Kammerlander, thanks for the vision! Thanks to Jacopo and Chri for the support. Maybe some more rope climbing in the future ;-)

Grades are important for selecting your challenges and to measure real progress. At the same time, many climbers want to stay away from personal gradings as it sometimes create polemics. Time Comparison Grading (TCG) can be used as a grade reference for both the guys who want to share or stay away from personal grades. If the prerequisites are the same when it comes to; Beta, Style, Condition and Form, one could speculate that there are one grade step in between; Onsight, Flash, 1, 4 or 30 sessions invested, see the TCG diagram. There are of course many exceptions and some climbers have a more steep or flat performance curve, also depending on type of rock. Once you have done a personal best you should be able to enjoy personal best' in all other Time/Effort categories. TCG is the base 8a have used when we have speculated on both down - and upgradings over the years and it might be the best way to explain how gradings work in practice. Please feel free to share your opinion.