Jacopo Larcher has made the third ascent of Beat Kammerlander's Prinzip Hoffnung 8b/+ E9/10 at Bürser Platte, Voralberg, in Austria. Beat put it up as a sport route in 1997 but later decided to chop the bolts and in 2009, beeing 50, he made the first trad ascent. Jacopo, who previously has done two 9a's, worked the route some 15 times including some four lead attempts. So what can you say about the difficulty? It's hard to relate it to a sport routes, it's something completely different, it's more mental. The climb is really technical and you can slip everywhere, which is not easy to assume as the protections are often not good and should not fall. Sure, I know grades are important for the media but I don't care about them anymore. E-grades are mainly used in UK for trad climbing and it measures (speculates) the overall difficulty, including the danger, how hard it is to onsight it. There exist some E11 that also have gotten an 8c+ grade. In other words, for some reason, the trad routes have for some reason a harder, deflated, grading scale compared to bolted routes. So stay assure that Prinzip Hoffnug should not be compared in difficulty to a modern 8b/+ sport route.

Adam Ondra has put up Todos los Santos, 9a in Roc Galliner and in total he has now done 90 routes 9a and harder out of which 33 FA. The runner ups, Sharma, Ramonet and Andrada, have done like like one third. "Amazing line to the left Ni Blog Ni Facebook. Slightly overhanging face on crimps. Unique place totally worth the hike. 3 goes. Bolted by David Gambus." (c) Vojtech Vrzba

Jule Wurm had done two 8A's and Barefoot on sacred ground 8A+ in Hueco Tanks. The German has been a succesful competition climber for ten years, first in Lead as a junior and later in bouldering. In 2009, she got the silver in the Euro Championship and the last years she has stood six times at the podium including once at the top in 2013.

During the last few years, we have seen a dramatic development of making thinner and lighter ropes. In theory, the most extreme ropes are just like 10 grams lighter per meter compared to the average 10 mm but in percentage it is like 15 %. In practice, however, the rope drag 30 m up on your onsight, differs normally much more than 15 % weight difference. 8.6 mm, 51 grams, Edelrid Corbie, 30 - 80 m 8.7 mm, 51 grams, Mammut Serenity, 30 - 80 m 8.9 mm, 52 grams, Edelrid Swift, 30 - 80 m 8.9 mm, 52 grams, Tendon Master, 50 - 80 m 9.1 mm, 52 grams, Beal Joker, 50 - 200 m It should also be noted that a brand new 10 mm rope creates less rope drag compared to a worn out extreme rope and that the greatest impact to avoid rope drag is using long slings. The picture shows the Mammut Serenity. Is there any rope that should make the list?

Based on 1 100+ unique votes we can see that more climbers have started to use the feeding out rope technique which Petzl suggested three years ago. Originally Petzl suggested a technique that almost nobody did use. Later Petzl changed their recommendation to a technique presented by 8a which still is equally used. The good thing is that it seems all the bad Grigri accidents have more or less disappeared. Climb safe! 37 % Exactly as in the picture 37 % Fingers around the rope and the whole Grigri 26 % Thumb on the brake, no rope safety

Giuliano Cameroni has done Dave Graham's The Story of 2 Worlds 8C in Cresciano from 2005 which might be the most known boulder in the world. The name was a statement to the previous grade inflation which actually made the it stop. It is a sit start to The Dagger 8B (+) making it to a great spectacular roof boulder. "Yes! Unbelievable! This problem is one of the most complete I have ever seen. In the morning, the end was completely wet, but luckily in the afternoon it was almost dry. 3rd go today and falling down at the end on the first and the second try cause I slipped with the hand and the hook. but the battle against this boulder is not finish, on the other side there is Dreamtime!" Giuliano, 16, is the youngest to have done an 8C. Previously Adam was the youngest beeing 17.

Mina Leslie-Wujastyk has done Rumble in the Jungle 8A (+) in Hueco Tanks. It was set up by Fred Nicole in 2001 and with 60 ascents in the 8a data base, it is one of the most popular hard boulders in the world. Mina: "V11/12 depending on height. This was so satisfying as it became a bit of a battle!! Such a good day!" In total Mina has done eight boulders 7C+ to 8A+ during the last two weeks.

The latest harness from Ocun is their innovaitiveweBee made of a performarated 3D foam (patent pending), which makes breathable, washable and even with a wide waist as well as adjustable leg loops it is only 370 grams. Overall it is very comfortable and as always with Ocun products, it comes with a good price value at around Euro 50. Here a video presentation and here some more detailed info.

Giuliano Cameroni started climbing before walking and he has beside six weeks of hang boarding, last autumn, only climbed outside beside when the weather is bad. ""Haha, now I try to climb as much as possible outside, even if the weather is terrible: sometimes I'm alone, but it still super cool! My mother drive me to the crag and then I take the bus in the night back home". He did his first 8A when he was ten and also some route climbing but as he thinks it is scary to fall, his focus is bouldering. For 20 months ago he had a finger injury which made him stop climbing for five months and since then, he has had an extreme progress. Last week, the 179 cm tall, speed climbed The Stoy of 2 Worlds, Video. The 16 year old, living in Ticino, is working on several classical 8B+ and 8C projects."It's going to be cool also to do some competitions this summer. But for that I will do some few weeks of indoor preparation.