Domen Skofic 8c/+ onsight at Massone in Arco

In this game of mind-boggling numbers - where 9a redpoints seem the new norm and hardly raise an eyebrow - it’s easy to forget just how impressive 8c/+ onsight really is. Three years after Yuji Hirayama made the world’s first 8c onsight back in 2004, Spain's Patxi Usobiaga first broke the 8c+ barrier with his on-sight first ascent of Bizi euskara at Etxauri, Spain. Adam Ondra added his name to the 8c+ onsight list in 2011, just a few months before Ramon Julian Puigblanque, while in March 2013 Germany’s  Alexander Megos took things one stage further still, skipping the grade entirely to produce the world's first 9a onsight. A month later Norway’s Magnus Midtbø travelled to Spain and checked in with his onsight of Cosi fan tutte 8c+ at Rodellar, and at the start of this year Slovenia’s Klemen Bečan produced what may well be the most underrated ascent this season, his onsight first ascent of the 8c+ Siempre se Puede Hacer Menos at Chulilla.

While this list is probably not exhaustive, it certainly serves to illustrate just how rare ascents of this calibre actuallys are.