Sarah Seeger, 8A+ boulder in the Frankenjura

Time passes, standards rise and as a result more and more women are capable of sending incredibly hard boulder problems. The latest, after Katja Vidmar in December and Alex Puccio at the start of January, is German climber Sarah Seeger who has now sent the 8A+ "Kalte Sophie" in the Frankenjura.

The speed with which she sent Markus Bock's problem (a mere 4 days) and the adverse conditions (read snowfall and a wet hold) obviously indicates that the 30-year-old German might have much more in store...

This grade was "inaugurated" by Barbara Zangerl in 2008 with Pura Vida 8a+/8B at Magic Wood and although in the meantime numerous women have equalled this difficulty, it hasn't been improved on yet.