On his recent trip to the Frankenjura, John Gaskins made very quick ascents of two major boulder problems; Riot Act, Font 8b+ and Gossip, Font 8c. The former he completed in one day and the latter took three visits. Most climbers who know John, and what he is capable of, would not doubt his integrity in claiming these ascents, nor would they doubt his ability to climb them. The site 8a.nu has published an email by a local climber Markus Bock which casts doubt on John's ascents. You can read the email on 8a.nu which also contains John's reply, and a subsequent reply by John.
Both sides seem to be presenting well reasoned arguments (compared to the hyperbole on most UKC discussions), difficult one this. It seems to me that John has has had some pretty poor luck- apparently someone chipped off a key hold on his recent 9a+ route years back when he was originally trying it. He was understandably a bit pissed off and so began the start of his bouldering career. It was through bouldering that he got strong enough to go back and finish the route, and at the time I thought good on him. I guess this is absolutely the kind of attention he has been trying to avoid. I'd like to think we'd get behind him on this one and given that he doesn't seem the attention seeking sort (he left the country immediately after completing his longstanding (9a+ project), I believe he did do it.
From the little I know/heard of gaskins, I would suggest he is certainly telling the truth. The other guy thinks he's got a point based on seeing him try the problem, but its probably just a mis-understanding on the different sequence gaskins used. What is strange is that the guy emailed 8a, when gaskins is hardly the most public with his ascents and doesn't actually have a 8a profile? Surely better to email gaskins direct and try a clear up any mis-understanding before going public.
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