1985 1st official competition, Bardonecchia: Stefan Glowacz wins
1986 Arco: Patrick Edlinger and Catherine Destivelle in front of 10 000 spectators and seven TV channels
1987 1st Arco Rock Master: Lynn Hill & Glowacz
1988 World series: Jerry Mofatt
1989 1st World Cup, Leeds: Moffat and Erbesfield
1991 1st World Champion, Frankfurt: Francois Legrand & Susi Good
1992 1st Youth Championships, Basel: Sarkany, Bibik, Petit etc
1999 1st Bouldering WC: Christian Core and Stéphanie Bodet
2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo

Moritz Welt has during the last three weeks done three 8c's and Markus Bock's Demonized 8c+ in Frankenjura. "Chipped, Short and painful but good moves."

In the 8a Combined junior ranking, having also done seven 8B's and harder during the last two months, he is #2. Franz Kaiser

Cathy Wagner has done two 8a+', in Aixorta, Los Angeles de Daddy and Bien atrapado. "A perfect link-up starting on the first 5 bolts of Buenas migas then leftwards into Atrapados. This combo skips the chipped start and the no-hand rest straight after. Good knee-bar skills make a difference in the upper part."

During the last month, the 52 year old has also done seven 8a's and in total she has done 645 routes 8a and harder. Is there any female who has done more? Interestingly, it seems Cathy continues to progress and her last year is actually her best ever. If she would have participated in the 8a age bonus ranking game, Cathy would have been #2 in the world after Adam Ondra.

Dalton Bunker has done three 8c+ the last week including the FA of Fire Pit Project again 8C in American Fork. "Finally put the "fire pit project" to rest! Classic american fork power. I finished through the wizards crux and stopped at the burning/melting chains(bats out of hell was too wet) i also replaced the original start with cannibals direct,it may be harder or the same im not sure but this routes gotta be the hardest climb i've ever done considering the number of days i put into it. Could be 14d its hard to say as i've never climbed one. Big thanks to Jess for getting me psyched to try the route." (c) John Evans

On his Facebook he has published several videos in regards his interesting thoughts on taking Cold Showers, Eating and Stretching etc.

From the World Cup rankings we can see the total Japanese male domination, six in Top-13 and 8 in Top-17. Among the female, two in the Top-3. In regards the world ranking, based on the last 12 months, 9 male Japaneses among Top-15. It must be very few sports that have seen such an extreme domination from one country.

Runner-up, is the very small country Slovenia with just 2 million inhabitants, with two in Top-7 among both male and female.

Based on that the next two World Cups are in China followed by one in Tokyo, most likely, we will see an even stronger Japanese domination in the ranking lists coming up. Last year, Japan participated with 41 athletes in Tokyo but this year they will be allowed to compete with 47.

Alex Puccio has done her 25th 8B, Green in the face in Cadtle Rock and amazingly it went down in just some 45 minutes. "3rd try from the start and 5th try in total. Fell going to the last hold before the send go.... really sharp rock, but fun climbing for sure!!! Lots of small holds, my style I guess. :) Small little crimpy holds on about 30 degree overhung wall."

Alex at 153 cm and 56 kg's says she is some four kg's heavier than the last year. "Honestly haven’t felt like I’m in great shape since the past 4 months. I can definitely feel the weight difference right now when I climb, but I still feel strong and powerful."

Excellent route setting also in the final in Moscow where it was thrilling to the very last try. Janja Garbret had to flash and so she did, winning on count back over Miho Nonaka. Also last starter in the final, Jongwon Chon had the chance to secure the victory but could not reach the top, and ended #4. As you can see below, Slovenia and Japan shared the podiums equally.

1. Janja Garnbret SLO 44:7/5 - Tomoa Narasaki JPN 44
2. Miho Nonaka JPN 44:7/5 - Jernej Kruder SLO 34:5
3. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 34 Gregor Vezonik SLO 34:6
Complete results

Noteworthy is also that Vezonik was #51 in Meiringen last week. Eddie Fowke from The Circuit Climbing and the IFSC official photographer, who has captured almost all World Cups the last five years, was very impressed of the whole competition and the final show.

"Very good comp. Too many dyno's in finals though. Super well run, the Russian's put on a great show and put a huge effort into everything going right."

In Speed, Yoshiyuki Ogata was best of the top ranked boulderers being #43 with 7.90. Among the female, Miho Nonaka was #44 with 10.51.

Five of the female semifinalist in Meiringen made it to the final also in Moscow and the one missing, Sandra Lettner, did not participate. Among the male, four are the same as in the last event. Japan and Slovenia got three in total to the final and the Japanese domination continues with four male in Top-10 and three female in Top-8. Complete results

All boulders were topped out and in fact, based on the top out percentage, it seems they were all of similar difficulty. This is very seldom the case and the route setting also in terms of style and variation were extraordinary great.

There were no big sensations in the female qualification in Moscow and the Top-4 ranked were finalists in Meiringen. In general, very good route setting and although five girls topped all five problems, three boulders were good enough to make it to the semi tomorrow. Complete results

Great qualification round where all the ten boulders were topped in Moscow. Japan continue their strong domination in the Bouldering World Cup with eight guys qualifying to the Top-20 semifinal. Winners of the two groups were Gabri Moroni and Jongwon Chon. Jakob Schubert and Jan Hojer were the big surprises not making the semi final. Other sensational results were Gabri Moroni moving from #27 in Meiringen to #1 in Moscow, Alex Khazanov from #57 to #3 and Martin Stranik from #73 to 9. Complete results

The Bouldering World Cup is booming and there are 118 male in the starting list for the qualification starting 07.30, Euro time, Saturday morning. The female begin 15.00 with 100 female participating.

On Sunday there will be live-streaming from the semi starting 08.00. The finals start 17.00 with the female and around 18.30 with the male. Live results

Matilda Söderlund, one of the leading female climbers in 2012, before she begun her University studies, is back in the game with the FFA of Golden for a moment 8c in Welcome Springs. With her MBA degree her plan is actually to work with climbing in the future. (c) Sophie Odelberg

"Golden was my big goal for the spring. This was actually my first experience of projecting a route and the first trip I have done with the aim and focus of just climbing one specific route. Definitely an awesome and developing experience - and an emotional rollercoaster. Sent the route on the very last day of my trip, epic! So happy! One of the best routes I have ever done." Instagram

Innsbruck 2018 has published a very interesting interview with Alexey Rubtsov who won the World Champion in 2009 after just having trained bouldering for three years. His big focus is the Olympics and last year he tried Lead and was #17 without any training. Here are some of the lonely wolf's straight forward messages.

"The brain is the most important part in climbing. Maybe not in speed (laughs), but in bouldering for sure.

In Europe, every coach thinks that he's the smartest one and his system is the best. They are authoritarian. But they should understand that they know nothing and start their education from zero. I can't tell you what I do, because that is my secret. Laughs.

You need to widen your repertoire to improve, not focusing on small things, but on the big picture... It is better for me to be alone.

You could maybe remove the bonus, even. You can do the boulder, or you can't. Bouldering is good. One bonus, two bonuses, ten bonuses, ... what is that? It's not Bouldering."

Caroline Ciavaldini reports on Instagram that she has climbed the FFA of The Quarrymen E8 7a in Twll Mawr, Wales. This 4 pitches route was put up by legend Johnny Dawes in 1986, and it is one of the most iconic routes in the world with the extraordinary Groove Pitch (on the picture). © Neil Hart

"“THAT IS NUTS" What on earth made me come up with: “I want to do The Quarryman”? Well… It seemed impossible so…"

Michaela Kiersch has done an impressive second go ascent of American Hastle in as well as her eight 8c+, Joe Blau, both in Oliana. "Yay!!! Epic battle after breaking a hold at the top."

The 152 cm american, who took the silver in the USA Lead nationals recently, is the superior 8a Combined ranking game leader. (c) Matty Hong

Michaela has just graduated from University and this is her second trip to Spain. Unfortunately it has been raining a lot and she has only two weeks left and now a heat wave is coming in. Next up to try is Papier Moyat.

Piotr Schab has done a very quick ascent of Estado critico 9a (8c+) in Siurana. "3rd go. Cool moves in the crux and then some technical pumpy climbing to the top. 9a in a day feels damn. I assume it’s low end, but I had to fight very hard for it." In the 8a ranking game, the Pole is #2 after Adam Ondra. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz

Ingo Filzwieser, the previous national coach of Austria who still is the personal trainer of Sandra Lettner (16) #4 in Meiringen, has a saying. "My motto is that you can not train like the last winner... you have to train like the next winner."

When he became an Austria coach seven years ago he analysed the types of holds used and it was like 65 % crimps. This can be compared with 2017, with some 5 % crimps and like 80 % volumes.

"Part of the reason for this might be that it was getting more difficult for the route setters to check the right level for the male. I saw Sharafutdinov (superior #1 in 2013) doing a pull up with 65 kilo extra weight. Today, there is very little benefit of such strength, instead bouldering has become a coordination sport, giving chances for the route setters to actually do the problems.

You need to be very smart and also tactically skillful. Most boulderer have different shoes they choice from, in order to adapt to different steepness and types of holds. Coming into the boulder, you need to immediately get a plan and then start executing within seconds to not loose time. You can not just start trying hard. Sometimes I see competitors start brushing the holds before they start which actually will make them just loose time.

Doing and filming simulation is very important. Later you as a coach can actually give feedback on why they rested so many seconds and how many attempts they did etc. It will become more of a mind game in the future and this was one part how Kilian (Fischhuber) won 22 World Cups. He was also, and still is, physically really strong but he always solved the problem first in his head.

In general I like this as it also becomes a better and more injury free sport for the youngsters. It is also good that it becomes more of a team sport as it is a constant process of learning technical and tactical skill from each other. I was quite amazed seeing Narasaki and Noguchi closely following what the others did, in a training camp in Innsbruck, even on yoga classes. You could feel that they really cared about each other.

It is also important for the kids to finish school, have other interests and reducing the time they spend on social media. I agree on what recently have been pointed out on 8a that the trainers should have an holistic approach.