Petr Blaha, who started climbing in 1994 and did his first 7c+ when he was 31 years old, is peaking with Abyss 9a in Gorges du Loup, being 39 years old. During the last year, he has done three 8c+'s out of his total of six and all in Gorges du Loup. (c) Yoann Estepa How do you train? There are no shortcuts for progression, train hard, rest regularly, stay motivated, avoid injuries. Do that and you will progress. Training, up to 30 hours a week. Weightlifting and the calisthenics Monday plus Wednesday, twice a day. Tuesdays and Thursdays are dedicated to finger strength training, campusing or fingerboarding in the morning, two or three hours in climbing gym at the evening. Friday is a rest day, I spend Saturday and Sunday at the cliff all year round, I try do spend some time Sunday night on campus board. Three weeks of training, one week rest.

Ethan Pringle reports on Facebook that during a night session he did Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger. "YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!! I SENT THOR's!!!!' AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! I climbed through the first crux section on my third go of the night and somehow managed not to fall on the latter 3/4 of the route! I was SO nervous and pretty convinced that I was going to fall everywhere but I had it so dialed that I could machine through it pretty mindlessly, on autopilot. My toes were TOTALLY numb and frozen on the second half of the route and I couldn't see the feet becuause it was pretty much DARK but I just kept trucking and fought to the top!!! Holy SHIT, SO PSYCHED!!! I screamed until my voice was horse. Thanks so much to Dave Graham for this hilarious pic, the belay and eternal stoke! Surprise surprise!!!

Kairn reports that Seb Bouin has done the second ascent of Remy Bergasse's L'intégrale du toît d'Orsay at The toît d'Orsay which is made up by two problems put up by Jacky Godoffe. Seb is mainly a route climber and he has done about a dozen 9a to 9b's and, regarding the grade he compares it with an 8c+. Furthermore, he says he did not manage to do several 8B's in Fontainebleau. © Pierre Délas/Kairn

Ethan Pringle reports on Facebook that Daniel Woods has finally done the 60 meter long upside-down climb, Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger. Daniel has been working on the route for some weeks in mainly bad conditions and actually already eleven days ago, he did fall on the last move after 45 minutes. (c) Courtney Woods "Well, @dawoods89 ended his epic and sent Thor's Hammer!!! In total garbage conditions! Super impressive.

And by the way, Adam Ondra, the double world champion from last year, who was #10 in Puurs, has done Classified 9a (+) in Frankenjura. "9a/a+? so close on Modified (9a+) after the ascent of Classified, such a bummer. Nice to be outside after unlucky Puurs. Feeling strong."

Dave Graham reports on Facebook that he has done the second ascent of Illusionist in Flatanger, which actually was Dave's first 9a in over two years. In total, he has done 19 routes 9a and harder.

OZZY 2015 from Jimmy Webb on Vimeo.

IFSC comes with the great news that sport climbing was shortlisted as one of five new sports for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. More info here. The Olympic medals will be given to the best Combined ranked climbers in three disciplines; Lead, Bouldering and Speed. In total 20 female and 20 male will be allowed to compete. Here are the results form an 8a poll based on some 4 000 unique votes. Which discipline in the Olympics 2020? Combined: Lead, Boulder and Speed 21 % Lead 15 % Bouldering 32 % Deep Water Solo 6 % Climbing should NOT be in the Olympics 25 %