Jonathan Siegrist had just arrived in Italy where they planned to stay a month when they quickly had to return back home to Las Vegas. "All things considered, I feel very grateful. We have made some sacrifices, sure, but nothing compared to so many around the world. We are allowed to leave the house for groceries, important business, and exercise. Most of the climbing areas are closed (Red Rock, Mt Charleston, etc) so it’s been a great opportunity for me to explore for new cliffs and more than anything I’ve been working on a lot of home building projects! For training I just do a series of one arm hangs (I’ve never done this before but because I don’t have anything too fancy at home this is the best for me right now) also some Hangs with both hands like 2 finger etc. and some front levers and simple pull-ups. Right now I do simple training about 4-5 days a week."

Silver Lining from Kiipeilyareena on Vimeo.

Pirmin Bertle, who just did Pantera 9a, reports in a blog that he last year did three 9a's in Frankenjura; The Essential, Black Label and House of Shock. Asking him on Facebook how these four 9a's were possible he says, "No idea! Vegan living :)". In the "Shape with no reason" blog he tries to explain how he suddenly could do the crux of Pantera. "In addition to the perfect grip, most probably it is because I stopped to eat animals (and most of their products) that I did not raise myself and because I work physically quite a lot without being repetitive. Keeping weight, inflammation-tendency (milk) and other injuries low seem to be enough to keep a basic shape. At least after 20 years of climbing." One possible explanation is a bouldering wall in their garden but even so, due to the poor winter, he has not used it very much. "I don't "train" anymore for years now, means rock climbing only, despite for the last three years when I had a bouldering wall in the garden. I did short and intensive units or tries there in something hard with extended regeneration, to do something else in between. The highest possible analogy to rock projecting: Rock holds, rather not that steep inclination, outside conditions and depending on how intensively used my fingers are in that period, I build more athletic and less crimpy boulders. Before 100% days with normally three rest days, I use the wall for reactivation the day before and in between, e.g. together with the kids, for easy climbing."

Pirmin Bertle, who previously has done two 9b FAs and two 8C+' FA, has done Pantera 9a in Frankenjura. He was also close to sending Corona 9a+. "It was NOT my goal to hamper the fight against Covid-19 with this, but not to let pass great sending conditions is part of my job as a climber – when many other things like slide shows, workshops, and training fall apart. The risk of having an accident in such a well-equipped overhanging route after so many years of climbing is extremely low and at Schneiderloch there was as usually no one around." More comments on his blog - The almost perfect Corona day. It should be mentioned that the crag is just 10 km from his home and his belayer was his wife, who is a doctor. They stayed at the crag just over an hour, as he had warmed up at home, and they were alone the whole time. Furthermore, there is no general restrictions for climbing as long as you climb together with the ones you live together with.