Florian Schmalzl, who previously has done two 8C's, has done the FA of a stunning line called Sierra Madre in Zillertal. In fact he did not give it a grade but talking to his friends who had tried it they all think it could be 8C. "All in all, cleaning it, finding the beta and climbing it, it took me ten days."

1. Akiyo Noguchi 44 JPN - Kokoro Fujii 33 JPN 2. Miho Nonaka 33 JPN - Sean McColl 23:2 CAN 3. Stasa Gejo SRB 13 - Alexey Rubtsov 23:5 RUS Complete results (In order to simplify, 8a presents the results as points and if needed the number of attempts.) Japan was ahead in Chongqing and that counts especially among the female where Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka were superior also in the semifinal. Kokoro Fujii was last one into the final and won in a kind of boring final with one problem too hard and one too easy. It must be mentioned that #1 and #2 in the female WC in 2017, Janja Garnbret and Shauna Coxey, as well as #1 among the male, Jongwon Chon did choose to not participate. Chon will be back next weekend in Tai'an. In the Speed, Mickael Mawem was best among the top boulder guys with 6.81. Kokoro Fujii was fourth with 7.83 as his best in the qually just some 90 min before he started the boulder final. It should be noted that Sean McColl who has been doing Speed events for several years had more than ten boulder specialists in front of him. Among the female, only a handful boulder specialist participated and Akiyo Noguchi was best of the top boulderers with 12.43.

Hily Manon reports on Insta that she has done the 50 meter endurance master piece Era Vella in just four days. Previously she had done a couple of 8c' and one month ago she was #2 in the France Bouldering Championships. Last year she was #11 in one Boulder World Cup. "I trained for boulders comp last year and this year to but I have no time to do the Boulder WC in 2018. I will do the french lead nationals in two weeks and I hope to do make the selection for the World Cup. I have always had good endurance and now I have more strength so I thought, why not try something harder? Margalef is 100 % my style so I choose this route because of the beauty and the compatibility with me! The three difficulties are all my style; resistance, boulder sections and open hand in pockets. About the grade I do not know, I have done some 8c's but I can say it was not so much harder for me personally. I am just 154 cm and with my little fingers what seems 8b for me in Margalef can be graded 8c here. I have no idea of the 8c+/9a difficulty and what is my level today. Grades are delicate because of climbing difference between everyone." Chris Sharma put it up in 2010 and it quickly became the most repeated 9a in the world and in 8a data base, everyone has given it three stars. It has previously been done 30 times out of which five female ascents. Some of the latest repeaters have called it 8c+ and this is also the grade in the latest updated topo.

Hojer, Rubtsov, McColl, Schubert, Kruder and Fujii. Nonaka, Noguchi, Pilz, Kipriianova, Kadic and Gejo. results Interesting is that Jan Hojer won the semi after having qualified to the semi last. The winner of the qually Nathan Philips was #16 in the semi.

Sylwia Buczek has done her second 8c in Frankenjura, Intercooler which she started to work on last summer. (c) Hannes Kutza " I climbed the line on 29 April very early in the morning, it was a good weather and I had a very positive mindset, I just wanted to climb the best as I can. Also I was motivated by the fact that the next day is my birthday. I climbed the line in my first go. Climbing on the limit is that what I like and it was always extremely motivating for me. So very likely I will search for next hard project :) I would really like to check how hard would be the next grade for me, I'm very curious so probably I will check something around 8c+."

Cathy Wagner has done The human pad in Monistrol d'Allier which actually is the third 8a+ during the last two weeks for the 52 year old. In total Cathy has done 141 routes graded 8a+ out of which the first one more than 20 years ago. She started climbing in 1985 being 21 years old. The amazing thing is that the last 12 months have been her best ever with 16 routes 8a+ to 8b.