Covered in the great interview with Adam Ondra is Silence 9c which took 200 tries, the 9a+ and the Olympics. In 2019, he will do all Lead and Bouldering WCs and in regards Speed it is an Olympic training sacrifice gamble. "How much training you should sacrifice into Speed and how much impact it will have on Bouldering and Lead... all of us who want to go to for the Olympics is kind of gambling on that.

8a wants to support the International Women's Day. Often podium prizes are not equal, or a route is downgraded when a woman does it, putting on doubt hard ascents just for the only reason of be a woman. Climbing has the same value if you're a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. We would also like to see more female bolters as well as bolting being more adjusted to girls and female height. (c) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing On the competition scene, female is getting closer to male performance and Janja Garnbret, on the picture, has often climbed as high as the best male during training. When it comes to junior training and competitions, girls often outnumber the boys. In bouldering, Ashima Shiraishi did an 8C when she was 14 years old which no boys have done yet. Last year, Angie Eiter ldid a 9b meaning only two male have climbed a harder graded route. When it comes to gender performance equality, this means that climbing is a unique sport and, even so, probably we have just seen the beginning of the climbing Girl Power!

Although not official, the IFSC qualification system document for Tokyo 2020 has been found on internet. A total of 20 male and 20 female will participate and 1 + 1 is guaranteed the Host Nation and 1 + 1 Tripartite Commission. There is also a maximum of 2 athletes per nation. "The qualification events are listed in hierarchical order of qualification." 6 - Top ranked on the Combined World Champion in Tokyo 2019 1 - Overall World Cup Winner (OWC) 2019 6 - Qualifying event where Top-20 from OWC 2019 will participate 5 - Continental Championship 2020 A. As soon as one country gets two spots (like from WCH 2019), that countries quota is full and the remaining qualifications have no impact for that country. B. During the Continental Championship for Europe and Asia, it is likely that you do not have to qualify to the Top-6 final to make it through if you are not from; Japan, Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia or Germany. C: It is not clear if Host and Tripartite Places go beyond max 2 + 2 per country. D: Further comments in the right column.

The Youth World Championship was planned to be organized in Canada 7-19/8 but this event was cancelled one month ago. Moscow has now applied for it using the same date. The official decision will be taken 17/3.

Chris Sharma reports on his Instagram that Joe Kinder has done the FA of Life of Villains 9a+ in Hurricane. Two months ago, Joe reported on his Instagram, "ONE HANG!! (after 4 years of working this beast)." (c) Joe Segreti Joe Kinder has been very active on the scene for 15 years always sharing his passion and joy for everything in climbing, including setting up hard routes and creating great videos. Here an interview from 2013 we did with the "always psyched". "It's been a wild experience man to say the absolute least. I am very happy as its been an emotional moment for me. The send yesterday was just a glimpse of the whole story and experience. The grade, title of FA, and all the other terms we use to validate an accomplishment have very little weight when I think about the experience. This is a story I will take with me forever and I am so proud."

Beto Rocasolano publishes on his Instagram account his FA to Hipoxia 8C in Navalosa, Spain. ©Sara Richart "Yesterday could send Hipoxia 8C in Navalosa, the inverse of Parálisis 8C, but IMO is more obvious cause goes in an ascending traverse, but I have to come back and send the descending one."

Jon Cardwell comes with the great news on his Instagram that he has done La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. This year it took ten tries but the process started last year. Previously he has done some 10 - 15 routes graded 9a, the first one in 2008. (c) Greg Mionske Congrats! So what made the send in the end? Thank you! Not really sure exactly what made things work, except that I was just really excited to climb again in Spain after suffering from a bad finger injury last July. I worked patiently all late summer and into the fall/winter to rehab my finger and strength appropriately without risking re-injury. When I arrived in Spain, I felt refreshed and more motivated than ever to just enjoy the climbing with good friends. Also, I worked the route for a couple weeks last year when Matty and Margo climbed it, so I began this trip knowing all the beta quite well. This was the ascent #22 in total of Ramon Julian Puigblanque's classical route from 2003 which makes it the most popular 9a+ in the world. In 1994, Alex Huber made it to a first anchor calling it 8c+ but with the today grade standards, his version is considered 9a.

Based on some 500+ votes, "Which comps do you like the most?", and in comparison to similar polls over the years, we can see that Bouldering is getting more popular. 29 % Lead 61 % Boulder 01 % Speed 07 % None 02 % All