The Youth World Championship in Innsbruck started today with Boulder for Youth A. In the male second group, Keita Dohi was the only one to do two boulders and 16 boys scored zero bonuses. In the first group it was a bit better and the twelve first did at least one boulder. Complete results Among the girls, the boulders were also too hard as Ashima Shiraishi and Sandra Lettner were the only ones with three tops. Anyhow, more than half just got a maximum of one top and 17 scored 0 bonus. What is truly remarkable is that this is the third Championship in a row where the boulders have been too hard for the youngsters. (c) Heiko Wilhelm In fact many coaches and youngsters were upset and actually some had problems to do the first move from the starting position. In many cases, guys who made it to the semifinal, did do many less moves and bonuses in comparison to lower ranked. 8a has previously suggested having two or even three bonuses in order to make comps more fair and fun. 8a has also suggested that the route setters should have guidance saying that at least half of the guys qualifying to the semifinal should do four boulders.

Two Classics from North Wales from Leo Skinner on Vimeo.

Tomasz Oleksy has won five Speed World Cups and two Boulder World Cups. In 2003, he won the Speed and the Boulder World Cup on the same day in Yekaterinburg and got a bronze and silver in the World Championship in Chamonix. During the same year, he won the WC overall in Speed and was #5 in Boulder. The following year the Pole tried Lead once and was #14. In other words, Tomasz Oleksy is the best Combined climber in history and shows that it is possible to perform in all three disciplines. If climbing would have been Olympic 15 years ago, he might have been the mega star with some golds medals around his neck! "Normally I trained Speed after one day of break when I was fresh. The rest of my training I focused on Bouldering training and Lead climbing, two days training and one day rest. In one period I tried to train two times a day but it was too much for me. Outside I was focused for climbing mostly onsight. I was able to climb 8b onsight. In bouldering I was able climb 7C+ onsight and 8B problems quite fast. I never focused on really hard stuff and I did just like two trips per year." (But he has done the FA of Tysiac kotletow 9a, in 2000.) Piotr Kotlarski tells us the extreme story from Malatal when Tomasz recommended his warm up boulder. ""Guys, a great boulder, a mix of coordination and power, I really like it". He'd done it like three times for fun, saying it is around 7C. Then the locals arrived and said he'd done Petting with an Alligator 8A+. Today Tomasz is working as an IFSC route setter and he did the Munich WC and now he is in Innsbruck for the Youth World Championship. "Fortunately this job offers me time for climbing so I am still more less in the game, 8a onsight :))). When I have time we try with my family to go climbing outside as much as possible. I think this is very important for Maja! Maybe my daughter will have chance to finish this Olympic story?" Follow up story with Maja, who did his first 8a this summer, Petit Tom in Céüse, at 9-years-old, soon to come.

Piotr Schab, who just did Thors Hammer 9a (+) in Flatanger has onsighted his third 8c in 2017, Nordic Flower. As a matter of a fact, it actually was set up as a 9a and for a long period it was considered as 8c+ until Adam Ondra gave it the 8c grade everyone now confirms. "Enormous, hour long roof fight. Didn't find the right betas for both cruxes, but a huge piece of both faith and luck made me a happy boy in the end!

Mileage in the Grampians from David Mason on Vimeo.

Arco Rock Masters was finished with the Duel Speed climbing. Among the males, Adam Ondra was superior in all rounds and the female race was won by Julia Chanourdie. Today the Arco Rock Master finishes with street bouldering!

Tinos - The fallen ones from George Papageorgiou on Vimeo.

Piotr Schab, who previously has done 13 routes 9a and harder, has done Thor's Hammer 9a (+) in Flatanger. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz "Loved those 7 days with this 60 meter long beast. Constant hype and no negativity coming out of it were most likely the best things that I gained during the whole process. I think that this one might be harder than all of other nine's I've already done this season, that's why I'll go for the 9a+. The grade does not play a big role with such a masterpiece though."

USERNAME David Firnenburg 8.60 Clair Bhurfeind 10.01 Brooke Raboutou 10.95 Ashima Shiraishi 12.26