Fanatic Climbing reports that Seb Bouin, who has done five routes 9a to 9b last year, has done Thor's Hammer in Flatanger, which was put up by Adam Ondra as a 9a+ and which has seen many repeats lately. Seb started working on the route last year and this year it took him five days to fight bad conditions and wet holds. He was also given a new sequence at one of the cruxes which makes the route 9a according to Adam and Seb.

The second Lead World Cup takes place in Villars in Switzerland and there will be live streaming on Saturday: 10.00 - 12.30 Semi and 20.00 Finals. Complete results

During Outdoors trades in Friedrichshafen, safety was in focus with the new Grigri from Petzl and the Revo from Wild Country beside some safer carabiners from several producers and more helmets. 8a will be sent products to test soon. We were very impressed with them all. We will present videos during the next few days. Petzl did also inform us that they have asked Petzl USA to check exactly what went wrong when Ashima fell to the ground from 14 meters. Other than that, more indoor focus with many hold manufacturers etc and an augumented climbing wall where boulder problems are lighted up via a projector connected to a computer with endless possibilities.

The second stage of the Lead World Cup in Villars was as great as the first in Chamonix. Sean McColl got the highest in the final, into which almost all big names failed to qualify. The Canadian was also the only participant also competing in Speed, where he was second last. Among the female, last out Janja Garnbret took her second in a row victory and in fact, she waved to the spectators preparing for the move on which four girls had failed. More info to come. It should also be noted that this was possibly the best live streaming ever with continuous updates of live results and several interviews with the athletes directly after they had climbed.

Looking at the video, remember that Chris bolted it ground up during some months four years ago, mainly with hooks!

Planet Mountain reports that Bernardino Lagni, the world champion from 1999 who did his first 9a being 43 years old, has flashed Mantieni la calma 8c in Ai Piccoli. "I happened to meet Omar, who was trying the route, and he explained all the moves. I didn’t set off with the idea of flashing it, but with a little luck and driven on by the cheers of those below me… I clipped the anchor!"

Patxi Usobiaga, the world's best overall Lead competitor between 2006 to 2010, when he was injured in a traffic accident, has become the first trainer of Chris Sharma. Patxi says it was his hard training that made him become the world champion and it is very interesting that he did not go for the common full periodization training. Instead he combined campus, bouldering and endurance on the same day and this is also how he works with Sharma and Ondra. - Everyone is different and it is about motivation and having fun. There is nothing wrong with a strict robot training as long as you find it fun and you learn from it. Ondra and Sharma have a different approach but basically I give them a scheme with similar excercises to follow. The PUC concept always combine different challenges. Even while focusing on endurance, we need to do boulder or campus to keep it fun and more motivating. Both Chris and Adam are famous for becoming the best in the world just by climbing rather than train in a systematic approach. Chris says he was curious to try out something new and as he started up his gym and has just become a father, it was the perfect timing. - It is interesting, fun and motivating to try something new. I could continue going to Oliana putting up a new 9b or even harder but that would be doing the same over again. Now my focus is to set up a new 9a multi-pitch in amazing settings with Klemen Becan. I plan to continue to follow the PUC training until there are better conditions for our project.

Domen Škofic won in great style in Chamonix continuing his nice progress trend. As a junior, he was the best in the world and in the last three World Cups the 22-year-old has been improving every year being 9 - 5 - 4. Domen is also the #2 in the 8a ranking game after Adam Ondra. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Domen Škofic SLO 51 2. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 48+ 3. Jakob Schubert 48 4. Gauthier Supper FRA 48 5. Roman Desgranges FRA 47 Complete results