Jernej Kruder, the Boulder WC 2018 winner, reports on Insta to have had very productive days doing eleven routes 8a and harder including the FA of Peščena ura 9a. (c) Martin Zorko The Slovenian is famous for often climbing outdoors as preparation for doing competitions. Last year he won one Bouldering WC and then he focused on Tokyo. His last chance qualifying is during the Euro Championship but if that is also cancelled he will get the last Euro ticket as he was #16 in the Combined World Championship.

In Sweden, it has been reported that in the trad area Bohuslän, some climbers have started to leave their gear and top rope overnight. One reason for this is that there are no bolted anchors and that the routes are being used for training instead of going to the gym. Many are complaining about this saying that it could create access problems. This behavior might spread. What do you think about this?

Ale Zeni, who last year put up the world's first 9a+ slab, comments his passion for slabs, his 9b FA Cryptography from January, and his big MP project. He woks in the military section of high mountains. "I love climbing on the slabs for some reason. The first one is because near my house in Primiero (Dolomites) there are just slabs and I grow up with the Manolo's routes. Also because I love the feeling of my body when I search the perfect balance, and I love looking for the really small crimps on the walls that in the beginning seems like a mirror. For Cryptography I made on my wall the crux of the route (replicas). Where I try it with the wight west to improve my finger power. I don't know exactly how many attempts I did. But approximately something like 40 attempts, during 14 trips, I including the attempts on Bain the Sang and Bimba Luna. The mp project is in Val Nuvola a beautiful 250 mt wall. Riccardo Scarian and I started bolting this new route from the ground with long runouts some years ago. We have already completed the first 4 pitches that could be: 7c+, 8b (8a obligatory); 7c, and the last one 8c. Then there are more 3 pitches that could be harder.

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Emily Harrington, Kai Lightner and Beth Rodden have recently talked about how they got eating disorder due to climbing. They speak openly about how trainers, the community and their performance drive forced them to eat as little as possible. Everyone know that this is a problem in climbing and it is very good some of the famous athletes have taken it up. In 2014, IFSC measured the BMI in the WCH and sent out a message to male below 17 and female below 18. Many federations like Austria and Norway monitor this and you are not allowed to compete below certain standards in regards gender and age. In 2008, 8a first addressed the problem asking the community, Should we make a recommendation of BMI > 17, for scorecard users?. In fact it started a storm of criticism but anyhow other media took it up. The biggest dilemma witheating disorder and climbing relates to youth and lead competitions. Possibly IFSC could do more monitoring the situation and actually ask the route setters to focus more on power instead of hanging around in big roofs. As a matter of a fact, limiting the climbing time as have been done should most probably favor more healthy climbers.

Angy Eiter, the only female who has done a 9b, started bolting in Leonidio in 2015. The last year, the four time Lead World Champion, took it to a new level and made the FA of Schatzinsel after four days of bolting and in total four months of projecting. (c) Claudia Ziegler "It was such a great experience to bolt this steep and long line. It was tough work and at the same time, a wonderful thing to free it and give it a name :-) The route has a mixture of different moves (crimps, slopers, pinches, underclings, shoulder moves, etc.). It begins on a slightly overhanging wall, then it traverses to the left into a roof and finishes with a slightly overhanging wall. Altogether the route is about 40 meters long, with mostly hard moves and three crux sequences. My husband Bernie regularly lives out his passion for bolting and is already quite experienced. I made the most of this knowledge and asked him to coach me in bolting my own line. We searched for a virgin wall and after some time, found a place not far away from my home region Imst. In the beginning, I was worried about the bad quality of this rock there, but at the same time, I loved this place. Bernie was ready to help me bolting. It took me a while until I found the ideal beta for me and could start real attempts to complete the line. I failed many times, but on one day I could put enough effort into the line, I found my flow and found myself overjoyed as I clipped the chains. I managed to complete my line that I called „Schatzinsel“. Concerning the grade, it’s not my hardest route but belongs amongst the hardest ones I have climbed. Repetitions are needed to find a consensus."

Climbing Canada have decided to not send any youth team to the Youth WCH in Russia in August. They do not think their athletes will be able to prepare good enough and, " logistics to travel to Russia in August are very difficult and health and safety concerns in Moscow are significant." They have also listed several criteria in order participate in World Cups like, "Medical advice indicates health risks to athletes and staff related to COVID-19 and the travel/logistics of the event are zero."

Jana Vincourkova has come back stronger than ever after the lockdown with two 8A+', Rigger in Blansko (video) and the FA of Dab Police in Zelená Hora (video) In 2012, she won a Euro Cup and last year she started climbing again after two years break. "Since there is the lockdown and I am working from home already for two months. I had/have quite some time to do hang boarding. We have the PUC series and it is way harder than the fixed ones like Beastmaker for example. It improved my core by miles. And finger strength for sure to. A lot of pizza helps as well. We started to visit less frequented granite areas that offers small crimps, which is the thing that suits me the most. One of them I managed to do in a day only. It is a variation of a 7C+ in a roof where you skip the biggest jug, creating even harder crux-moves in super tiny finger crack. It is really hard to avoid any dabs. It was a project and since I saw it I knew I had to try it, so that is my first 8A+ FA."

Matt Fultz has done the second ascent of Daniel Woods' Everything Gneiss in Clear Creek Canyon suggesting an upgrade to 8C.

Steve McClure has spent part of his time in the quarantine by putting together some training advice for guys 45+, published on his Insta. The 49-year-old is the best climber in the world around 50 and says he has been in peak shape since 45+. At age 46, he did hist first 9b, last year he did his hardest ever trad onsight 8a and just the week before the lockdown he was in France onsighting a bunch of 8a+ and plenty of 8a. Training for old Folk. Part 7. Have fun Sounds a bit corny. But sometimes the fun element can be lost in search of numbers, and the joy harder to find as performance starts to slip. There is no doubt that for many of us numbers do count, and we measure ourselves by them. But take the pressure off. For nearly every climber in the world, no one else measures you by numbers. They don’t really care. What they do care about is that you are happy and having fun. A joyful tick of a 7b is way better than a screaming fall off the last move of an 8a. It’s absolutely true we have to keep pushing hard; it’s satisfying to be the best we can be and to know we worked hard to get there. Know that, know you are your best, don’t allow numbers to judge. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. We don’t have as much time as we used to have. Fill those days on the crag with fun and good memories (but of course still cranking hard after all the training we did..) All these training notes will be combined over the next few days and on my website Steve-McClurse.com. There will be extra detail, and working with rockcity climbing, I’ve answered a load of questions. If you have additional questions ask away here and I’ll answer them in the article.