Adam Ondra has done the FA of Bohemian Rhapsody in Roviste which is is #41 9a+. "The longest and hardest linkup in this beautiful granite area. Climbing wise absolutely amazing." (c) Martin Pelikan In total, the 27-year-old has now recorded 174 routes 9a and harder. Without all his personal down gradings, he has done close to 200 routes originally graded 9a.

IFSC reports that Anouck Jaubert from France and Michael Piccolruz from Italy have qualified to Tokyo 2021 as they were #11 and #14 in Hachioji WCH last year and as there were no tripartite allocations. According to the rule, the quotas had to be assigned before March 30 without taking into consideration that the Moscow Combined Euro Championship has been postponed to October. This means that France and Italy have filled their female and male quota. In other words, Fanny Gibert and Stefano Ghisolfi can not make it even if they win in Moscow. (c) Eddie Fowke The Tripartite idea is to allow athletes from minor Olympic countries to qualify. The only criteria were to participate in the Combined WCH but this info was not spread around and no athlete from a minor Olympic nation made the criteria. Zàhéér Ahmád from Pakistan got an invitation from IFSC who paid part of his ticket but they did not mention the tripartite possibility so he participated in just two disciplines and lost the Olympic dream. In theory, if Fanny Gibert had won in Moscow in March, Anouck had not gotten the tripartite allocation and instead Di Niu from China had made it to Tokyo, unless Yue Tong Zhang had filled their quota in the Asian CH. In theory, Jernej Kruder from Slovenia and Ievgeniia Kazbekova from Ukraine could also have gotten the Olympic ticket if all results went their way.

Stephan Schibli, who started climbing in 1989 has made the FA of Frittenbude 9a in Ibergeregg. The picture is from another route. "Since I couldn't go to Bleau because of the border closings, I was able to send the route. Holidays are often project killers, since a week of vacation means 3 weeks of absence in the project. I was able to climb the lower part of Fritierte Neutronen (8c+) in 2011. At that time I had no solutions for the upper part. Last year I figured if I wanted to climb the route I should start slowly. I found the solution for the lower key train again in late autumn. Thanks to the early spring and the dry weather, I was able to get into the route regularly this year, which made the climb possible."

Based on a poll with almost 1 000 unique votes, Who is the male climbing legend? Wolfgang Güllich, who made the FA of Action Directe 9a and who also was the first to do 8b, 8b+ and 8c, got most votes. 30 % Wolfgang Güllich 22 % Chris Sharma 20 % Adam Ondra 12 % Fred Nicole 05 % Yuji Hirayama 03 % Alex Honnold 09 % Other (Alex Huber, Alex Megos and David Graham most mentioned)

Gymclimber has presented an interesting interview with Adam Ondra not just reflecting on climbing. In any case, here are some of his thoughts on climbing and improvement. (c) Alvaro Susena captures Ondra's flexibility. "Flexibility in climbing is totally underestimated by most of the people. And it’s actually one of my key ingredients in climbing." "People think of climbing in too physical a way. For sure, it’s very important. Just by climbing, you will improve physically. But I think most people just don’t climb on the level they might be able to climb physically because they just don’t climb well enough." "I like climbing with perfection and I think on the way to get there being open-minded helps a lot. Because even if you have the best coach in the world, if you are not able to reflect on your own climbing based on your own feelings, it is really hard to be the best."

Treadstone Coloumbus Climbing Gym in Georgia has reported on their Facebook that they have reopened. "We are taking all reasonable measures to maintain a reasonably safe space here. I believe we are also the cleanest climbing gym in the world today."

Oriane Bertone, living in Reunion outside Madagascar, has been in quarantine near Fontainbleau and have not seen her twin sister, Margot, and mother since two months. Together with her father Stefano and brother Max the plan was to do the French Youth Boulder Championship and continue projecting her first 8C in Fontainebleau when the lock-down started. Stefano reports he thinks they all got Covid-19, from a supermarket, a month ago but without any major impact. "Our friends have a very good private wall that allows us to keep the level, until May 11 when we hope to be allowed to go out again on the projects started before the confinement. Oriane was very well on 2 or 3 hard (or very hard) boulders :-). We also manage to climb in a private little sector, which is not prohibited. Oriane and Max alternate bouldering sessions and resistance training, by doing circuits on the private wall. On the rest days, we try to go outside around the house to do some exercises and stretching. The rest of the time, the children do their homework and we connect on a video call with Margot, who climbs on our wall in Reunion Island. So I can see and encourage her." They do not know when they will be able to fly back home and possibly they will stay the whole summer in Europe and if so, the plan is to have the twin sister Margot joining them. The twist of the situation is if also the Euro (Olympic qualification) Championship in October is postponed to 2021, Oriane might have a chance to qualify to Tokyo, as she turns 16 the next year. Last year, Oriane won all Youth competitions but one she entered, and she also managed to challenge some of the best seniors. At age 12, she did her first 8B+ and she is #3 in the 8a ranking game.