Margo Hayes reports on Insta that she Papichulo 9a+ in Oliana. Including her two previous 9a+', La Rambla and Biographie, the 21 year old is a contendor for having the best ever female tick list. (c) Jan Novak. Last year she was #10 in the World Championship. In two weeks, she will change the 45 m wall in Oliana to compete in the bouldering WC in Meiringen, hopefully to get a good start on her Olympic quest.

Jacopo Larcher, who three years ago did La Rambla 9a+, has done his hardest route ever. "I have never invested so much time in a route before. Anyway, I decided not to grade it ;)" The Italian found it six years ago and the last year the 25 meter line in Cadarese, Italy, has been his big focus. He says that he has worked on it during possibly 50 sessions or more. In regards placing the gear, Jacopo says it is not so hard to place. "It just makes it more pumpy between the two hard sections." (c) Paolo Sartoro Photo It is a well known fact that trad grades are harder than sport grades. One reason for this is that in the beginning of the sport era, you had to place the quick draws as you were climbing as you had to place the trad gear. Later, the sport ethics changed towards pre-placed quick draws. Further more, it seems that at the same time we have seen grade inflation for sport routes there has been deflation for trad. Currently there exist some four 8c+ trad routes meaning that there possibly should be a two grades gap comparing it to sport routes. Understanding that the gear placement did not have so much impact on the difficulty for Larcher, it just might have been 9a+ or 9b with bolts. So what do you think? Did Jacopo do the first 9a trad route in the world?

Last year there were 208 participants in Meiringen and this year there are 222 in the Starting List. Each country are allowed to participate with five male and five female plus the Top-10 in the world ranking, which means Japan will participate with ten males. In the qualification, it is the highest ranked who start first. Among the ones, who did not get Top-30 in any World Cup or WCH, the starting order is done by random. In practice, this mean that Stefano Ghisolfi could start last having to fight both worse friction and higher temperature in comparison to the guys going out first. Noteworthy is that Gabri Moroni, who won one event last year, will not compete for Italy as they have made in mandatory to go for all three disciplines, in order to get support. In the schedule, it says that the isolation will close 08.00 for the male and that the female will be finished by 22.00. Based on the large number of participants, they possibly will have to extend it. Ghisolfi just might have to spend 6 hours in isolation.

Taylor McNeill has done his third 8C, Squoze in Red Rocks. Video on his Insta "Couldn’t do any of the 3 hard moves for my first two days on it. Had a breakthrough on day 3, but still had some figures to do. Day 4 I sorted it out and somehow got it done Hardest I’ve ever climbed in shorts. Dope one from Jwebb. Hard to say on the grade. It’s the fastest I’ve ever done a boulder this hard but I’m also feeling really fit."

Edu Marin, who in 2006 won the World Cup in Chamonix, has done the FA of Valhalla 9a+ in Getu which has 14 pitches and overhangs by 304 meter. More info to come.

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Ett inlägg delat av Edu Marín (@edumarin1) 20 Mar 2019 kl. 9:10 PDT

Matt Fultz has had a great day in RMNP, having done two 8B+' in a day. In total the 27 year old has done 21 boulders 8B+ and as can be seen on his scorecard, he has been on a ten year almost steady progress. More info on his Insta. How have you been able to raise your level in 2019? The US Bouldering competition ended a couple months ago, so I have been 100% climbing outside or training on the hangboard/Tensionboard/ Moonboard. Just improving finger strength and power, and not worrying about long days in the gym doing comp-style problems. But most importantly, I’ve been psyched!

Anna Stöhr, possibly the best ever female competition boulderer, could not participate in the WCH last year due to a back injury. Last month she reported on Insta that she for the first time did not think of her back and did her hardest route Riflessi 8c. Yesterday, the bouldering queen did one more long endurance, Cinque Uve in Arco. (c) Michele Bort Anna has won both the World and the European Championship twice. Four years she has won the Boulder World Cup overall and in total the Austrian has won 22 WCs. In 2010, she became the second women to do an 8B, Riverbed.

Jonathan Siegrist has done the second repeat of Joe Kinder's Life Of Villains in Hurricave giving it a personal 9a grade. "It was a long and ferocious winter but through fiery stubbornness and many wet climbing days something cool finally." In total, the 33 year old has done 40 routes 9a to 9b and he is #3 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Chris Weidner