Last year, Japan had ten male within the Top-21 in the Boulder World Cup in 2019 and Kai Harada won the World Championship. In the first Cup of the season we saw some interesting results where Harada was #25 and some lower ranked names on top. Taisei Ishimatsu ranked #9 among the Japanese in 2018 won ahead of Tomoa Narasaki. Third was Keita Dohi (18), who never made it to the semi last year in seven WCs. #7 was Rei kawamata (15), who last year did one 8B+. #9 was Yushiyuki Ogata (19) who last year best in the three disciplines were, #4, 15 and 22. His personal best in Speed is officially 6.71. " I made 6.5s in training. So I wanna show this time in front of you. The next Cup is within two weeks and I hope to win. The most important competition in 2019 are the Combined Japan Cup in May (Top-5 will qualify to the WCH) and the Combined World Championship. Some Japanese might skip some World Cups because of training for these two important comps." The best male and female from Japan will qualify to Tokyo 2020 in the WCH (if any is Top-6) and the remaining one + one will be selected as they are the host country.

"Some days were quite cold! Many of them were 0 or even below. I would use hand warmers and foot warmers to keep my hands and feet warm. When i was resting I would put my climbing shoes in my jacket to keep them warm. I would also take longer breaks and walk around to keep warm. It was very tough to warm up! The rock is very cold but a nice wood board is perfect for getting the fingers warmed up. I always warm up with my shoes in my jacket so they stay warm. When I am at home in USA, I have a portable gas heater that only weighs about 2.5 kilos and is great for cold days. It lasts for about 6 hours and put out really nice hot air. I sit in front of it and it puts out nice warm air. it really heats up the area around the heater around 1 meter or so. Most hardcore bouldrers in USA use them."

Keenan Takahasi, aka M ario, doing two 8C's; Kintsugi and The Nest.

James Webb is the best flash boulderer in the world. In total, he has flashed 37 8A+ and 14 8B's, including often giving personal lower grades. In the current 8a flash ranking game, he is #37 but that is just because he only has 8 recorded flashes. Nathan Michel is #1 in the flash ranking game with one 8B and 13 8A flashes. You only get one grade bonus for flashing but possibly we should increase this. It seems, like for route climbing, that the redpoint level has increased the last years with multiple 8C' but on the same time 8B flashes are still very rare. Among the female, Michaela Kiersch is #1 in the Boulder onsight ranking as she is in the Route overall ranking game.

Daniel Woods is the new 8a ranking game leader after he did Sleepwalker 8C+ and Squoze 8C on the same day, which has never been done before. (c) Kevin Takashi Smith "Day started out with sending Sleepwalker on my first go after I was warmed up. I didn't take too much energy from this, so decided to try and polish off Squoze as well. I had tried it during my previous trip a couple weeks ago and was close to doing it. Fueled with psyche and adrenaline, I was able to send. This definitely was my best day of bouldering. Not often do you get the chance to send 15 and 16 in the same day. So how can you be in this record shape? I feel good right now. No say... just feel motivated haha. Climbing on a bunch of hard boulders for a while will get ya strong. What about a comeback in Comps? Well comps these days look like a completely diff sport to actual climbing. Seems you have to be a good coordinated climber rather than just have raw strength. I enjoy watching the comps and have a lot of respect for the athletes that do them, but it is something that I haven't gotten into yet. You have to dedicate a lot of gym time as well to have a chance since there are so many talented comp climbers and I would rather spend more days on the rocks than gym. What is your spring plans? Currently I am working to link a three moves 8A+ Sit Sleepwalker. The Sit is logical and completes the whole block and this was Nalle's (Hukkatiaval) original vision. It definitively levels it up. I respect Jimmy's and Nalle's outlook on climbing. They are searching for art pieces. I leave for Spain Feb 3, stoked on First Round and then go from there. In March I will be in Swiss then April to Finland for Burden of Dreams.

ISPO in Munich is one of the leading sport trade fairs in the world. In between Feb 3 - Feb 6, the whole climbing industry is meeting up and there is a new Indoor Climbing HUB in hall A3. It starts up with a party 17.00 on Sunday organized by Vertical-Life and on Monday and Thuesday there will be lectures by Mattias Polig, Björn Pohl, Charlotte Durif, Marco Scolaris and Hannes Huch and many more. "Climbing has developed rapidly in recent years. Don't miss the "Indoor Climbing Hub" at ISPO Munich 2019 in hall A3. We present concrete figures/statistics and present the top topics that move the industry. Selected speakers deepen individual topics and in joint workshops we develop new ideas and concepts that can be of equal interest to all players."

Vadim Timonov, who one year ago had a bad snow board accident which made him stop climbing for some months, has been in Albarracin and in just a week he did 17 boulders 8A to 8B+. On the picture, by Irinia Kuzmekova, La Teoria del Todo 8B+, which he did in just a 90 min session. "It was a great trip! good weather for bouldering, good condition. Sometimes I wanted to climb something harder, but there are no difficult routes. I'm glad to climb a lot of boulders - a great start to the season. Now it is the time to prepare for the competition! In a couple of weeks I'm flying to Japan and I plan to do all but the one in USA! Next plans on the rocks - the Burden of Dreams in April." (By coincidence, yesterday Daniel Woods said to 8a that he also plans going to Finland to try Hukkataival's 9A in April.? In 2017, Vadim's worst result in the WC was #20. Last year he was #25 in the WCH in Innsbruck, just three months training after his accident that left him with two plates in his shoulder. Interesting is also that Vadim has no sponsor and is actually buying his La Sportiva Solution and Scarpa VSR, as can be seen on the pic.

In 2012, 55 year old Jean-Pierre Bouvier put up the FA of Fou Rire aller/retour in Fontainebleau as the second 9a boulder traverse in the world. "Aller/retour" means that you first traverse it from the left to right 8B and then combine it traversing from right to left, which in it's own is 8C. Historically such climbs have not been defined as boulders by the climbing community and there exist a separate traverse grading somewhere in between route and bouldering grading. In other words, the difficulty of Bouvier's challenge should be equivalent to a 9a+/9b route but for some reason the 55 year old's extraordinary "world record" achievement is not recognized in the climbing world. 8a has previously discuss the subject and said super long traverses or roofs could be defined as boulder routes. In fact, the 60+ mover The Wheel of Life put up by Dai Koyamada in 2004, was recognized as the first 8C+ boulder for some years although Dai had said, "This is not bouldering. When it comes to routes, Fred Rouhling put up Akira in 1995 as the first 9b in the world and although it was also done before the first 9a+, it has not gotten full recognition. The reason for this is probably because it issaid to be chipped and the difficulty is done as a bouldering roof traverse. Then Fred clicked in a rope to his harness and finished on easier terrain for two bolts. It is important to say that anybody could do any challenge they want and a 8C+ or 9b etc are super impressive no matter how it looks. However, when it comes to world class ascents of historical importance, it seems like the climbing community has tried to define what a route or a boulder are? If somebody put up a chipped and eliminated 60 moves roof as the first 9A+, should this be called the first 9A+ boulder in the world? Would not this be a bit mis-leading for the future generation defining what a quality boulder is about. The first female 8C boulder is said to be Ashima Shiraishi's Horizon which she did when she was 14 years old. Some do not agree saying it does not fit into the boulder definition as it is a 30 move endurance roof. Clearly Horizon is longer than many routes but personally I do think this line still fits in the boulder definition. What do you think? (c) Brett Lowell

Charles Albert has opened the second 9A in the world, No Kpote Only in Fontainebleau. Later 8a published an article asking if this should be considered the hardest graded boulder in the world?, or more of a constructed problem as two traverse moves had been added to the more obvious (8C+?) sit start. Now Grimper confirms the polemics in an article where they say. "Knowing which is the most logical line is a debate that Charles had with other climbers who found the direct (a probable 8C+) more obvious."

Irina Kuzmenko has signed up with four 8A boulders including two the last week in Albarracin, El Astronave and Iker. The picture by Juliet Leonova is from Magic Woods where she did two 8A's last year. "I’m originally from Siberia. Climbing since 2008. Till 2014 was competing just in lead, then tried once a bouldering outside and fell in love. So since this time I compete at world cups in bouldering, but more motivated to climb outside For the future: I really would like to crush all limits and make my grade of climbing higher with every rock trip! In close future would like to done with 8B boulder, make it good on Nationals and feel free to climb around the world, explore new climbing areas!"