The qualification to Tokyo 2020 will start in just six months and here is the 8a prediction of the final ranking. 1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Miho Nonaka JPN 2. Adam Ondra CZE - Janja Garnbret SLO 3. Jakob Schubert AUT - Jessica Pilz AUT 4. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN - Akiyo Noguchi JPN 5. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA - Stasa Geijo SER 6. Jernej Kruder SLO - Jain Kim KOR It should be noted that max two from each country is allowed to participate so here are some Japanese names with almost equal chances to get a spot and also become Top-6: Meichi Narasaki, Kai Harada, Kokoro Fujii, Keita Dohi, Futaba Ito, Mei Kotake.

Alex Garriga has done his second 9a in just three weeks, Seta total in Cuenca. © Marc Pinyol "Completely unexpected, without worrying about it everything comes. A magic try."

karoline sinnhuber, who previously has done four 8B's, has done her tenth 8A+ The Anthem in Zillertal, in just three sessions. "After falling from the lip last week I finally did it! Quick ascent today, thank god I don‘t have to hike up there again hahaha." "@my next plans: Not sure yet. I‘ll definitely be in Ticino again after xmas for 11 days. @comps: Definitely trying to climb as many boulder worldcups as possible depending on how it goes I‘ll decide what 2020 brings." In the very last World Cup boulder this year she was #8 in Munich.

The climbing community should be grateful to all landowners out there but it is seldom we can show our appreciation. Instead, sometimes a fraction of the climbers misbehave and make the landowners want to close down the crag. In some crags, the local club has agreed with the landowner to put up a box where you voluntary could pay a parking fee. Often this does not work especially as we do not bring cash so often and because such fee is anonymous. Lysekils climbing club, on the west coast in Sweden, has made an agreement with two landowners, who has invited climbers to park on their property, to set up signs including a mobile number to pay a voluntary parking fee of Euro 2. While you pay the 2 Euros you can also include a personal message saying - Thank you! Have a nice day. Getting two such messages per day during the summer will increase the chances of keeping the landowner secure and happy with the cars and climbing on his ground. Their visitors is not just anonymous but appreciating individuals from different countries. Another way to may the landowners happy could also be to just # your Insta with the crag name. Imagine how fun it could be to check this out for the land owners as well as making him proud.

We have previously reported that Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi has done the first repeat of Pirmin Bertle's Chromosome X in Chamery becoming the youngest person to have climbed 9a. "My first try of the grade. Perfect route. My beta is totally different from Pirmins." Illya has also presented a video describing graphically how their two betas deviated. Pirmin has checked the video and is very impressed saying Illyas (160 cm) lower new sequence to the right is harder but the upper one to the left is easier. - Chromosome X (soft 9a) is kind of an elimination and that is why we took it out of the topo. Using Illyas holds and sequences are possibly as hard as the original one and a very impressive ascent. We will see what future taller repeaters think of the grade if you keep left all the time? The 13 year old has been very open with how he did and says he can not suggest a grade of his beta due to lack of experience of these grades. - This trip was full of surprises. I did not expect this crag to be so beautiful and diverse. I also did not expect the routes and even parts of the routes to be so different by types of climbing. Based on this, I don’t understand why that area is still not popular because, in addition to everything that is mentioned above, there is huge amount of fabulous hiking tracks and landscapes. In addition to, there is a big range of grades, which is acceptable for family vacations. Speaking of the route, it astonished me. Although I could do every move in the lower part, (using Pirmins beta), I couldn't combine it. Quite the same situation happened with the upper part.One move I could not do. So that is the reason why I made a totally different beta.

Rock & Ice report that Lonnie Kauk has once again repeated his father's Magic Line in Yosemite, upgrading it to 8c+ as he placed all gear on lead. Ron Kauk did the first ascent in 1996 and Lonnie did the first repeat in 2016, both with preplaced gear, i.e. pink point. (c) Lonnie's Insta. The logic with the upgrade is basically that it is harder to climb a trad route placing the gear also because sometimes some of the holds are blocked. Back in the days when sport climbing was created, you were also supposed to place the quick draws on lead and as a matter of a fact, until like 15 years ago, this was for many the way to go for onsights. One of the reason why a trad 8c+ is considered as harder than a sport 8c+ is because of this. Until now, no 9a trad route has been established and there exist only a couple 8c+ in the world, out of which two in Yosemite, including Beth Rodden's Meltdown.

Based on an incident where the webbing of a quickdraw was cut after six sideway falls, the normal hanger was replaced with a Raumer "caving" anchor, see picture. The idea was to move out the quick draw so that the webbing should have less contact with the sharp granite just below the hanger. Although such hanger can be used in a top anchor, creating less rope drag as the quick draw or the screw carabiner get perpendicular, this hanger is not designed for dynamic load. Further more, it is important that the load stays downwards. The "caving" hanger could put the quick draw in a bad position which can lead to ruptures, i.e. carabiner breakage. Emanuele Pellizzari, who is selling Kinobi bolts etc since 15 years, explains the risk which also Raumer, the manufacture of the bolt, have confirmed. "That hanger is not meant for climbing falls. It is meant for static load with a clear direction of force. In fact it keeps the biner perpendicular to the route, like in belays/rappels. It should be removed and replaced with a regular hanger. This is a typical case of mis-use by the equipper."​ What is your best advice if the local club do not want to chop the bolt and drill a new hole? What about replacing the having hanger with an anchor with two rings?

The German Alpine Club organize Halls & Walls in Nürnberg 23-24/11 including 15 lectures and product presentations focusing indoor climbing. In total there are more than 120 exhibitors listed out of which many are producing climbing holds. On Friday there is also a party and on Saturday after work bouldering and a World Cup simulation.

David Firnenburg has done the second ascent of Fred Nicole's boulder route L'isola che non c'è 9a in Amden from 2009 after some eight days of work. (c) Lars Scharl "Fred didn’t give it a grade, just said it lies somewhere around the 9th french grade. David proposes 9a for a powerful Fb 8A boulder (so called “Cavernicole”) at the start, a Fb 7th graded traverse into a horizontal rest on a mini jug with heel-toe cam followed by a long and powerful Fb 8A+ boulder with spectacular swing and feet forward sequence at the very end. You sit start on crash pads and finish with a rope approx. 10 meters above the ground." More comments on Insta.