The fifth stage of the Lead World Cup in 2018 takes place in Kranj this weekend. The semi will be live-streamed on Saturday 20.00 and the Finals on Sunday 18.00. Slovenia will participate with 16 athletes and Japan with 15 out of which nine male. As Alex Megos will not attend in Kranj, possibly due to the injury he got in Innsbruck and which made him just slowly climb the Speed route, it seems the overall title is a battle in between leading Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi. Schubert's worse result is #4 and Ghisolfi's #5 in 2018. Anyhow, Domen Skofic and Romain Desgranges do still have good chances but the results need to go in their favor. Complete results Among the female, Janja Garnbret has won three events and Jessica Pilz one and as their worst result is #2, in practice nobody can catch them as Anak Verhoeven has said on Insta that due to an elbow injury, her competition season is over. In the end of October, the World Cup finishes with two events in China.

Giuliano Cameroni, "1 in the 8a ranking game, has published a video where he Webb, Ometz and Cotting make some hard sends in Cresciano including three FAs. "Cresciano is a very futuristic place, I think that some of the hard projects could be 9a or 9a+, who knows, but many of them are also more doable! I would like to climb there a lot, so we will see what this season will bring!"

Winter 2018 - New boulders in Cresciano from Giuliano Cameroni on Vimeo.

The Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires begins in two weeks and in less then six months the qualification for Tokyo begins. The count down have started and it is time to start training Speed seriously. Here is a prediction of 16 out of the male 20 that will make the cut. Narasaki, Harada, Schubert, Megos, Hojer, Ghisolfi, Schenk, Chon, M Mawem, Cornu, Kruder, Skofic, Lehmann, Ondra, Rubtsov and Bosi. What makes it interesting is that the max quota of two per country and with some few countries dominating, this actually opens up for lower ranked climbers, some who have not yet tried Speed and some youngsters that can get good progress during the last year. This is why four spots were left open.

Paul Robinson has done his 18th 8C, Delirium in Mt Evans, up at 3 700 meters, after five days of projecting. " The climb is 18 moves long out this big roof. Relief! too many mishaps on the end of this one. should have done this days ago but i just kept messing up the top! very happy that this mini epic is OVER! onward to the next one on the list :) 7 more to go! According, 99boulders Dai Koyamada and Daniel Woods have done 22 8C's which is most in the world. In total, Paul has recorded 909 boulders 8A and harder so on that list he is probably #1. Here is his latest video featuring New Zealand.

Fabrizio Peri, who recently did an 8c+, has done the FA of Camo 9a in Grotti after some 50 days. He bolted it five years ago and projecting has been on and off also due to injuries. "It was very emotional to open it." His first 9a, the military instructor, did when he was 42 years old, two years after he had done his first 8c. Fabrizio started climbing in 1979 and his progress came after stopping body building and loosing some weight.

There are now 4 465 crags and 1 807 boulders areas in the 8a database which guides you to find the best climbs around the globe. You can search the Ticklist based on Most repeated, Thumbs up, Star or Onsight rate etc. For every listed crag, there is also a seasonal diagram a map orientation etc. For each crag there is also a ranking game. The most popular is Frankenjura 147 609 ascents and the most "trendy" ones are Kyparissi and Leonidio. For Bouldering Fontainebleau is #1 with 131 229 ascents and here Milo Verde is the most trendy one.

William Bosi, #13 in the Lead WCH in Innsbruck, has done a quick ascent of Practice of the wild 8C in Magic Wood. Next is the World Cup in Kranj this weekend. (c) Eddie Fowke, who also got it on video. "The routes in Kranj revolve around a hard boulder in the roof half way up where I always fall, so I decided a hard boulder in a roof would be perfect training for this. It’s been really good fun training everything, I actually enjoy speed training the most..."

Gareth Parry, #3 in a Boulder WC in 2003, has done the 55 meter long Nordic Flower 8c in Flatanger. (c) Esteban Lahoz "Last year I went for a short trip to Flatanger where I mainly climbed os up to 8a+. I had a quick look at Nordic Flower but instantly knew it would take a more focussed visit. This time I returned with one aim. More time and a relaxed and systematic approach to working it as 3 sections rather than considering it as one massive route meant it kept the progress coming. After climbing the 8b+ 1st around 4 times I managed to pass the boulder after the belay and clip the chains. It was a a dream end to the trip with the route going down on the last go of the last day. That evening we drove home."

Marta Palou Carol spent the whole summer in Rodellar out of some 15 days projecting the 40 meter Florida 8c. During the La Sportiva Festival celebrating the 90 years anniversary, she sent it. (c) Edu Ruano "The hardest part it’s on 35 meters! I’m so happy that this line has become my first 8c! I’m so psyched right now! My next big goal is to take my driving license :) Maybe next summer having finished my Sport science studies, or this winter if I have time, and I'm psyched to try another 8c or 8c+.

Oriane Bertone has done Chykungunya in Ouaki giving it a personal 8c grade. In the Combined ranking game the 13 year old is #2 in spite of frequently suggesting personal grades. "Harder (right) variant of "Pari". The last section and the specially the final boulder is really hard. It was called 8c+ on the topo, but as I downgraded Pari (8b+), so Chykungunya seems to me more 8c. Very pumpy and cool to climb". Video.