Janja Garnbret looked surperior like last year and cruised the route to the last move going double dyno. Among the male, Jakob Schubert won his 20-iest WC victory. Interesting that Boulder specialist Tomoa Narasaki got his third podium in Lead. Noteworthy is also seven male Japanese Top-19 and three female Top-7. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Janja Garnbret SLO - Jakob Schubert AUT 2. Jessica Pilz AUT - Romain Desgranges FRA 3. Jain Kim KOR - Tomoa Narasaki JPN Complete results Video Highlights

From the starting list in Villars we can see that some guys will start their Olympic preparation competing in both Lead and Speed; Alex Megos, Jan Hojer, Jernej Kruder, Stasa Gejo, Jain Kim and Janja Garnbret. Add to that also 17 Japanese entries in Lead including Tomoa Narasaki, Kokoro Fujii, Yushiyuki Ogata, Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka plus Aleksei Rubtsov and Elena Krasovskaia from Russia.

Perfect route setting and a perfect start of the Lead World Cup 2018 in Villars with three double tops; Romain Desgranges, Sasha Lehmann and Akiyo Noguchi. Interesting that the there were three male Japanese Top-5 in the qualification including boulder stars Tomoa Narasaki and Yushiyuki Ogata. In total, 13 Japanese made it to the semi tomorrow. Other then that, no big surprices in the result list.

Adam Ondra has onsighted his 19th 8c+, First Flight in Acephale. Later he also onsighted Ojas 8b+ in the most impressive style. "Slab! no chalk on the wall, clipping the draws" Gripped reports that Megos in 2016 said, "If anybody ever onsights that thing, that’s at least as impressive as flashing 9a." In total he has now onisghted 162 routes 8b+ and harder and it is actually in the onsight discipline, he is most superior. The runner up in the 8a database is Piots Schaab with 22 onsights 8b+ and 8c. Overall, Kleman Becan could be the runner up and a wild guess is that he has onsighted around 35 routes 8b+ and harder. (c) Petr Pavlicek, who reports that this and many more ascents will be put on Yoitube soon.

Anouck Jaubert from France and Alexandr Shikov from Russia won the Speed event in Villars. Overall, Mawem Bassa got the three fastest times always below 5.89 until the finals where he made big mistakes. Interesting is that there were an incident, like false start or major mistake, in half of the 32 final races. Among the Combined athletes, Yushiyuki Ogata from Japan impressed with 7.55. Tomoa Narasaki was first recorded with 7.22 but later "false start". Other big names were not that fast; Jernej Kruder 9.20 and Alex Megos 13.18. Among the female, Miho Nonaka from Japan got 9.84 and Petra Klingler from Switzerland got 9.94. The most impressive Lead and Boulder female; Janja Garnbret and Akiyo Noguchi, run in 11.65 and 12.15. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke

Lair Thibault has done La der des der extension 8c+ and the first repeat of Dani Andrada's Nilsbru, suggesting an upgrade to 9a, in Rodellar. The 26 year old has previously done three 9a FAs. "Very satisfied to do this route which cost me a lot of energy, especially mental. A hold has broken which makes the crux much harder. I did fall 15 times on this move. For a moment I thought of a big 8c + but after thinking, for me it may not be the same rating as Cosi or La der des der, So I propose 9a. I hope it will be done quickly to get more opinions."

Daniel Woods reports on Insta that he has done Nalle Hukkataival's Finnish Line 8C in Rocklands. (c) Brooke Raboutou. "Stoked to make the 5th ascent of Nalle's Finnish line. I saw photos of Nalle on it last year and was awestruck by the lines beauty and movement. The climbing is powerful yet technical as well. It is key to have optimal friction to hold onto these holds. I spent three days working it on a rope then another three to go for the send. Its def one of the harder lines in Rocklands next to Livin large. As for the rest of this trip I want to repeat a few more lines that my friends put up last year, Khoikhoi (8C), try Livin large a bit more (this one is hard for me), and search for some new shit. It snowed last night but it is gone now. Sending temps have arrived. For the rest of this year I have a couple hard projects that I'm psyched on in CO and want to do a return trip to Spain in Dec for First round first minute. Just hyped to send some hard blocs and routes this year.

Nina Williams, who did her second 8B last week, has done The Automater 8B in RMNP. In the 8a ranking game, the 28 year old is #3. (c) Michael Pang ”Sent this thing twice in a day. My back grazed the pad on the first go and it bugged me. Rested 10 minutes and did it again clean. 8 sessions total. Psyched it's done!!”

Over the past two years, Fred Nicole has been working closely with Five Ten to research, design and test shoes. New to Spring 2019 is the ALEON, a shoe that has been at the core of Fred’s work. Fred’s passion for design began at at art college with sculpture work. It then moved onto forming lasts out of clay and foam. What is the worst and best bit of the design process? The hard part is when people critic a shoe you are very proud of. On the other hand, the best part is when other people are psyched about what you have made. What is your favorite feature of the new ALEON shoe? There are a few; the last has a high arch, there is strong tension from heel to the toe is strong and the heel is also very good. Of all the problems that would feel easier in the new shoe which ones would you choose to reclimb? The following would be great to climb in the ALEON as they all have really small footholds and require a very precise shoe; Amandla, Rocklands 8B+, Slashface, Hueco 8B and Terremer, Hueco 8C.