Adam Ondra has been invited to climbing in Herculane in Romania where he, among other things, made one 9a FA and Stone Butterfly 9a+. Interesting is that he calls it the “wall of perfection” on his Insta and that he has marked the routes with thumbs up which he actually rarely does. “Amazing project from Gerhard Horhager right of Guri Guri. Power endurance on small tufas and crimps. Very complex and fun climbing.

Looking at Alex Khazanov's long IFSC result board is amazing and very inspiring, for everyone normally fighting way down in the result list. After four years with great progress as a junior, he was one of the best in bouldering in 2014. At the same time he started off by being #67 and #75 in the World Cup. Again with fast progress his best result was #18, coming into the 2018 season which begun with being #57. In the next one in Moscow he was #7 and decided to use all his savings to go to China. Alex works as a coach and route setter, living a low budget life sleeping at his parents house, and unfortunately the Israel federation can not yet support him with the starting fee for the comps. "Right now I cannot afford a rock trip if I want to do all the comps, and I am trying to get the Olympic department to give me some money for lead comps as preparation for Innsbruck." As a preparation for the 2018 season he trained six times a week twice a day for six months. "I like to train alone, that way you can have all the time you want to work on detail, other than rushing between boulders and trying to show who is better." So how can you explain this amazing - A dream come true story? It was so unexpected and I am so happy!! The season is still only half way so we will see what happens. I hope I can make semi next time, haha its always hard in Bouldering. I guess what helped me the most is two factors. One, is physical, I have trained a lot and slightly different than others. But I guess it's my small secret the other one is mental. I climbed extremely free and with no expectations. I was just happy to be in semi finals, and than I was just happy to be in finals. I am not afraid from bad results. Can you say something about that secret training? I have a non climbing coach at home. In order to do a slab you sometimes have to do a one leg squat. It's hard to get this power from climbing. So I went to the gym. imagine you on two volumes on the same height, and you need to transfer balance between the two. It will be much easier if you have strong lower back and stabilizer muscles . So you control your body. In the gym I do not use machines. More with a physio ball, weights, rubber bands and rings. And what about all the jumping around on big volumes? I just try to make some crazy moves. But all and all I guess if you climb a lot on different types of climbing, rock and plastic you get a better feeling in all styles. As for Slabs, the gym is key. I plan to spend one month in Innsbruck before the World Championship focusing on jumping around. Interesting is also that Alex has teamed up with Alex Rubtsov and the Slovenians both outdoors and in competitions and they are all Top-7 in the World Cup ranking together with three Japanese.

Chad Greedy reports on Insta that Isabelle Faus has done The Cat Ranch 8B in RMNP. Isabelle has already sent close to 100 boulder problems from 8A to 8B+ and she's 2nd in the ranking game.

In 2009 Chris Sharma bolted La Dura Dura and two years later he did something unusual for the climbing community, as he told Adam Ondra to challenge him for the FA. Ondra did it in 2013 and one month later Sharma did his first 9b+. Cooperation in competitions is common but "closed projects" are quite normal in the climbing world and calling Perfecto Mundo an open project, Chris has once again showed the way forward. "It was great climbing with Stefano and Alex on Perfecto Mundo. They were very respectful in asking me permission and honestly I had been quite on and off with the route so it was super motivating to try and share there experience with someone else. Definitely way more fun than trying it alone. And it was great to share something special with the new generation. Sometimes keeping projects for ourselves can block the good energy from flowing naturally and it was great to let the good vibes flow with Alex and Stefano. Such nice guys and incredible climbers and athletes. That being said, I think it’s a case by case situation, and people should respect people’s projects and always ask for the bolter’s blessing. I’m super psyched to continue trying and hopefully send Perfecto Mundo one day soon. It’s one of the most meaningful routes I’ve tried and have yet to complete. So whether it goes this season or next, I plan to keep at it till it comes together!" (c) Ricardo Giancola

Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka won the fourth stage of the Boulder World Cup in Tai'an and continues their total domination. In the last two WCs, Akiyo has done all 26 boulder (Miho 25) and the runner up Stasa Gejo has done 15 boulders. Among the male, Alex Khazanov got his and Israel's first victory, interview is coming up, with the two Slovenians Jernej Kruder and Gregor Vezonik sharing the podium. The route setting and show was perfect in Tai'an with many amazing moments and excitement to the very. 1. Alex Khazanov 34 ISR - Akiyo Noguchi 44:5 JPN 2. Jernej Kruder 24:2 SLO - Miho Nonaka 44:10 JPN 3. Gregor Vezonik 24:4 SLO - Fanny Gibert 23:6 FRA Complete results The results are presented as points and with ties, the number of attempts are added.

Here is the overall World Cup ranking, counting all four events. There are three competitios remaining and then you count the all but one event. Complete results 1. Jernej Kruder 307 - Miho Nonaka 340 2. Tomoa Narasaki 251 - Akiyo Noguchi 330 3. Alexey Rubtsov 208 - Fanny Gibert 207 4. Kokoro Fujii 197 - Janja Garnbret 180 5. Rei Sugimoto 157 - Stasa Gejo 167 6. Gregor Vezonik 156 - Katja Kadic 164 7. Alex Khazanov 152 - Jessica Pilz 138 8. Jongwon Chon 149 - Chloe Caulier 114 9. Jakob Schubert 142 - E Kipraiianova 98 0. Tomoaki Takata 127 - Sol Sa 95

Chris Sharma bolted Perfecto Mundo in 2010 and has worked it of and on since. Stefano Ghisolfi started working on it this winter and they were joined by Alex Megos this spring who just sent it after 15 days projecting. (c) Sara Grippo How come did you choose this route as your first long term project and did you do any specific training for it? It was not a decision I made beforehand. I just had a Spain trip planned to Margalef and Oliana with checking out "Perfecto Mundo" in mind. So I got here and after checking it out I got really psyched on it. We've been talking about going and trying Perfecto Mundo with Stefano (Ghisolfi) already a while ago but I never managed till now. Chris was giving me all the beta he knew and he was the first one I'd see climbing on the route which was super interesting to see. We motivated each other and helped each other with beta and sequences. Stefano ended up taking my foot beta for the jump from the mono to the pinch for example. I changed my beta for the top to Stefanos beta. We were belaying each other as well. I didn't do any specific training for the route no. I came straight from a bouldering World Cup to Spain. All the training I did was on the route itself. Also Ghisolfi has enjoyed the cooperation and might take another trip if the weather cooperates before he need to start preparing for the Lead World Cup preparation. "It was motivating to try the route together, no competition between us but just cooperation. I don't know how close I am, could take one more week or maybe I need to come back in autumn or winter."

Perfect route setting, based almost only on volumes, in the semi final where we saw some sensations as Tomoa Narasaki and Alexey Rubtsov missed the final. With the old scoring system, Narasaki would have been #2 as he flashed three problems but as he failed to get the zone on the fourth, the new scoring system put him down to 8th place. Among the male, six Japaneses in Top-11. Complete results. The final starts 02.30 GMT+8. Female finalists: Noguchi, Nonaka, Gibert, Condie, Färber and Gejo Male finalists: Fujii, Kruder, Vezonik, Khazanov, Sugimoto and Chon

The male Japanese domination in the Boulder World Cup continues and they won both groups in Tai'an as well as got nine into the Top-20 semifinal, starting tomorrow 09.30 GMT+8. All the big names made it through. Complete results. (c) IFSC Among the female, the Japaneses set a new record with eight into the semifinal and to make it even more impressive, they participated with just eight female. The next Boulder WC takes place in Tokyo and there some 20 female and 25 male Japanese athletes are allowed to compete. The reason for the higher number of male is due to there were five in the Top-8 overall.

Manon Hily seems to be in her best shape in her life and has done Coma Sant Pere 8c+ in Margalef. "Much easier then Era Vella meaning 8c/+." (c) Théo Cartier Last week she did Era Vella 8c+ (9a) after just trying if for four days and during her trip she has onsighted or flashed every 8a she has tried and she also did her first 8b onsight, La presó dels monstres. She says that the Margalef style with many two finger pockets suites her style.