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Many think flash and onsight are most fun and it is also what counts in competitions. The dilemma is of course that instead most of the time you end up with projecting redpoints. The easy way to have more fun and get better training indoors is to create new climbs by mixing up different colors of harder climbs or simply just add a specific color for your feet. This is also a good way to reduce some of the frustration for the kids who often do not reach making a climb impossible or just totally wrong graded. On the other hand, you can also select new rainbow challenges by mixing colors but take out some specific jugs. The possibilities are endless and it will sure have a great impact and you will get out of the grade focus. Remember that back in the old days, the boulder walls were covered with holds and you had to create and execute different moves in every sessions.

Max Bertone has for the third year in a row done an 8A, Dirty Epic in Rocklands. If he wants to stay on par with his two year older sister Oriane, he needs to do an 8B within a year. Bear in mind that climbers normally avoid the 30+ temperature in Rocklands during the summer, meaning they can only climb very early and very late during the day. In between, the children have schooling. Do not miss the great video!

tomas ravanal, who last week did La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana, has made the FA of Sin acido clorhidico 8c+, in the same famous El Pati sector. It just took the Chilean ten tries to do the almost 40 meter route which shares the start with 20 Años Después 9a. El Pati is one of the most famous hard core sector in the world and Tomas just made the eleventh 8c+ and harder. "Dani changed some bolts and it is a perfectly fine. The route was clean when I started to try it! I don't really know why anyone has climbed before."

In theory, you should spot your partner before the first clip is done and we can sometimes see this done by very experienced World Cup belayers. In practice, the dilemma is that you end up like 1.5 m from the wall meaning that if he/she falls directly after the clip he/she will land on top of you as you are taking in the slack. Sure there are cases when a good spot is needed and you should pay attention or use another friend, as often the case in World Cups, but normally the first moves are super easy. Another option is of course to pre-clip the first quick draw. Once it is clipped in, you should try to stay close to the wall on the side of the climber and you should remain there until the first two-three drawers are clipped in. Later you can step out half a meter for every clip until you stay 3 - 5 meters from the wall, especially when there are rope drag in the system. Once the person falls you should move inwards in order to make the fall more dynamic. If it is impossible to step out from the wall, you could try to jump up a bit if your partner falls high up in a rope drag situation. The problem is that your instinct will most probably make you sit down instead of jump up during the fall. The simple solution for this is to bend your legs in a critical situation which makes it impossible to sit down and increase the impact of the fall. It most be underlined that, even if the sliding in and jumping up sounds logical and easy, it is very difficult. In order to be a good belayer you need to practice a lot and the best place is of course indoors. You should also try to belay climbers that are both lighter and heavier than yourself including working with different rope drag. The light belayer should almost never stay a long way from the wall and does not need to bend the legs. The risk is instead to get caught into the first quick draw. On the other side, the relatively heavy climber can move a longer away from the wall or bend the legs in order to avoid high impact falls. It takes several years and hundreds of falls to become an experienced climber and there are many special cases especially in trad climbing like feeding out extra slack or even run or jump down. The above advice are general and should be tried out in practice in order to make you and your partner feel safe both climbing as well as belaying. Please also note that most would think that the WC belayer stand too fare from the wall but the reason for this is that he can move forward in order to give out slack during the clip, i.e. only for the expertise.

IFSC has sent out info to the federations that the Youth World Champion in Canada has been cancelled. Officially, IFSC have not reported it but they hope to use the same dates 7 - 19 August in another location.

Kintana Iltis has done Dirty Epic 8A and Tea With Elmarie 8A (+) in Rocklands. Her father gives us the story and says that the big goal is the Youth World Championship in Canada. "Kintana begin to climb in Reunion Island (fr) when she was 9 years old. At first time it was a choice imposed by the shark crisis in Réunion because Kintana prefer to surf and was detected for competition. Now she's 14 years old, very happy to climb in natural crags, routes and boulders and gifted for competition. She like sports challenges. We started climbing family trips in India at Hampi when Kintana was 10 years old. Since then, we are finding places for climbing in our holidays. South Africa is not far from Réunion Island, so it's a good place for us to go with friends to search goods news experiences in routes or boulders."