Being a fan of fingerboard training for many years, I am now also a fan of Fingerschinder and that goes for the whole family. We have had regular gymnastic rings in our living roof under our staircase for a year and my kids are hanging there regularly. Once we put up the Fingerschinder, we have all found new exercises. Sure my Zlagboard is better but often it is hard to get started. Rings are like irresistible so you get the warming up for free and this is actually the best thing of them. Then it is just to start experimenting. I just might bring them along out to the rock as you can do the recruitment training without destroying the skin. Fingerschinder has great chances to become a great success but they need your help at Kickstarter

The seventh edition of the La Sportiva Legends Only was as always a nice show. Good job by the route setters, the athletes and the commentators. On the other hand it lasted over three hours and there were a lot of waiting to see the action. Some girls were complaining about all the shoulder moves that is a bit risky from a injury point of view. The thing the show missed was the competition feeling and the commentators did not know who won and we had to wait few minutes to get the winner, even if it actually had been decided once Shauna had secured her bonus. 1. Shauna Coxsey 3T3 5b6 2. Stasa Gejo 3T5 5b6 3. Petra Klingler 2T5 5b8 4. Fanny Gibert 2T5 4b5 5. Melissa LeNeve 1T1 4b5 6. Katja Kadic 1T2 4b8

Moritz Welt has done Zerberus, "Simply one of the best! Fell three times on the very last move in my second session, today solid first go!" and For about life for a while in Frankenjura and he agrees with the down grading to 8B. The same day he also did the FA of the left crux start variation also calling it 8B. All three went down in just some few sessions and although having done 34 boulder 8A and harder, the 16 year almost never needed to project them down. When it comes to routes, he has done one 9a and there he spent six days. (c) Franz Kaiser

Clear visible points marked on the specific zones. I do not agree with the points, from this example, as a Top should always should count more than getting high up on two boulders. The 8a suggestion is two zones, 1 & 3 points, and 10 points for the top, including 11 for a flash. Several years ago I also suggested that IFSC should mark up their routes like this.

jan kares has set his fourth world record in 2017 by doing 238 pull-ups continuously during 34 minutes. Video In 1998, he was #17 in a Lead World Cup but nowadays he is a bolting and onsight fanatic. Since 2008, Jan has spent some 180 days bolting, paying everything by himself, in Sardinia and that is what he does all his vacations. His dream is that this area, close to Cala Gonone, will be one of the best and most famous climbing areas in Europe. The 42 year old has until now done some 250 routes and he thinks it is possible to make 1 000. He will create a topo through Vertical-Life soon.

Nina Williams has done her seventh 8A+, A Maze of death in Bishop. "Turkey-day sending!! Had to figure out my own special beta. 3rd go, 3 days this season." In the 8a ranking game, Nina is #4. (c) James Lucas

For several years, I have always getting pumped faster in my right arm and consequently I am always hanging in my left arm while clipping. Three months ago I went to a chiropractor and he did some things with my neck saying that possibly the pump comes from squeezed nerves in my neck and shoulders. He also told me to lean against a wall and then push my chin down- and upwards five times several times a day. Remarkably, I am getting slowly better and the chiropractor says that it is just normal for squeezed nerves to take month to recover. Reasons for getting such problems could be looking up while belaying, working with the fingers moving the mouse or iPhone, ageing and too much climbing training. In other words, there just might be many climbers that could benefit from a chiropractor and some chin stretching.

8a has presented a new scoring system with points for IFSC. If you top a boulder you get 10 points and for a flash 11 points are awarded. In other words, four flashes means 44 points, similar to the today optimal score 4T4. For the first zone, 2 points are given and for the second zone, 4 points. Alternatives have also been proposed like 1 and 3 points for the two zones and 10,2 points for a second go Top. When the scoring is tied, the same tie-breaker as today are used, aka # of attempts to Top and Zone. However, the first tie-breaker is the result in the last boulder in order to increase the drama.

Dylan Barks has done his first 9a, Southern Smoke Direct in Red River Gorge. The 22 year old has previously done three 8c+, out of which the last one when he was 18 years old. Then he had some health issues and climbed of and on until he took one year off. His come back started one year ago. (c) Dru Mack "Southern Smoke Direct was a route that I tried 4 years ago and wasn’t able to put together. I came back this week and managed to climb through the bottom v12 boulder pretty quickly, but heartbreakingly fell on the very last move. I took a rest day and returned to the route on a beautiful, crisp and cold day. I hopped on the route expecting to fall on the bottom boulder at least a few times, yet somehow I executed the moves better than ever and found myself at the jug rest in the blink of an eye. From there I warmed up my hands as much as I could and just started climbing and trying to flow to the best of my ability. As I entered the last few moves I felt pretty confident I would be clipping the anchors on my first 9a, the hardest grade established in the Red. Grabbing the last few crimps and being able to shake out felt pretty surreal. I grabbed the last hold and pulled one more move to the rest jug and couldn’t believe I had just done a rock climb I’ve dreamed about climbing for years. Doing this route meant a lot to me, and I am extremely excited to continue improving and pushing my limits as a climber. As a side note, I did another dream route today with Pure Imagination 8c+.