Prilep in Macedonia, with 1 404 ascents in the 8a database, is said to be the best bouldering area in Eastern Europe. In this moment there are 700 boulders from 5A to 8C but that is just 30% of the total potential. Here you can buy the topo. The route climbing potential is like 500 climbs from 15 to 150 meters length out of which half has been developed. The quality if the rock is granite conglomerate​. The picture from Luka Fonda shows an amazing 8c+ project that was established by Dani Andrada during a Petzl Climbing Festival. More detailed info from Vladimir Trpovski, who has put up some 100 routes in Macedonia, at his webiste. Climb-Macedonia

Davide Picco jumps from 8c to 9a by doing Thunder Ribes in Arco. Interesting is that he has only been climbing for six years and that he is training in a very small gym. "I began trying Thunder Ribes at the end of August. The route is a connection of three lines. It is a really nice endurance route with a bouldery section just before the end of the roof and a rather tricky final part. I live an hour and a half away from Arco. As for training sessions I do them my way but I also follow the advice of the owner of the gym, Bernardino Lagni (world lead champion in 1999). I always try mixing various exercises of both boulder and endurance.. Let's say this year I was particularly committed."

Waltus Burger has done his first 8c+, Livin AstroGlide in Rumney and as he commented, "Makes the 3am start before class worth it." We followed up and got an amazing dedication story culmination after some 50 days, including five hours driving/studying. "I got up at 3am, left about 3:15, stopped in Rumney at the local coffee shop, then 25 min approach up to the cliff. After I sent on my second try at 8pm I supported my buddy Michael on his 8a project and he absolutely crushed it! Then I cruised 2.5 hours back to Portland for a nursing exam in older adult health, than celebrated with ice cream and cookies! Normally I do the drive solo. I'll listen to podcasts for school and books on tape to help me study, so it works out well. That's my most productive study time, haha. I'm all about the last minute study cram. Its worked so far, so I'm not gonna change anything yet. My time schedule is super heinous. I'm in a full time accelerated nursing program, so I'm currently taking 20 credits this fall, and work about 10-20 hours a week at the Salt Pump Climbing gym as the head coach--which leaves basically no time for training. I get up most mornings at 5:30 to do homework and squeeze in any training I can before school--mostly just campusing and bouldering, nothing structured."

James Webb has done his 14th 8C by the FA of The Outher Limits in Donner Summit. "Yesssss! What a stunning line.. 17 moves of power endurance climbing lands you at the headwall at around 18ft. After a 7B+ lip encounter you tackle another 20 feet of moderate climbing to the top. Feels good to finish this one off. Absolutely loving Tahoe!" In the 8a ranking game, also including one 8C+ he is back on top again. (c) From his Insta.

The female semifinal was cancelled after eight climbers and instead all the 13 double tops from the qualifications will compete in the final tonight. It should also be mentioned that originally the plan was to run the semi the day before but rain made them postpone it. Among the males, the Boulder WC winner Jongwon Chon got an early lead starting second getting to the third last hold, which made the commentator say. "We will definately see some tops. Just before they said, "The conditions are excellent" Later it started to rain and the conditions deteriorated. In the end several breaks were needed and at the end a longer 45 min break was needed as the holds started to get wet. The guys competing just before the break in pouring rain, including Domen Skofic, did not have a chance it seemed. After the break, the conditions seemed better but nevertheless Romain Desgranges did a technical mistake and was #22. As Stefano Ghisolfi made it comfortably to the final the overall title became much more open. #2 in the semifinal was the runner up in the Bouldering WC 2017, Tomoa Narasaki, who also was second in the last Lead WC. Overall, Ghisolfi is the only Western European in the final together with one guy from Ukrane and six Asians. In fact, among the Top-12, there were nine Asians and one from Italy, France and Ukraine respectively. Complete results

Anak Veroeven, who won the World games as well as the Euro Championship, got her first WC Lead victory in 2017 by topping out with ease. Looking confident as ever, Janja Garnbret mistimed a jump as she climb pretty fast, in order to beat Anak's time. (C) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing Among the male, it was a total Asia domination with Keiichiro Korenaga getting his first Lead victory and he jumped to third overall. Tomoa Narasaki was runner up as last week in Wuijang. Due to schedule changes he had not time to do the Speed qualification but at this point, he seems to be well ahead of the others on their way to Tokyo 2020. 1. Keiichiro Korenaga JPN - Anak Verhoeven BEL 2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Ashima Shiraishi 3. YuFei Pan CHI - Janja Garnbret SLO 4. Jongwon Chon KOR - Jessica Pilz AUT 5. Fedir Samoilov UKR - Mina Markovic SLO Complete results Noteworthy is that it YuFei Pan was #13 in the Youth A World Championship in Innsbruck where he also got 7.95 in Speed, meaning he is also a contender for the Olympics. Among the female, ranked 3 to 5th were ranked based on time. It must also be mentioned that the live-streaming had big problems but luckily towards the end of both finals, everything worked out great.

1. Romain Desgranges 440 - Janja Garnbret 565 2. Stefano Ghisolfi 362 - Jain Kim 445 3. Keiichiro Korenaga 339 - Anak Verhoeven 404 4. Domen Skofic 270 - Jessica Pilz 330 5. Marchello Bombardi 246 - Julia Chanourdie 307 Complete results. Ashima Shiraishi is #7 although having just competedin the last four events. (C) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing Janja Garnbret has already secured the overall title again and she has broken the total combined point score in 2017 with a big margin. Beside winning five Lead events, she has also won three boulder.s Out of all the 26 World Cups and World Championships she has participated in, she has won 50 %. Jain Kim has won 27 Lead WC's and one World Championship. What has been amazing to see is that she has changed her style climbing faster and more dynamic this year. If Stefani Ghisolfi wins the last event in Kranj, Romain Desgranges need to be #15 to secure the overall title. Interesting to see that only four of the guys being Top-10 in 2016 are Top-10 also in 2017. In the National Team ranking, France is ahead of Japan and Slovenia. The country that has a negative trend is Austria who still is #4 in the nations ranking.

Vladislav Deulin and Anouck Jaubertwon the Xiamen Speed World Cup and got also the overall title. Reza Alipourshenazandirfar was second although he only competed in five events and as a matter of a fact, another three guys in the Top-10 overall did also skip at least two comps. It seems only seven six guys competed in all seven events. Among the female, ten girls competed in all events. Noteworthy is that Jan Hojer sat a personal best with 7.28. The Japanese successful Lead climbers did have to skip Speed due to the changes in the schedule. Complete results

Japanese males got five guys in the Top-8 in the qualification in the Lead World up in Xiamen. Among the Top-9, seven guys from Asia! Among the females, we saw 13 double tops. (c)Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing. Complete results. Kokoro Fujii on the picture, who won the first Boulder Cup in 2017, won the qualification ahead of Tomoa Narasaki and Yoshiyuki Ogata, all from Japan. (c) Eddie Fowke - The Cicuit Climbing

Heavy rain stopped the female semifinal as some of the holds were wet. The officials later decided to cancel the semifinal and let all the 13 female who topped the both qualification routes go directly to the final. The males kept on struggling... Even bigger problems in Speed as the stopwatch did not work properly. The plan is to restart it after the semifinal.