Petzl has put together some nice guidelines how to spot and belay in the beginning of a route. Strangely the rightmost picture does not at all correspond to what is written. "The belayer must be close enough to the wall to minimize the amount of rope between him/her and the climber." It should be mentioned that there is another picture included that shows that you should stand to the side. What could also be mentioned is that a light climber should stand leaning a bit backwards in order to better control the fall of a heavier climber especially in the beginning.

Climb Magazine has made an interview with Shauna Coxsey who has started to train Lead and will try out the Kranj World Cup as a preparation for the Olympic qualifications.

Caroline Sinno, who is the owner of Crimp Oil, has done her second 8A+ in 2017, Les feux d'Azeroth in Branson. "I needed several sessions over the years because the crack is often wet. Actually I didn't need that many when the crack was in condition and when the crack wasn't in conditions I still had a good time climbing in the other areas in Valais."

The biggest sensations in the semifinal in Wujiang were that the #1 and #2 in the Bouldering World Cup, Jongwon Chon and Tomoa Narasaki made it to the finals as #5 and #6. When they both last tried a Lead WC in 2014 and 2013, they ended #23 and #24. In fact, another three Asians qualified to the Top-8 semifinal which might be the first indicating that the Asians will take over the show also in Lead. Add to that is Narasaki's 7.85 in the Speed qualifications although he has just tried it out for a couple sessions during some months. Among the female, no big surprises and we saw Janja Garnbret topping out in a good style followed by Anak Verhoeven as normally, followed by Jain Kim and Akiyo Noguchi. Complete results The Live-streaming from the final starts 18.50 GMT+8, which means 12.50 European time.

1. Janja Garnbret 500 - Romain Desgranges 385 2. Jain Kim 390 - Stefano Ghisolfi 319 3. Anak Verhoeven 304 - Domen Skofic 252 4. Jessica Pilz 276 - Keiichiro Korenaga 229 5. Julia Chanourdie 273 - Marcello Bombardi 228 Complete results Janja Garnbret has secured the overall victory in practice although two events remain. It is good enough to be #13 in one event even if Jain wins the two last events. Among the males, Stefano almost needs to win both the last two events if not Romain Desgranges completely fail in these two comps. Interesting to see that Jakob Schubert is #7 having only participated in two out of six comps.

1. Janja Garnbret SLO - Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 2. Jain Kim KOR - Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3. Julia Chanourdie FRA - Hanwool Kim KOR Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing Janja Garnbret was superior in the Lead World Cup in Wuijang, topping all four routes in great style. Also Stefano Ghisolfi won each round as well as topping the final route creating the perfect show in the final. Although there are two events left, Janja has already secured the overall victory again having won five of the six WCs in 2017. It should be mentioned that for the first time in 2017, the live streaming included a clock and the six minute rule did not create any big problem. The biggest sensation was that Tomoa Narasaki, #2 in the Boulder World Cup 2017, was runner up after Ghisolfi in his first Lead WC in three years. Add to that his 7.85 in the Speed qualification and he is the biggest favorite for the gold in Tokyo 2020.

Matthias Schiestl has done the FAs of Hias-Line 8c+ and Monkey Line 9a in Zillertal. (c) Flo Murning I tried the 8c+ for 7 days since July. It was a very old project, super dirty and a lot of work to figure out the moves. The route starts with a hard boulder problem and it is also the same start as the 9a. The hardest part is the beginning of the route, 14 moves around 8b boulder, when you climb the 8c+ then you finish with a 8a+ route and the 9a you continue to the right with an 8A boulder and a 7c+ route at the end.