Piotr Schab, who previously has done 13 routes 9a and harder, has done Thor's Hammer 9a (+) in Flatanger. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz "Loved those 7 days with this 60 meter long beast. Constant hype and no negativity coming out of it were most likely the best things that I gained during the whole process. I think that this one might be harder than all of other nine's I've already done this season, that's why I'll go for the 9a+. The grade does not play a big role with such a masterpiece though."

USERNAME David Firnenburg 8.60 Clair Bhurfeind 10.01 Brooke Raboutou 10.95 Ashima Shiraishi 12.26

Poor route setting once again in the Lead World Cup in 2017. In the female semifinal, one hold separated half of the field so count back from the qualification was needed to separate who made it to the final. Only Janja Garnbret passed the crux but even so she did not come even close to the top. Among the males, there was separation and everyone besides Alex Megos fell before 2/3 of the wall. It should be noted that no official results have been published as protests have been forwarded. Complete results

Rock Master Festival reports that Jongwon Chon and Alex Puccio won the Arco Rock Master Boulder KO. Runner up was Alexey Rubtsov and Stasa Gejo and the bronzes were won by Gabri Moroni and Katja Kadic.

Jakob Schubert won even he was timed out in Arco but kept climbing a couple of moves. He thought he had not climbed so well and was just happy to have made it to the finals and that some guys should climb way above him. The second last out was Adam Ondra, who found a no-hands rest, and had two minutes left and was actually shaking out in an undercling on a big volume. Suddenly he could not hold the volume at all and fell going to the next hold. Last out was Alex Megos, who did fall early in a sideway dyno and the show finished in an anti-climax like for the female. Jain Kim, who won the overall World Cup 2013 - 2015, took her first victory in almost two years. As a matter of a fact, she was timed out and looked liked she could have continued towards the top saving the skin of the route setters. As in the semifinal, most athletes actually fell within two moves not creating the great finish of the competition. In the great IFSC live-streaming, Adam said that he had never competed in such bad conditions, complaining about the humidity. He explained that the reason why he could not hold the undercling was because he was sweating so much on his forearm that he finally could not hold it. 1. Jakob Schubert AUT 39 2. Adam Ondra CZE 38+ 3. Max Rudigier AUT 38+ 4. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 34+ 5. Keiichoro Korenaga JPN 33+ 1. Jain Kim KOR 39 2. Ann-Sophie Koller SUI 38 3. Janja Garnbret SLO 32+ 4. Julia Chanourdie FRA 32+ 5. Ashima Shiraishi USA 32+ Complete results

1. Romain Desgranges 255 - Janja Garnbret 300 2. Marcello Bombardi 184 - Jain Kim 245 3. Keiichiro Korenaga 165 - Anak Verhoeven 210 4. Domen Skofic 142 - Ann-Sophie Koller 154 5. Stefano Ghisolfi 139 - Jessica Pilz 153 6. Sean McColl 127 - Mina Markovic 146 Although Janja, Romain and Jain have delivered good results in all four events, in the history of Lead climbing we have not seen such a mix of results of the top athletes as in 2017. (C)Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing Complete results

Bruno García B has done his first 9a, Lujuria in Jilotepec and here is a short video trailer. Together with his brother Richie. Rebeca Zuniga is following them doing a documentary - Climbing Mexico. "Bruno began his history with climbing when a tragic incident happened to his family. His older brother, who was an active climber, died in an accident. His family got the support of the amazing climbing community and Bruno, along with his brother Ricardo, and his twin sister Claudia began to explore their brother's love for climbing. Soon they were in love with it themselves."

Arco Lead World Cup starts tomorrow at 9:00 with qualifications. Live-streaming begins Saturday with semifinal 11:00-13:30 and finals 17:00. Updated results Alex Megos was #7 in the Munich World Cup after just one week of indoor bouldering which was quite a shock as he, after having qualified as #17 in the semifinal, reported "Whaaat??!! Almost can't believe what just happened today!" The big news is that he is going to compete in the Arco Lead WC and with another shocking performance he could start thinking about the Olympics. The other interesting news for Arco is that Adam Ondra, Jan Hojer and Ashima Shiraishi will be there. The 16 year old will also compete in Speed in preparation for the Olympics.

Bulgaria got three golds was the best nation during Arco Rock Master under 14. Italy got two golds, not counting the many shared golds, and was the second best country. Surprisingly, Austria who normally dominates youngster events, was not so successful and actually did not have many competing. Most competitors and also good results came from countries in Eastern Europe. Complete results