Alex Megos has climbed the second ascent of the Jakob Schubert route, 'Companion of Change', f9a+ at Bergstation near Mayrhofen in Zillertal. (c) Liam Lonsdale The route took Alex 3 days in total to repeat, requiring some savvy tactics to avoid humidity and the summer sunshine, all under the watchful eye of local pioneer and climbing legend, Gerhard Hörhager. The repeat came after a string of fast ascents of classic routes in the area, including 'Love 2.1' f8C+ & 'Dolby Surround' f8C+, both at Ewige Jagdgründe, which is also situated near the town of Mayrhofen. Alex said: "Jakob graded the route 9a/+, for me I would say it is definitely f9a+ and a great one at that. This is the first time I visited Zillertal, the whole area is absolutely beautiful and the climbing is even better." Alex is currently travelling through the Tirol & Süd Tirol regions with photographer Liam Lonsdale, in cooperation with Vertical Life Climbing. They are aiming to explore the region as much as possible during their trip, whilst taking in classic areas and routes. Vertical Life is unlocking topos for each area that they visit to climb.

Lately, the response time surfing on 8a has been rather slow. We have asked our server provider to increase the capacity so that problem should be solved soon.

Liam Vance, who previously has done four 8B's, does his fifth through a great flash of Sky in Rocklands which originally was put up as an 8B+. Instagram video "Sky was a boulder I dreamed about trying for 8 years or so since I first saw it on video. It suites me very well as I like to climb dynamically and I'm pretty tall. Still I didn't think I could flash it until I somehow stayed on the rock through the second swing and stuck the final jug. I'm still shocked that my 8 year dream came true with a flash."

Shauna Coxsey, who won the Worldcup in 2016, won her third event this year and in practice she has almost secured the overall title 2017. Among the males, Jongwon Chon, who won overall in 2015 got his second win in 2017 and he is #2 in 2017, counting all but one events. 1. Shauna Coxsey GBR - Jongwon Chon KOR 2. Akiyo Noguchi JPN - Meichi Narasaki JPN 3. Miho Nonaka JPN - Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 4. Alex Puccio - Alexey Rubtsov RUS Complete results It should be noted that Japan participated with ten male and in the qualifications, they had nine in Top-10. In the semifinal, they had seven in the Top-10. The Japanese domination is a trend that has been going on for a couple of years.

1. Alexsey Rubtsov 300 - Shauna Coxsey 380 2. Jongwon Chon 298 - Janja Garnbret 327 3. Keita Watabe 285 - Miho Nonaka 260 4. Tomoa Narasaki 277 - Akiyo Noguchi 251 5. Kokoro Fujii 225 - Petra Klingler 188 Complete results As Janja is not listed to compete in the next event in India, which takes place just one week before the Euro Championship in Italy 30/6, Shauna only needs to be #9 in one of the two last events to secure the overall title again in 2017. Among the boys, all the Top-5 have good chances to win overall. What's amazing is that Japan has six males in the Top-9 ranking. It's interesting that it's the same males in the Top-5, besides that Watabee has been added. Among the ranked 6-13 last year, all but Jernej Kruder and Jan Hojer have dropped out of Top-20 in 2017.

98: Sasha Lehmann SUI - Joanne Brinkmann SUI 00: Filip Schenk ITA - Laura Rogara ITA 02: Thomas Podolan AUT - Nika Potova UKR Complete results Sasha was the only one to top all routes and also Nika was superior. Laura was followed by a total of eight girls from Austria and Slovenia. These two countries have dominated the scene for some years but in 2017, Slovenia has dropped significantly and Austria is just one of the best nations. Italy is the country who has had the best progress in 2017.

Japan has dominated the Boulder WC in 2017 but in Vail some kind of record was set with 9 male Top-10. On Saturday, the live-streaming starts at 10.00 with the semifinal and the final will take place 16.30, GMT-6. Male qualification results will be updated here and female here.

In the same way as Bernabe Fernandez's Chilam Balam has been taken away from the 9b+ pedestal and listing, everyone who presents Hall of Fame ascents and lists must try to keep them correct based on confirmed down- or up-gradings. Today, many such lists are dead wrong and are misleading and spread grade inflation. Further more, it discredits all the honest guys that give personal grades. Surely, based on the subjectivity of grading and that holds can break and get polished, it is impossible to know when to draw the line and kick out a previous mentioned ascent. In such cases, it is possible and necessary to just make a note or put them on a pending list.

Adam Ondra says on Facebook, "We can only discuss whether the free-solo climbing is good or not, whether we should write about it or not… Anyway, it takes tremendous amount of courage to free-solo “Freerider”. From my point of view, it is easier to solo 9a sport route than this one."