Eddie Fowke has presented some interesting thoughts on The Circuit Climbing in regards the problem with the increased number of participants in Bouldering WCs. Eddie says that this results in longer stay in isolation, the holds get greaser which is not fair and that the coaches and judges get tired. Three suggestions are put forward: maximum of 4-6 competitors from each country, introducing quarter finals, besides starting with five min brushing chalk break after every tenth climber. 1. In the last WC in Japan, 21 males participated and clearly this is too much but at the same time, among the 22 best, there were ten from Japan. It might be a good idea to say that a maximum of 10 athlete from one country is allowed during WCs and World Championship. 2. To introduce a quarter final is only good if this is only mandatory for the guys below a certain ranking. Bouldering should be about power and already now, the competition format is too much of an endurance challenge. 3. A five minute brushing break is of course nice and could be done after every 20 climbers. If there are 70 competitors, this would increase the qualification time by 15 minutes. Another way is to reduce the number of participants from one country to three or even two if you are not within a certain ranking. This would, in fact, be more fair as it would allow that more of the highest competitors would be allowed to participate. Most probably the best way to handle the increasing number of participants is simply a combination of introducing quarter finals for the lowest ranked and to just allow three non-ranked climbers for each country.

Alex Puccio has done her 46th 8A+, Position of power in RMNP. "Fun power endurance boulder. Got a bit pumped at the end." In total, the vice-world champion from 2014 has done 142 boulders 8A to 8B+ and she is #3 in the All time high ranking where Ashima Shiraishi is #1.

Ten years ago, Barbara Zangerl was one of the very best female boulderers in the world. In 2009, she got an herniated vertebral disc which made her stop bouldering. Including two 8c+'s and several 8c's she is also nowadays among the best in sportclimbing and the same goes for trad, where she recently did an 8c FA, Gondo Crack. Even so, multi-pitches should be her best discipline and here she the #1 female, here the full very impressive tick list. The good news is that she is now fully recovered from her back injury and last week she was a superior winner in the Melloblocco. "The injury is still there. It is a broken disc. On the MRI pictures it looks still bad but I think I am totally recovered which means I have no more pain. But of course if do a lot of bouldering, jumping down from the blocs---then it comes back, I feel pain and I have to rest. I'm always doing a lot of bouldering in our home gym, especially in winter. There we have extra soft pads where I can train without any risk of hurting my back--- while jumping off the wall." What is your plan and ambition for 2017? My focus will be on bigger walls....I love alpine and big wall climbing....and maybe I can push my sport climbing limit a bit further--we will see. But in general I get the best out of climbing if i combine all styles of climbing....that is my way to stay motivated all over the years and I love it to do trad alpine and sport....and a bit of bouldering... This summer I want to climb in Chamonix....I never have been there before....or I would be also interested to climb a route on Eiger, if the weather is good this summer.....In Autumn we will go to Yosemite again.... 8a interview from 2015. (c) Thomas Senf & Klaus Dell'Orto

The 14th Melloblocco ended on Sunday May 14th with the presence of 2700 registered athletes and exitmated 6000 climbers reaching the valley. Melloblocco is the widely recognized bouldering event with the most participants in the world. Held in Val Masino 100 km north of Milan, Italy, takes the name from “Mello” and “Blocco”: Mello is a lateral valley of Val Masino, and blocco means boulder. Unique for a competition, Melloblocco is held on real rock with new competition boulders every year. Val Masino offer, still, unlimited possibilities of new boulders all of them easily accessible. In the competition, there were 12 boulders to do and Barbara Zangerl was superior by doing eleven up to 8A. Among the male, Anthony Gullsten won ahead of Jorg Verhoeven by counting the number of flashes. It should be mentioned that Alex Megos did his ten in just three days. More info (c) Klaus del Orto 1. Barbara Zangerl 11 (6) - Anthony Gullsten 11 (4) 2. Lara Neumeier 7 (1) - Jorg Verhoeven 11 (2) 3. Madeleine Eppensteiner 6 - Alex Megos (10) 1

Mivel a tavasz nagyjából kimaradt, a tavalyi restanciákat még a nyári melegek előtt le kell tudni. Erről tett tanúbizonyságot Németh Rudolf aki a harmadik 8b-jét zsebelte be a hétvégén, megmászva a Fenevadat a Kis-Gerecsében. Rudika nem igazi ősgerecsés, mégis ha az elmúlt pár évet nézzük a bányában kijelenthetjük, hogy ő már ott egy fix bútordarab. De korántsem ez az egyelten hazai hír! A pár hete LED végéből potyogó Benke Balázs befejezte 8a+ -os projektjét, mely a Laurából Zed-be való átmászást jelenti. Balázs Rettenet Erőéknél vendégeskedett és hozott is magával egy keveset. Nemrégiben a isztriai Befana 7c flash megmászása és a Kő-árki Zöld hullám 7b+ on-sightja is erről tanúskodik. Ipach Marci is tovább színesíti a mezőnyt a halfmezko team tagjaként a Gerecse hegységben. Ezúttal a Bubb Feri klasszikus peremőrületet; az Abokalipszist büntette le. Így a komment: Az ugrás nagyon király mozdulat, meglepően nehéz azonban beadni ha elölről megy az ember. Marci idén abszolút kinőtte a bánya lakója gúnynevet (meghagyva Rudikának) és eszeveszett aprításba kezdett a környező hazai boulderhelyeken is, melyről hamarosan egy videó is be fog számolni. Borbély Gábor nemrég felélesztett egy szunnyadó vadat. Avagy a "hogy lehet minden évben kiásni a gerecsei murva alól még egy 7c-t című verseny győztese lett" és akadnak is szépen a motivált boulderes ismétlők. Eszmei kérdéseit Gábor a BHSK blogon részletezte. Derék Laci évekig on-sightolgatta a fővárosi mászótermekben a 7b és 7b+ utakat mire lehetett belé annyi magabiztosságot verni, hogy a Gerecse hegység túloldalát is célba vegye. Idén végre először elkezdte a Kis-Gerivel való barátkozást, melynek azonnal egy Retek 7c flash lett az eredménye. Laciról még fogunk hallani a közeljövőben úgy gondolom. Külföldön is történt egy s más... Simon Bence két államvizsga készülés között kiugrott Szlovákiába, ahol úgy látszik 4-5 próbából lemennek a 8b-k. Ezúttal a Harmaneci Hypoxia ment le öt próbából és mellé még egy 7c+ on-sight is akadt a Konekšn képében. Bence szép úton halad a 8a on-sightok felé... Délre Bán Tamás is remekelt egy újabb "egy nap alatt" megmászott 7c+ úttal, a Fidy Marci által pár éve (számunkra) felfedezett Mea culpa perem és lyukőrülete esett most el. ~menjünk vissza a terembe is kicsit~ Hétvégén zajlott a Bigwall Magyar Kupa, az első köteles kupaforduló idén. Hölgyeknél majdnem papírformának mondható teljesítménnyel Benus Adél nyerte a bajnokságot egyedüliként Top-ot mászva a női döntő úton. Fiúknál már korántsem volt annyira egyértelmű ki állhat a dobogó legfelső fokára. A verseny legnagyobb meglepetésembere a dühödt formában lévő Gerecse Egyesületi Elnök; Nagy Ervin - aki 4. lett a nyílt férfi kategóriában. Ervin a veterán kategóriában évek óta hozza a dobogó környéki helyezéseket, de most sokakat megruházott a fiatal korosztályból... hát nem csak a húszéveseké a világ. 3. helyezett a Svájc és Ausztria termeiben edző Barabás Gábor lett, hozta a tőle megszokottat, sem többet sem kevesebbet, sajnos a nyakbehúzós teknősüzemmód ma kimaradt. Na de! A második helyezettnél álljunk meg egy szóra (vagy többre). Van egy srác aki a legtöbb Magyar Kupás versenyen megjelenik az alföldről, általában minden burokban nevelkedett pesti értetlenkedve áll a kérdés előtt: Ki a bánat lehet ez? S ezt még csak tetézi, ha látják a teljesítményeit és azt hogy Szegedről is lehet dobogóra állni a Magyar Kupa versenyen, úgy hogy nincs normális terem - se team. A fiú nem edz, fizikai munkával és favágó ipari alpin munkával tartja karban a kondiját, csak nagy ritkán fér bele egy egy mászás a meló és esti suli mellett. Egy eléggé tehetséges srácról van szó, aki edzés nélkül szorongatja Strommer Somát. Ő Hegedűs Balázs. Volt a szegedi mászásnak egy aranykora, amikor szinte minden hétvégén ment kocsijuk a Kis-Gerecsébe vagy a Szegedhez ?közel? eső külföldi sziklamászó helyekre. Ennek motorja Lajkó Bendegúz volt és hiszitek vagy sem, jött vele legtöbbször egy kisfiú aki szépen on-sightolgatta a geris 7a-7b(!)-ket úgy 2011 nyarán. Bazsi megnőtt, ma Magyar Kupán második. Illene hát már megjegyezni a nevét. Ekkora rizsa után pedig jöjjön az első helyezett. Volt egy kis dilemma, ugyanis a döntőben az első és második helyezett pontosan ugyanannyit mászott, illetve Balázs még elindította a mozdulatot amit Soma már nem. De a Magyar Versenyszabályzatban elvileg nem létezik elindított mozdulat pontozása, így ugyanolyan teljesítménynek számított a két döntő út, a selejtező alapján pedig a győztes; Strommer Soma! Gratulálunk!

Aris Theodoropoulos, who has made all Kalymnos topos, has just finished a new topo which covers the best of Greece. In total, 31 crags are presented in 435 pages also including over 1 000 routes in Leonidio. Just by looking at the map and the high number of high rated climbs, it should be on every climber's to do list to fly down to Athens and make a three week road trip (at least!) on the main land. Basically, this looks like the most weather proof winter destination in Europe as the stats says it very seldom rains and the average winter temperature is 10 degrees. More info on Climb Greece where you also can buy it for Euro 40. The topo is produced together with Vertical-Life which means their App guide is included.

Gambit from Five Ten is a really comfortable training shoe and because it is rather stiff you can use a bigger size and wear it throughout the whole training sessions or doing a multi-pitch. They feel almost like having your trainers on and I have used them during warming up or doing long slabby routes. They also come in a velcro model but in a way then you are missing the point, the Gambit is not about taking them off and on during your session quickly. This is how Five Ten presents them; More info Stealth® C4™ rubber outsole (4mm) Lined leather upper – Minimal stretch 3⁄4 length lace closure system Rounded toe box Molded thermoplastic midsole

Several coffee shops, restaurants and mini markets have opened during 2017 in Kalymnos. The big tumble-down hotel at the end of Massouri is being renovated and within some weeks a new climbing shop is opening up in this area. Although, Ryan Air reduced their flights in 2016 and will in 2017 stop flying to Kos, the entrepreneurship is booming on the island. During 2016, the number of climbers dropped some 20 % and although it seems less climbers have traveled to the island 2017, the number of climbers remain the same as more non-European visitors seem to stay longer periods. One reason for the growing entrepreneurship might be that they hope that the new owner of the airport in Kos, who will increase its capacity, will bring in more flights starting 2018. The municipality is trying to get more funding for rebolting and also improving the paths. Overall, Kalymnos is at it's best with 3 000 routes and not so many climbers so it just might be that this autumn it might be that you could get the peak. Here is an old 8a article.

Some twenty years ago, an Italian World Cup climber fell to the ground and injured himself badly, as he had not tightened his bowline knot. Directly afterwards IFSC made it mandatory to use the eight knot during comps. At the same time, in every WC competition there is a problem to untie the knot that sometimes results in 1 - 2 minutes delay. The O-Key device solves this problem by squeezing it in the knot before climbing. Back on the ground you just take the it out and untie will become much simpler. Possibly IFSC will make it mandatory to use on World Cups. On the other hand, the O-Key is in fact also a Safety First innovation because by squeezing it in, it is like confirming that you have finished your eight knot. Most us have forget this once or have had friends who have forgotten it and in some cases it has resulted in bad injuries. Most of us re-check the knot high up on the route and with the "Safety First" device, all these guys will feel more comfortable. After having used it for some days in Kalymnos, I am very positive about it and possibly this is a game changer when it comes to safety. Once my belayer says, - On belay!, I check my knot answering with - Safety First! Having kids, I will make it mandatory for them to use it and it will be nice to pass it over to my friends, showing I care. The O-Key or "Safety First" device is an invention by Albi Schneider, who ten years ago introduced the belay glasses to the market. He will present the O-Key at Outdoor in Friedrichshafen in June. Yesterday, he got the message that his O-Key made it to the finals where they are about to present the best new products of 2017. The price will be 4 or 5 Euros but Albi also plans to sell them in packages of five for Euro 10, so you can have a package in your rucksack and give away to friends. The O-Key can also be used as your small stick opening your carabiner while going for a stick clip.

Piotr Schab, who has done four 8b+ and harder onsights the last two weeks, is halfway of his goal to do ten 9a's in 2017 by sending Victimas Perez in Margalef. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz "Endurance climbing on pockets with an insecure jump at the end. Extremely painful but all in all it's worth some struggle :)" Now the plan is to start training for the Lead competition season that starts with the European Champion in Italy 30/6.