Margo Hayes, with a background in gymnastics, started climbing at ten and directly joined Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou's Team ABC in Boulder. At 14, Margo did her first 8A boulder and was #8 in the Youth World Championship. Her progress has been continuous, beside a compression fracture in her spine two years ago which made her stop climbing for three months. In 2016, she did 14 routes 8b+ and harder including her first 9a and got three golds at the Youth World Championship, as well as Climbing's Golden Sport Climbing Piton. Now she is on a one year off before attending University, and focusing on climbing, art, and learning French. Follow her on Instagram or at MargoHayes.com What made you try La Rambla and when did you start thinking you could actually do it? I tried La Rambla because of the beauty, history, and challenge! I really liked the route when I first tried it. I knew that I could send it after my first attempt, because I made all of the moves. It was just a matter of putting the puzzle together. The weeks before you started working on La Rambla you had been focusing on indoor bouldering preparing for the USA Nationals. By training for bouldering, I increased my power. This helped me get through the powerful moves. How has it emotionally been getting all the positive feedback from the climbing community living in the social media era? The positive feedback from the climbing community has been fantastic! People are generous with their support and I appreciate them taking the time to congratulate me. (c) Greg Mionske What is it you like most with rock and competition climbing? Climbing outside gives me a sense of freedom and calm. The mountains keep me grounded and keep life in perspective. I have also been a competitor my entire life. I thrive on that energy and excitement, and I can't imagine not competing. I value both experiences. What is your next plan and ambition? I want to continue climbing beautiful routes outdoors and compete on the World Cup Circuit. There is still so much that I want to learn in both arenas. Traditionally, I train for competition on plastic, but do try and combine that with some climbing at the cliffs. If an outdoor opportunity arises, I jump on it! Any complimentary training? Most of my training is climbing. I do try to run 1-4 miles a few times a week. On top of that, I fit in some strength training and flexibility work where I can. My routine is always changing, but these things stay constant. When I have the opportunity, I jump on the trampoline and swing on the bars! This is my favorite type of cross training.

Dmitrii Fakirianov, who was 5 - 2 - 3 in the last three WCs 2016 and who is on his first rock climbing trip, has done Definicion de Resistencia Democrata in Terradets and he confirms previous down grade suggestions. The Russian has also done Blomu 8c+ in Santa Linya and based just on his last two weeks, he is #12 in the 8a ranking game. What is your plan for the last few days? I have some ideas about one 9a in Santa Linya but I prefer more to climb onsights. I hope we will come back to Oliana and I would like to test myself on Mind Control.

Stefano Ghisolfi, who in the last 12 months has done one 9b and five 9a+' has in just four tries done La Rambla 9a+. (c) Paolo Sarto On Facebook, #4 in the Lead WC 2016, says that four years ago he stood under it but did not have the courage to even try it. This year he started with a flash attempt. Two days ago, Jacopo Larcher reported on Facebook after having struggled almost a week with La Rambla, "We have just two more days left and I'm falling always higher on "La Rambla". Let's hope for the classic "last day, best day"!". Today Barbara Zangerl reported on Facebook that Jacopo Larcher's prediction was right, "He did it on the last day!!! Last minute!!!!!! Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh".

In Brunico it is mandatory for the pupils to learn how to climb and they practice 12 times per year from when they are seven years old. In fact, they also get a grade based on their performance, including safety, knowledge etc, which is included in their overall gymnastic grade. From the time the pupils are 12 years old they are allowed to belay themselves, but they start practicing when they are eight years old. In the beginning they are closely supervised by their teachers and instructors and they always belay in pairs. Later, they begin to belay themselves but only after the teacher has made a knot two meters up on the rope (see the picture). Once they lower down their friends, they pass the knot and tighten the rope which makes the rope loosen up. Tubes or Eights are not allowed and instead everyone is using semi-auto belay devices. When they started with the mandatory climbing in school 18 months ago, some of the teachers, parents and pupils were a bit skeptical but it has turned out to a great success.

Mammut presents some nice bouldering picures by Thomas Monsorno from a famous grafitti wall in Bolzano. It is Michael Piccolruaz, #3 this weekend on CWIF, who boulders and has written the article - Trying something new.

Matyas Luzan 2014-ben kezdte a megszállott edzéseket az Action Directe 9a útért, motivációja évről évre egyre emberfelettibb erő tulajdonosává teszi és ismerve Matyit a Dávid és Góliát harca sem biztos hogy olyan sokáig fog már tartani. 2015 szezonban Matyi lesérült a projektelés első napján, de építkezett a hibákból és a motivációja sem lett kevesebb. Tavaly Matyi egy teljesen új lábfejezős bétát talált ki a középső szekcióra, ami csökkenti a mozdulatok számát, kihagyva az egyik kulcs egyujjas fogást. Jelenleg Matyi megszállottan edz a teremben, van hogy 10 órán keresztül vereti, erejéről számos nemrégiben napvilágot látott videó tanúskodik. Egy edzés alatt megmászta utcai cipőben a Komjáti 8A bouldert, illetve prezentálódnak a 8A-8B boulderek szép számmal. Video doing Moonboard's up to 8B. "Jelenleg 10 órát töltök a teremben és próbálom kihozni a legjobb formámat. Mit mondhatnék... egyszerűen imádom. Őszintén szólva ez arról is szól, hogy el kell tudni jutni a fájdalomig, de azért ez nem olyan dramatikus mint amilyennek hangzik. Teljes élvezet, mászni másokkal, mászni egyedül meg ilyesmik. " Matyi terve, hogy hamarosan újra nekiáll az AD megépített falán való gyakorlásnak. Májusban pedig 8b legnehezebb köteles megmászással Matyi elindul Németországba, az Action Directe alá sátorfát ver és addig le sem bontja míg meg nem mássza, várva a legjobb kondíciókra. Ha ez sikerül az világrekord lesz abból a szempontból, hogy még soha senki nem ugrott ekkorát a fokozatokban, lásd 8b -> 9a. Bennem számos kérdést felvet még, mi fog történni Matyi motivációjával ha sikerülne elejteni a nagy vadat és hasonlók...de remélem erre majd a megmászás után visszatérhetek. Matyival telefonkontaktban leszek a projektálás alatt, így első kézből jönnek majd az infók. ;-) De a fenti képre visszatérve: "Ez egy könnyebb megoldás, HA elég erős vagy, kellően hajlékony és tökéletes paramétereid vannak ehhez a fogás-lépés pozícióhoz." 8a interview from 2015

The Circuit Climbing napísali článok o CWIF 2017 s komentárom, že nové pravidlo štyroch minút je totálna katastrofa. "Od pretekárov, cez divákov až ku stavačom, každý sa sťažoval, že nový formát mal na súťaž negatívny vplyv."

Stefano Ghisolfi preliezol za posledný rok jedno 9b a päť 9a+ a nedávno pridal do svojej zbierky ďalšie - La Rambla 9a+, a cesta mu zabrala len štyri pokusy. (c) Paolo Sarto Štvorka svetového pohára 2016, Stefano na svojom Facebooku povedal, že pod cestou stál pred štyrmi rokmi, no vtedy nenabral odvahu ju vyskúšať. Tento rok sa do nej pustil z ostra: flashovým pokusom. Pred dvomi dňami sa na Facebooku z cesty ozval aj Jacopo Larcher so slovami: "Pred nami sú posledné dva dni výjazdu a ja v La Ramble pádam stále vyššie a vyššie. Dúfajme v klasické "posledný deň, najlepší deň." A dnes Barbara Zangerl prišla so správou, že Jacopove slová sa naplnili. "Preliezol ju v posledný deň!!! V poslednej minúte!!!!!! Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh"

V meste Brunico sa žiaci povinne učia liezť od siedmich rokov a "hodiny" majú 12-krát do roka. Predmet je známkovaný, do celkového hodnotenia sa ráta fyzická časť, ako aj všeobecné znalosti či znalosti bezpečnosti. Deti sa môžu navzájom istiť od dvanástich rokov, no učiť sa technike istenia začnú už v ôsmich. Zo začiatku sú pod stálym dozorom učiteľov a inštruktorov a vždy istia v dvojiciach. Neskôr môžu začať istiť samostatne, no až po tom, čo učiteľ uviaže bezpečnostný uzol na každých cca dvoch metroch lana (uzol je vidno na obrázku). Pri spúšťaní svojho parťáka im jednoducho stačí zatiahnuť lano so spodnej strany uzla, čím sa povolí a môžu spúšťať ďalej. Kýbliky alebo osmy sa používať nesmú, decká istia s poloautomatickými istítkami. Keď pred osemnástimi mesiacmi škola začínala s povinnými hodinami lezenia, viacero učiteľov, rodičov, ale aj žiakov bolo pomerne skeptických, no program má nakoniec veľký úspech.

The Circuit Climbing has made a review of CWIF 2017 saying the new 4 minute rule in the final was a complete disaster. "Everyone, from the climbers, to the spectators to the setters complained about the impact on the show."