The big sensational result from the qualification in the first Boulder World Cup 2016, which is taking place in Meiringen in Swizerland, was that Dimitri Sharafutdinov and Anna Stöhr did not make it to the semfinal Top-20. At the same time as seven male climbers made four out of five boulders, half of the field did not do even a single one! Complete qually results In total, 84 male and 59 female participated. The live streaming starts on Saturday with the semifinal 11.00 - 14.00 and the final 18.30 - 20.30.

The crux in my project is to clip the third quickdraw. Is it OK to put any crash pads and skip the third clip and continue to the fourth and then down-climb and jump in order to always start with four pre-clipped? There is no absolute rule defining what is allowed and that is why 8a use the metaphor, Green-Yellow-Red traffic light, discussing ethics. In this case, I would say that if you send it the same day on your next try, it is OK. However, coming back the next day and hand dog up to the fourth and then go for it from the ground is not okay any more for me. On the other hand, I know several ascents which have been done in this way. It is just natural that we keep pushing the ethics and clearly, the community is not as strict as it was some 15 years ago. I think it is OK to have two or in extreme cases three pre-clipped quickdraws, if it is dangerous to clip the first but you should always do it in the same style as the FA. It is pretty lame to invent a reddish style and then downgrade it.

I have been climbing for 25 years. Now, since 4 years I am more into Bouldering, easier with the children, but I lack power. I have less time for climbing because of the family, but I have week-ends for Bouldering outdoor and I can train in the evenings during the week. Warm up and then do some recruitment campus moves so that you feel you are at your personal max level. 1. One max campus move and keep dead hanging for five second followed by 30 seconds rest and then repeat with the other hand * 3 sets. 2. Repeat but go up to 10 seconds dead hang and also double the rest. If you feel that you are getting weaker, increase the rest so you can do 6 * 2 exercises, which should take some 12 - 20 minutes.

Whenever there is a knee-drop solution, my friends always out-climb me. What to do to improve this skill? Climbers who are bad at knee-drop opt for other solutions meaning that they almost never train knee-drop. The fastest way to improve this skill is just to create some boulders where you can practice it over and over again, in combination with some stretching. One way of combining this is simply to just start sitting and repeatedly do the same knee-drop move like ten times. Then you set up a new knee-drop move. I would say that, out of all climbing skills, knee-dropping is the fastest to improve following this advice. Within some weeks, your body, instead of avoiding the obvious knee-drop, will take the advantage of it but it might be several years until you can do it as Adam Ondra. (c) Pavel Zvire

Black Diamond: "Voluntary recall for inspection of Easy Rider and Iron Cruiser Via Ferrata lanyard sets, Index Ascenders, Camalots™ and Camalot™ Ultralights"

Kevin Aglae reports on Facebook that he has done the FA of L'Enfumette 9a in St Leger. (c) Jan Novak

Ryuichi Murai has done the fifth ascent of Dai Koyamada's Hydrangea in Shiobara, which actually was his third 8C in a month. "Finally I send this problem! This is ''Hydra 8B'' + 6 moves 8A/A+. It took me 4 days to climb it. When I joined ''Hydra'' after the 6 moves, I felt it's quite another thing. So, I was fell many times at the part of ''Hydra''. I'm so happy to complete all problems of ''Nodate roof''! Next, I'm going to try Epitaph 8C in Hourai or Project of ''Nodate roof'' in Shiobara." How do you train? I don't particularly training, but I do sometimes ''ABC chin-ups"which is a training that I was taught when I went to the camp in Austria before. ''ABC chin-up'' which I repeat many times. 1. To chin-up three times. 2. To keep 5 seconds with the arm full bend. 3. To chin-up three times. 4. To keep 5 seconds with the arm open 90 degrees. 5. To chin-up three times. 6. To keep 5 seconds with the arm open 120 degrees.

In the IFSC calendar 2016 there is only one Euro Youth Lead Cup whereas there are four Boulder events planned. The trend of decreasing interest in Lead and increased interest in Bouldering has been going on for several years and during the last years only Austria has organized Euro Youth Lead Cups. This means that in practice it will be more difficult for Euro youngsters to start competing in the Lead World Cup. Furthermore, as it is widely known that the focus on Bouldering in an early age is dangerous for the growth plates in the fingers, four events might create such injuries and therefore not be the best idea.

The Boulder World Cup starts on the 15.4 in Switzerland and there are 147 people on the starting list. Later the circuit continues in Japan, China, India, Austria, USA and Germany. Here is the 8a ranking for the first event but as some of these guys do not plan to do all mileage the overall is hard to speculate at this point. Who do you expect? 1. Jan Hojer - Janja Garnbret 2. Alexsey Rubtsov - Anna Stöhr 3. Jongwon Chon - Akiyo Noguchi 4. Dimitrii Sharafutdinov - Megan Mascarenas 5. Jakob Schubert - Shauna Coxey 6. Jernej Kruder - Katharina Saurwein 7. Rustam Gelmanov - Fanny Gibert 8. Alban Levier - Margo Hayes 9. Martin Stranik - Melissa Le Neve, Miho Nonaka 10. Sean McColl - Petra Klingler 11. Jorg Verhoeven - Stasa Gejo 12. Tyler Landman - Giorgia Tesio