The European Championships, in Munich, starts on 11/8 and finishes on 17-18/8 with the Combined final events. The Combined qualification rankings are based on (World Cup) points gained in the Lead and Boulder events at the beginning of the Championships. In other words, 850 points might be needed to make the Top-8 finals.

In the final, a totally new scoring method will be used and there will also be two zones used in the Boulder round. The max score for both Boulder and Lead will be 100 points each. In short, you get 100 points topping the Lead route and then 5 points will be deducted by each hold. In Bouldering, you get 3 points getting to the first zone, 6 points for the second zone and 25 points for the top. Then the score will be reduced 0.1 point by the number of attempts used. All details explained

One risk with this scoring format is that the overall ranking could more or less be based on just one discipline if the routes and boulders turn out to be significantly too easy or too hard. Another risk is that first place can all but be decided after the boulder event, i.e. Garnbret sends two more boulders than the runner-up. Here is an article that discusses the scenario where the winners of the two disciplines end tied dead last in the overall ranking, commented by the IFSC athlete representative Staša Gejo. If the old (Olympic) ranking system were used, this scenario would result in tied winners. In the Olympics, the rankings were based on multiplication, meaning that uneven results were prefered.

Another interesting twist of the performance based scoring system, compared to the previous ranking based system, could be that the athletes will make more tries in Bouldering. Normally, the athletes often observe and wait for 30-45 seconds until the first try as number of attempts has a huge impact on the result. In the Combined format, there is instead more emphasis on getting a top. A flash gives 25 points whereas doing something on the tenth try still gives 24 points.

Sebastien Bouin reports on Insta that he has done Change (9b+) in Flatanger. (c) Marco Müller

Adam Ondra established the 55m route in 2012 as the first 9b+ in the world. Stefano Ghisolfi did the first repeat and as Seb said in his Insta, they both used knee pads which not Ondra did.

The French climber's ticklist for his one month trip to Flatanger is setting a new standard. 9b+, 9b/+ and three 9a+. Seb has yet to give a grade for Change.

” After sending pitch 1 and pitch 2 independently, my goal was for sure trying the entire route. The only problem was I only had four more days, before my departure to come back home. I didn't know if it would be enough for the entire route. My body started to feel crushed by this cave. I felt tired from the trip. But I wanted to play the game until the very end.

Day 1, the conditions were terrible. It was humid and wet. A lot of the key holds were wet. I decided to not climb and wait for the next day. Day 2, it was still humid, and key holds were a bit dryer, but the humidity didn’t give me confidence. I decided to try the route anyway. It was difficult to wait much longer, knowing I had to leave soon. I passed the first pitch, rested a lot before pitch 2. Then passed the first traverse crux on Pitch 2, and fell straight after that on the second crux. The holds were really humid and almost wet.

Day 3, I still felt really tired from my attempt on the previous day, and I didn't sleep well during the night. I wasn’t planning to climb – I wanted to wait until I felt ready. I went up to the cave to check out conditions and belay my girlfriend on her route. The conditions were exceptional! I was torn in my mind. Should I try it and take advantage of the conditions? or should I wait until I knew I was fully recovered? I finally decided to try the route. I was literaly flowing through the holds, due to the good conditions. It was so much different than the day before. I am happy to say that I made no mistakes and felt the belief that I could make it to the end, and I did! I am not usually a ‘last day, last try’ kind of guy, but this time it happened 🙂 I climbed the route with kneepads, like previous ascensionist Stefano Ghisolfi.”

The European Championship in Munich starts 11/8 and some will compete for four days straight doing three rounds in Boulder and Lead respectively. This means that the athletes only doing one discipline have an advantage and that goes especially for the male athletes only doing Lead and the female athletes only doing Boulder, as these finals take place on day 4.

Here are 12 athletes that, furthermore, have only prepared for one discipline giving them a great chance for good results.
Males only doing Lead: Stefano Ghisolfi, Sebastien Halenke, Domen Skofic, Jorg Verhoeven, and Stefan Scherz.
Females only doing Boulder: Petra Klingler, Alma Bestvater, Afra Hönig, Katja Debevec, Fanny Gibert, Ayala Kerem and Johanna Färber.

Dylan Chuat, who previously has done nine routes 9a and harder, reports on Insta that he has done Adam Ondra’s Thor’s Hammer 9a/+ in Flatanger. “Waaaw, what an amazing line!!! The holds are so beautiful, the effort and the line are just amazing! Just a pity that the beginning is always wet.” (c) Marco Müller

In total, he did seven routes 8c harder and he also onsighted Waliserne kommer og kommer (8b) during his one month. “Flatanger is amazing! It's very unique to have a granite cave like this one and there are so many incredible and hard ways! Even the easy routes on the left wall are crazy to climb! But it rains very often haha."

How did you manage all the wet holds on Thor's?
I climbed with the rope and I was drying and put magnesia on all the holds with paper. Then I left little pieces of paper in the holds which I took off when I climbed. The process took at least 15 minutes as the wet holds are like 7m away. I had to start climbing right away or else the plugs would get wet in 5 minutes.

What is your next plan?
I don't have a plan. Now I'm back in Switzerland and I'm going to rest a bit... but I'm going to have to do a lot of route setting these next months so I'm not going to be able to climb a lot. I'm going to climb closer to home.

The third and final day of the Euro Youth Championship in Graz started with the semifinal for the oldest juniors. Surprisingly, both the boys and the girls competed on almost identical boulders as the final Youth A boulders from yesterday. Several coaches were upset as this is against the onsight format.

Geva Levin from won the semi but dropped to fifth, and third among the Israelians, in the final. Dayan Akhtar from GBR won being the only one topping three boulders. Among the junior girls France got a double victory by Zelia Avezou (3 tops) and Selma Mimoune (1).

In the youngest girl category, Austria took a double by Floria Oblasser and Anna Bolius who both did all four problems in five tries. Floria won on countback as she also was #1 in both the semi and the qualification. Among the boys, Boyan Kirov from Bulgaria qualified as #8 and last into the final, which he won by doing three tops in four attempts. Runner-up was Samuel Richard using one more attempt for his three tops.

Overall, no country dominated and 10 different nations got at least one of the 18 medals. France was #1 with one gold and two silvers.

Florian Wientjes, who previously has done a couple 8C’s, reports on Insta that he has flashed the classical Amandla in Rocklands. It was put up by Fred Nicole as an 8C but it is now considered a soft 8B+ and it has been redpointed 30+ times. (c) Leonard Moser

“I was playing with the (flash) idea since a month or so. I went up early to the crag and started my warm-up routine including some Hangboarding. After 40min I decided to give it a try. My mind was free, cuz I know it totally fits my style and it worked. But, all in all i just did the same stuff like everyday when I climb😅.

I watched some videos before my trip and during the trip also a few.”

On the second day of the European Youth Championship in Graz, Allesia Mabboni from Italy won Youth A making two tops and four zones (24). Runner-up was Iziar Martinez from Spain who flashed the two boulders which Allesia could not do but she could only make three zones. The Spaniard was #15 in the qualification and #8 in the semi. Sara Copar from Slovenia did also score 23 but got the bronze as she needed four more attempts for the tops. Complete results

Among the boys, Tim Korosoc from Slovenia won by flashing two boulders and scoring 24, as all Top-4 did. Interestingly, he was #16 in the qualification and then #6 in the semi. Runner-up was Niki Rusev from Bulgaria, who came back from being #14 and #4 in the two previous rounds. Adi Bark from Israel got the bronze. Complete results

Nao Monchois, who nine times have made it to the semi in a World Cup, reports on Insta that he has done his first 9a+, La moustache qui fâche (9a+) in Entraygues. (c) Arthur Ternant

"I had this route in mind for quite a long time, some friends were trying it and I really like this kind of short endurance route. It took me 10 sessions to get it done, within three trips. On first one, I could barely do the moves. Then I trained a bit and could make real tries on the second one. The third was the good 😊."

Why are you not doing the World Cup this year?
In France, the nationals are selective for the French team. As I messed up the semi-final, I was out for the season and the best I could do was to transfer my good shape into outdoor climbing.

So the selection is only based on one competition?
No, there was a team trial one month before the season started but there was only one spot and I finished third.

The European Youth Championship in Bouldering started today in Graz. Unfortunately, the boulders were very hard and both climbers and coaches were upset. The Norweigian Head Coach, Reino "Nicki" Horak said that for the girls, it was the worst and hardest setting he has ever seen. "It was much worse than the result board shows and there were several girls who could, in total, only do one or two moves. On one boulder possibly one-third could not establish the start. For some strange reason, they did not change this before the younger group of girls started."

Youth A: Almost half did just make one zone. Complete results A girls and Complete results A boys
Youth B: Only 28 % did make more than one boulder. Complete results girls and Complete results boys

It should be mentioned that eight youngsters topped all four boulders out of which Ilja Auersperg (AUT) got four straight flashes.

Andrea Locatelli, who did his first 8c last year, has onsighted El General left (8a+) in Valle dei Mulini. In total, the 11-year-old has onsighted nine 8a's and two 8a+ which means only Adam Ondra has had a more impressive onsight ticklist at age 11, i.e nine 8a+. Here is a video from a recent trip to Frankenjura.

When Andrea had onsighted his first 8a, his father David commented. "Since Andrea was very young, we got him used to spending a lot of time outdoors, often on the crag, close to home or around Europe. When he was three years old, he started to play in the small climbing gym we have in our garage, and he improved very fast. At the age of seven, he joined a climbing team and started to compete in regional and national competitions. He likes to climb in the climbing gym, where he trains twice or three times a week, but he also loves to climb outdoors. So far, he has not dedicated many days to a project, and he likes onsight climbing. At the age of nine, he completed his first 8a and right afterward his first 7c onsight. To reach the climbing areas, we often travel with the whole family in our camper, trying to offer him a variety of climbing styles, types of rocks, crags, and boulder areas. Soon, we would like to go to Fontainebleau and then Kalymnos!"

How is it mentally, focusing so much on onsights?
When we go to the cliff to try a pitch, regardless of grade, Andrea goes up as if he had to climb it onsight. The idea is: to see where you arrive, otherwise if you want you can always try again. So it’s not stressful. In recent months I think it’s almost never happened that he devoted more than a day to a route… Now, however, he wants to try something harder and raise the grade but there will also be ascents onsight!