Janja Garnbret topped out all four boulders in the semi in just six attempts. Runner up was Natalia Grossman with three Tops and then nine girls made two tops with Oriane Bertone scoring best with four zones which also Stasa Gejo made. Ayala Kerem, who won the qualification together with Garnbret, ended #17 in the semi. Complete results

The women’s Boulder semi-final will take place tomorrow at 11:00 AM (UTC+2:), while the final is scheduled at 6:00 PM. The male semi-final starts on Sunday at 11:00 (UTC+2) and the final begins at 4:00 PM. How to watch the semi and final..

The biggest surprises in the Meiringen Boulder qualification were that Sean Bailey was #45 and that Olympic gold winner Alberto Gines Lopez was #80 among 111 male competitors. Other Olympians that ḿissed the Top-20 semi were; Nathaniel Coleman #21, Jakob Schubert #31 and Michael Piccolruaz #41. In the female category, four Olympians did not make the semi; Mia Krampl #25, Miho Nonaka #27 and Laura Rogora #36 among 83 participants. Although all 20 boulders were topped out, almost 2/3 of all athletes made a maximum of one boulder. In the male category, more than 1/3 made a max of just two zones. The USA had four women making the semi, Slovenia got four male to the semi and Japan had six men in the Top-21. Complete results

Jonathan Siegrist, who in just the last two weeks has done two 9a (+), has sent La Novena Enmienda 9a (+) in Santa Linya. "What a journey!! Feels pretty bad ass to climb all of the way up the gut of this monster cave. Got full-body-worked on the send for sure. 9a/+" (c) Cameron Maier

So you did your first 9a at age 24 and now at 36, it seems you are peaking? Could you elaborate a bit on your late blooming progress?
I worked really hard for the last four years to address some of my weaknesses with training and also with the projects I choose outside which definitely helped me make some progression! Also as I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to be more patient, rest more, and take really good care of myself. But ultimately it’s not much about how ‘strong’ I am (actually I am super weak when compared to top climbers!), it’s more about just prioritizing being outside and climbing on rock "a muerte" as much as possible. Power is for sure my main weakness. I’m okay at static strength but true power is very hard for me. At least I think that’s the right answer… Climbing is such a mystery, I still have a lot to learn.

The Meiringen WC starts with female qualification at 09.00 followed by the male qualification today at 16.30 (GMT+2). In total, 199 athletes from 34 countries are participating. You can follow the results live in the IFSC app and their website.

Christof Rauch has done Walk the line (9a) in Zillertal. "This was intense! My longest route climbing project and the hardest route I climbed so far! Maybe it doesn’t fit my style perfectly but I think it sits on the upper end of the grade. After falling almost 10 times past the last kneebar it became mentally really hard! Psyched to grab the third ascent after the legends Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra. Thanks to everyone who supported me on this journey! Such a huge relief that it‘s finally over."

Christof is mainly a boulderer having done some 850 boulders 8A and harder out of which a dozen 8C's, although working full time. In the last two years, he has had some injury problems and this is why he has focused more on routes. This was the Austrian's fourth 9a the last year.

Are you fully recovered from your injuries now?
My elbow is not at 100%. I can not train one-arm pull-ups and no campus board but it‘s getting better slowly.

Oriane Bertone took silver in Meiringen last year and overall she was #3 in the Boulder World Cup. This was surprisingly not as sensational as it seemed as she had already dominated the youth scene for several years, while at the same time setting several female records outdoors, including doing an 8B (+) at age 12!

How are you feeling the day before Meiringen starts and how have you prepared?
I’m doing good, super excited for the season to start :) I’ve been working on my weak points for the past few months and I think I got a bit better 😝. Physical boulders, compressions style or anything where you have to use more muscles than usually.

Any outdoor climbing?
I’ve been concentrating on indoor climbing recently. I didn’t have much time to go climbing outside because of that. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go to Font when I’ll be back from Meiringen.

What are your further plans for 2022?
For the moment I’ll be concentrating on this weekend WC, have loads of fun and enjoy the newly started season :)

What about schooling and how much do you train in a normal week?
Yeah I’m still in school :)) I’m homeschooling actually, so I can have more time to climb and organize my schedule :) I would say around 8 training sessions a week but it depends a lot!

TRAILER_ADAM ONDRA_PUSHING THE LIMITS.mp4 from Alice Tabery on Vimeo.

Yuji Hirayama did his last 9a, Peaceful Mountain in Mt Futago, just last month further confirming his status as a true climbing legend:

"Since 1986, when Yuji did Les Spécialistes 8b+, the now 52-year-old has been on the cutting edge. In 1991, he won his first World Cup and in 1998, as well as in 2000, he won overall. After his competition career, he made the FA of Flat Mountain 9a/+ in 2003 and the next year he onsighted White Zombie 8c. A few years later he did Cobra Crack 8c trad and the FA of an MP in Borneo including one 9a pitch. In his resume, being one of the best multi-discipline climbers in history, he has also climbed boulders up to 8B+, DWS up to 8b+, several big walls including also several times setting the Speed record on El Cap. Since 2010, he runs Climb Park Base Camp which over the years has organized several competitions. He has also been active in the Japanese Federation and helping out IFSC in getting climbing into the Olympics. Just over a year ago, he made the FA of Hanabi 8c+ also in Mt Futago."

Can you tell us about your weekly climbing life and what your ambition is nowadays?
Basically I train four days a week. Not so specific, I climb with friends and try my project once or twice a week. I climb and train both indoors and outdoors. I feel I need both. Now I don’t have my own line to make a FA but I would like to climb two routes. One is Shive light 8c+ from Sachi (Amma) and the other one is Daydream another 5.14 (8b+) trad route!! Both routes are very short and unique lines. I need to train and climb on the route a lot💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

How do you deal with getting older and still pushing to your max?
It is more delicate to prepare for example. I have to be careful to eat and drink. Less climbing volumes and good warm up😆 But human beings want to improve in life. And I’m the same and until die I guess 😆.

Why do you think Japanese climbers have dominated the boulder comp scene and what about the future?
I think because we have a lot of small bouldering gyms and I guess we’ve got a good community to grow up to be a good climber in this community. Now the US and European climbing scenes are having dynamic improvements so not easy to continue with the good results. But I think some of the Japanese climbers can have good results.

I think Japanese climbers gain the confidence during the last 30 years little by little. Today they are thinking always to be the winner of the comp. I guess not easy to be one of the best always. They need to improve in order to win and they need to feel and train what the route setters want to create and express.

Chris Sharma has bolted a “blank” 30-meter wall in Siurana with no routes within some 40 meters of either side. All the moves have been done and after some ten sessions of trying, he has started doing some good links reports photographer Ricardo Giancola, who shared this picture from the new project and who also captured Sharma’s 8c onsight.

“It was totally unexpected. We were filming his project on El Pati but the wind was so strong that we went to that route to be able to do something out of the wind and that's why I didn't have my rope on that one, ha ha :)

It was crazy. He started the onsight and in the middle of the route, he did not know which bolt line to follow and had to yell to the guy below with the topo. - Should I go left or right?

The guy opens the topo, finds the correct side and reads info about the route. Then Chris continued the route like in cruise control! At one point he had to rest for like two minutes as his fingers were freezing due to the strong wind. It was amazing to see and so inspiring.”