Michaela Kiersch reports on Insta with a great picture by Boone Speed that she has done the first female ascent of Super Tweak 8c in Logan Canyon, Video.

How do you balance your climbing with your OT doctoral studies in hand therapy?
It’s challenging to find the balance. My climbing has definitely suffered since starting my doctorate but I’ve learned to be more patient with myself and make time when I can. The amount of climbing and training I can do every week varies depending on my school work. Some weeks I hardly climb at all, especially during exams. But sometimes I can prioritize climbing in between classes and assignments. I’m on a 2-week break right now, so it’s been nice to climb more often.

When did you start your doctoral studies, when will you finish and does it relate to climbing?
It’s been over 2 years and I’ll graduate at the end of April. Yes, I hope to work with climbers!

Masahiro Higuchi was last out and there were three guys tied on 31+. Actually, Luka Potocar, Sebastian Halenke or Domen Skofic were close to getting to hold 32. The Japanese was in cruise control, easily grabbing hold 32 and continued five more holds. His previous best of his 11 years long World Cup career was #3 in Kranj in 2018. With the victory, he moved to #3 overall after Stefano Ghisolfi and Sean Bailey. Complete results

Janja Garnbret put on an amazing show once again doing some spectacular moves to secure the victory in both Kranj as well as overall. Actually, it was the interviewer who told her that she won overall and she was totally unaware of it. Chaehyon Seo from Korea was second meaning that still her worst result out of all her seven World Cups is bronze.

Big sensations in the Kranj male semifinal as the Top-3 in the overall ranking did not make the final. Stefano Ghisolfi was #12 and secured the overall title as Sean Bailey was #15. Sascha Lehmann, who was #3 overall, was #26. The winner of the semifinal was Masahiro Higuchi from Japan. Complete results

Among the female, all the big names made it to the final and Janja Garnbret got three moves higher than Laura Rogora, who got six moves higher than Vita Lukan. Complete results

Siebe Vanhee has repeated Dave Macleod's Project Fear in the Dolomites. Spectacularly, he actually linked all three roof pitches together into one long 50m pitch, going straight through the great roof. Originally the grades of the three pitches were 7b+, 8a+ and 8c but the 29-year-old's personal grade are 7b+, 8a and 8b. His overall grade of his new FA is 8b+ or 8c. (c) Klaas Willems

"The great roof of Cima Ovest in Tre Cime (Dolomites) is just breathtaking! The mythical Huber routes Bellavista and Panaroma made me dream of climbing that roof for years. Last week Pete Lowe came over to the Dolomites and instead of jumping on the classics we chose the more recent variation Project Fear, opened by Dave MacLeod in 2014. Dave linked the Bauer Route, an old aid line into the crux pitch of Panaroma (8c) by adding a 6c, 7b+ and 8a+. Great vision, because the line goes pretty much straight through the right part of the roof. Together with Pete we worked the crux pitches for two days. The day before we wanted to give it a send, Pete made the tough decision not to join me because of an old and severe climbing injury that had been bothering him again. We were both disappointed but it was the smartest decision to take. Nonetheless, Pete was excited for me to try and send Project Fear, but not in the normal way! He came up with the idea of linking all the pitches that go through the roof in one monster 50m pitch. This means linking Dave MacLeod’s 7b+, 8a+ and the 8c crux pitch of Panorama all into one!

With Pete’s vision and the support of local Dolomite climber Nico Cad we took off at 8am last Sunday. It was freezing cold and clouds where visible in a distance, adding to the spice of the route. Once at the base of the roof, at the start of the 7b+, I racked up with long slings aiming for the link-up. Linking the 7b+ into the 8a+ felt good, at the start of the 8c is a great rest where I could recover fairly well. I continued and got into the first crux where my foot came off. I had super cold feet and was probably too nervous. I returned to the anchor, rested 15 minutes and took off again. This time I felt warmed up, had warm feet and believed I could do it! I got past the first crux and entered the second crux pretty solid. Going to the final jug over the lip I suddenly lost my grip in the last pocket and came off! Unbelievable, I had it, I was so close! Devastated I returned to the anchor again where I rested another hour before taking off on what would probably be my last try. Italian Nico was the best support ever, he waited patiently in the cold. I was convinced I could do it, I still had some energy in my arms. For the third time I was hanging on the rest before the 8c part, looking up to the two roof cruxes. I recovered completely and took off. Arriving at the lip of the roof I gave it all and this time stuck the final jug over the roof! I let out screams of joy that where answered by my crazy Italian belayer and a big audience at a small hut below Cima Ovest. Three hours and a bit of snowfall later we stood on top of the Cima Ovest!

Also about this climb I would like to express my opinion on the grade, definitely having done the big link up. Macleod’s 8a+ felt more like 8a and the 8c of Panorama more like 8b. I don’t want to underestimate the work and impressive first ascents of both MacLeod and the Huber brothers. I can understand how intimidating a first ascent in this roof on this kind of rock might be back in the day! Thank you all for the work and imagination. With the new grading of the separate pitches I would consider the grade 8b+ or 8c for the link up of the 7b+, 8a and 8b. Let’s wait a second ascent to give this a final grading.

What an amazing experience climbing through such a huge roof and topping out in this magical place! Thanks Pete for the great days trying the route and your vision of linking all the pitches, you got all the credit for it! Thanks to Nico for keeping motivation high despite the cold. Big thanks to Ariana for searching a partner for me so last minute!

Last but not least, thanks to Klaas for the images on our second day on the wall when we tried every pitch individually. Too bad we don’t have any images of the link-up. But at least it gives a good idea of the exposure."

1. Natalia Grossman USA 231 - Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 291
2. Laura Rogora ITA 223 - Sean Bailey USA 255
3. Luka Vitan SLO 218 - Sascha Lehmann SUI 199
4. Janja Garnbret SLO 200 - Alberto Gines López ESP 169
5. Alex Totkova BUL 168 - Masahiro Higuchi JPN 163
6. Eliska Adamovska CZE 162 - Martin Stranik CZE 159

Qualification results from Kranj. As the last Lead World Cup in China has been cancelled, there will only be five Lead World Cups and all will count. This means that among the males, Stefano Ghisolfi will secure the overall victory if he finishes Top-3 in the last event in Kranj starting this Friday. If Sean Bailey is #2, Stefano will get the overall if he is #6. What talks in favour of Ghisolfi is also that several of the best guys, like Adam Ondra, Alex Megos, Colin Duffy and Tomoa Narasaki, will not participate in Kranj.

Among the women, it is a much more open affair where four girls have the chance to win overall. If Janja wins the last event in front of her home crowd, Natalia Grossman or Laura Rogora will get the overall title if any of them are runner up. If, instead, Vita Lukan is runner-up, Janja wins overall and Vita is #2 overall. It should also be mentioned that many of the best, like Brooke Raboutou, Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka, are not participating. At the same time, Chaehyon Seo makes her first WC in 2021 and if she wins, it is most likely that the one with the best result out of Grossman and Rogora wins overall. The live-streaming of the semi will start on Saturday 08.55 and the Finals at 18.00, Euro Time.

This picture is a screenshot showing a dangerous way of clipping your GriGri into your harness. It turns the belay device 90 degrees meaning the risk of dropping the climber is increased. Later (minute 13), the belayer actually feeds out the rope by letting go of it. A Grigri blocked at the side in a combination with a relatively thin rope will make the rope just slide.*

Some 15 years ago, we saw several GriGri accidents due to this usage which was popular back then. I have personally told many of the biggest celebrities including a world champion that they instead should clip in the screw carabiner only in the belay loop of the harness. Some ten years ago I also had Petzl delete a video that had been shown like 100' times. I have made sure that the belayer in the video will be informed about the situation.

*It should be mentioned that also a Grigri which is turned 90 degrees normally blocks also thin ropes, as the Grigri normally turns into its correct position in a fall, especially if you stand some few meters from the wall.

Back in the days when I was starting to bolt routes in Sweden some 25 years ago, most of the frequent bolters drilled pockets in the rock. I remember stopping one guy just about to create a pocket "in an impossible route", simply by finding a new sequence. In total, I have put up some 500 routes and I have never chipped, although some purists might define part of my cleaning as chipping. You never know when you start hammering out a loose stone if it could break just by climbing and ice blasting. Cleaning loose rock is a grey zone when it comes to chipping.

In Sweden, we normally have gneiss or granite and I have never come into a situation where I have ever thought about using glue. Instead, I have always hammered down the potential loose rock. Very rarely, I have seen or heard about glue been used in Sweden, but in a few cases where a hold has broken after the FA glue has been used to restore the route to its original shape.

At the beginning of the 8a era, you could mark routes as "Chipped" and we had this feature in order to put pressure on the bolters and FAs not to chip. On the other hand, we came to recognize that for hard limestone routes, many cases fall in the grey zone and it is often very subjective to call a route "chipped".

My take on the chipping controversy is that a totally natural route without glue, artificial pockets or hammer cleaning is of higher quality compared to the opposite. Furthermore, where the grey line for cleaning loose rock goes is something that actually mainly should be discussed by bolters. It takes years of establishing new routes until you fully understand the complexity of loose rock, especially when it comes to safety.

I have bolted many routes which turned out to be too hard for me to ascend. I have actually bolted an 8c+ which Adam Ondra later did the FA of. In a few cases, I have put on handmade hangers with a good crimper so it could be used as a hold in order to get traffic on the route. First, the FAs were done with the hangers and then some super strong climbers got motivated to do it clean and the hangers were removed.

I think it is important that role models like Adam Ondra and Alex Huber discuss this subject so that we do not get back to the situation of the 90's. It takes guts to express such opinions but they are very important in order to not have a new generation of gym climbers starting to create gyms also outdoors.