Keenan Takahashi, Ethan Pringle and Connor Herson have done Empath 9a (+) in Tahoe which Carlo Traversi opened last year. It has also been done by James Webb, Daniel Woods and Nathaniel Coleman, everyone calling it one of the best. Alex Aristei has taken the picture of the young phenomena who did an 8c+ 2nd go at age 14 and one year later the 8b+ big wall The Nose. The best multi-disciplin teenager inthe world has been Top-16 in the last three Youth World Champions.

How was the process taking it down? Did you use crack gloves like Pringle? (c) Tradisplaid
I think I sent empath on my 5th session, but I nearly sent it on my 3rd and 4th sessions as well. I was able to jam my way past the three of the four cruxes on the route, making each of them substantially easier. I did not wear any tape or crack gloves for the send.

What does tour Insta presentation, "Obsessed with climbing", stand for?
I made climbing a very important part of my life because I enjoy it so much. Whether it’s the amazing locations trad climbing takes me, the try hard of sport climbing, the intensity of competition, or any combination of these, every type of climbing has its own appeal.

Making an Olympic prediction is harder than ever. One year has passed since the last Lead World Cup. Furthermore, only half of the Olympians participated in all three events in Salt Lake City last month. We nevertheless take the chance to predict the winning odds for the Top-5:

1. Tomoa Narasaki 2.5 - Janja Garnbret 1.3
2. Adam Ondra 3.5 - Miho Nonaka 6.0
3. Jakob Schubert 7.0 - Akiyo Noguchi 9.0
4. Bassa Mawem FRA* 9999 - Aleksandra Miroslaw* 999
5. Kai Harada 12 - Brooke Raboutou 11

Narasaki is predicted to win because he is on home turf and can challenge the Speed specialists. If he wins Speed it will be hard for Ondra or Schubert to catch him as they probably will be among the lowest ranked in Speed.

Garnbret is also the fastest among the non-Speed specialists and is the big favourite to win both Lead and Boulder. It should be mentioned that either Mawem or Miroslaw participated in the Boulder events in Salt Lake City. It just might be the best strategy for the Speed specialists to skip any Lead or Boulder training whatsoever, as it for them comes down to who wins Speed, see below.

*The most certain prediction in the Tokyo Olympics is that, due to the multiplication format, there will be a Speed specialist finishing #4 or #5. The Speed qualification winner will probably make it to the Top-8 final even if being dead last in Lead and Boulder, in the qualification. Among the females, with four Speed specialists and the African representative, it is actually possible that the Top-2 in Speed will make it to the final, meaning that there is a "risk" for a Speed specialists bronze. Mathematically, and considering potential non-sportsmanship actions, the risk is actually rather big. It just takes that the #2 in Speed finishes around #16 in Boulder and #14 in Lead and she could advance to the final, as long as some of the best like Janja Garnbret, Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi are highly ranked in all disciplines.

Another twist is that, for the sake of creating the best show, let us hope that Rishat Khaibullin makes it to the final. He can challenge the speed specialist while being ok also in Boulder. In the World Championship, he got the bronze and he can do it again if he is at least Top-2 in Speed in the qualification.

Alberto Gines Lopez, who has focused on Euro Youth Cups, finally had a great result when he won the Speed qualification with 6.28, setting a new PB. Out of the 20 Olympians, only the three Speed specialist and Tomoa Narasaki and Mickael Mawem have a better PB. As the Combined results are multiplied in Tokyo, it is very important to have a superb result in one or two events instead of having three good results. In other words, if the 19-year-old can advance to the Top-8 final he could be second in Speed giving him good chances for bronze overall.

Dylan Barks has done Arrested Development on his 2nd go in Mount Charleston suggesting a personal grade at 8c+. It has four ascents in the 8a database out of which two have said "low-end 9a" and the other two did it as their first 9a, including Alex Honnold, who actually also said it might be 8c+. (c) Rachael Melville

"I went up my first try bolt to bolt, being able to do all the moves. I quickly realized the route was my style (dynamic and powerful with a fitness element), but definitely didn’t expect to do it second go. I just tied in and started climbing with no expectations and somehow that led me to the chains! As for the grade, it felt more like 8c+ from my experience, but like I said the route did suit me quite well. Next for me is to switch gears a bit and get ready for alpine bouldering this summer in CO. I would love to come back to the Las Vegas area in the early fall, however, and dive back into the sport climbing there! "

The 26-year-old also did Americas Least Wanted 2nd go the same day, and once again suggested a personal downgrade. Most other repeaters have called it 8c/+ in the 8a database so it might be that both those routes should be officially downgraded?

"America’s Least Wanted and is actually on the same wall as Arrested Development. It’s a lot shorter though, being around 14 moves. I went up and checked the moves on my first try, doing the final jump move a few times. Nothing on the route felt too cruxy, so I knew I might have a chance to do it second try. I ended up tying in a few minutes after my first burn and taking it to the chains! I think the route has been given a slash grade of 8c/+ for a while now and I guess it felt more on the 8c side to me, but again, this felt like a style that suits me quite well so I’m not totally sure."

Stefan Scherz, Combined Euro Youth Champion in 2020, has done his second 9a, Puro Dreaming in Arco which Adam Ondra did the FA of in 2018. (c) Julian Parsert

How do you use rock climbing preparing for the upcoming competitions?
Climbing outdoors always helps me a lot to refocus and to gain fitness for the upcoming competitions. I’ve spent a few days in Arco recently, where I was able to send “Pure Dreaming” despite bad conditions! So, confidence and psych are high for WC Innsbruck in just a few weeks!

Although in general the route setting in Salt Lake City was good, the boulders in the second final were too hard for the males (4 Tops) and too easy for the females (17 Tops). Sometimes hard boulders with few tops can be exciting to watch, but when even Routesetting reports said he went to bed when he saw that also the third boulder started with a traverse, something is wrong.

The reasons why competition boulders so often start with a traverse is that the route setters normally put the starting holds at 2 meters and then they are not allowed to put the top hold higher than 4.5 meters. As the starting holds are often big volumes, and as the walls are normally not that steep, climbers (at least tall males) could jump to the top jug standing on the starting holds if it was not for the traverse [BLEV DETTA RÄTT?]. Below are some proposed solutions to make the route setters' job easier, including more straight-up moves and fewer traverses, which may create a better show and spread out the field's results.

Steeper walls needed
OK, one vertical slab is ok but then the remaining walls should be spread out 20-60 degrees overhanging.

Lower starting holds
Place the starting holds max 1.5 meters up. Skip the running starts with the starting holds at 3 meters! Put the mattresses 0.5 meters out from the wall and let the climbers start sitting is the extreme solution to create more moves. Recessed/inset starting holds
By using smaller recessed/inset starting holds in the wall, the climbers will not take as much advantage of the starting holds as when big volumes are used for the start.

No foothold as the top (matching) hold
Having a climber celebrating the top by hanging on it is more fun, rather than matching a foothold top, also for the spectators. Matching a foothold is not a natural part of climbing.

More moves in the official rules
"The average number of handholds per boulder in any round should be between four (4) and eight (8)", says the official IFSC rule. The dilemma is that you can have six handholds in a boulder, but in practice, there are only two coordination moves to the top. Add to the rule that there must be at least three moves to the top.

Two zones instead of one
It will be more fun and action for climbers and spectators if one more zone is added. This will reduce the anticlimax when (in particular youth) competitors score zero zones, and it will generally spread out the field.

Nao Monchois, who last year was #8 in the Briancon WC, has done his second 9a in Céüse, Pornographie. "It is a super nice endurance route in the mythical Biography sector. Quite short, 20m, and intense, it’s a perfect test for comp climbers 😊 I first tried the route for three days one month ago with a little finger tweak, and absolutely no chance to send it. So I came back to Céüse right after the French national team selection comp to decompress, and also retry this route. After a dozen tries and a big fight, It finally went down 😊"

So how was the selection?
The selection went pretty good. I’ll participate in Innsbruck, Chamonix and Briancon WC’s for sure and I don’t know yet for the second part of the season!

Adam Ondra has written an interesting article where he discusses - How much do we owe the evolution of climbing shoes?

"From my experience, a steep route of a certain grade from 30 years ago feels very similar to a steep modern route of the same grade. But a vertical route from 30 years ago often feels sandbagged compared to a vertical route which was put up recently. It is quite rare that some of these old-school routes get upgraded. I do not want to suggest that we should re-grade (upgrade) basically all the routes in places like Buoux, but I want to suggest there might be one more reason why these routes feel so freaking hard."

Pierre Le Cerf, who previously has done six 9a’s and Punt X 9A+, has done the FA of Just two fix 9a/+ in Gorges du Loup. It is an 8b+ extension, bolted by Cedric Lo Piccolo, to Just on fix 8c+. (c) Sam Bié

"Between two competitions, two workouts and two stretches, I make my first FA! The route consists of some 70 moves on a very beautiful 32m panel. Four sessions of drying the holds and doing move by move, impossible to make a real try due to some wet holds by movement in the track, impossible to put a test because of some wet holds. Then the first dry day I send on my first go. During my send, my body directed my brain and not my brain which directed my body, I was a spectator of this rise... very surprising emotions, state of mind and thoughts during the sequence that signaled me to have the slightest fatigue... the flow? I don't think so but it was not far;). In any case, it is a great gift that this route has offered me."