The new commentators in the Boulder World Cup did a great job, but as usual they presented incorrect statements at several times when analyzing the live rankings. However, they should not be blamed as this has been the case for the last ten years as the scoring system is not logical and too complicated. Furthermore, even the live score presented on the screen is unclear. As a matter of a fact, 8a has presented the results as points instead of tops and zones for a couple of years.

Natalia Grossman won in Salt Lake City and in the IFSC rankings, her result is presented 4t 4z 15 14. By contrast, 8a just presents her scoring as 44 points. In other words, by giving a top 10 points and a zone one point, it is much easier to present and understand the result.

Hence, the 8a system just needs to present one point score, and occasionally the number of attempts when the score is tied. IFSC always presents four scores, i.e. quadruple the info to handle.

Eliot Stephens did the FA of The Origin Sit 8C last month. "Wales first 8C. Power fade climbing, and aggressive from the first single 8A move. Hardest so far.".

Natalia Grossman, who finished third in Meiringen, faced extreme pressure on the last boulder, starting last, having done nine attempts and not reached the zone with some 40 seconds left. Then she did the dyno to the zone, which secured the win, and with ease she topped it out.

Adam Ondra, who won in Meiringen, struggled a bit on the first Boulder doing it on his fifth go. Then he flashed the last three with ease looking superior, it seemed.

1. Natalia Grossman (19) USA 44 - Adam Ondra CZE 44
2. Oriane Bertone (16) FRA 34 - Mejdi Schalck (17) FRA 34
3. Brooke Raboutou (19) USA 33 (4) - Jakob Schubert AUT 33 (4)
4. Miho Nonaka JPN 33 (7) - Kokoro Fujii JPN 33 (12)
5. Jessica Pilz AUT 13 - Anze Peharc SLO 13
6. Johanna Färber AUT 12 - Gregor Vezonik SLO 12
Complete results

Matteo Reusa has done his second 8c+ by the FA of One Punch in Falesia del ghëddo which is a new crag in Piedmont developed by his family and trainers. Last week, his brother Michele (14) made the FA of another 8c+ and they plan to set up some 30 routes at the 20-meter crag.

"The route, after a simple part of 7a +, consists of 15 very difficult movements. My father bolted it and I tried the route for 12 days."

Oriane Bertone started the first boulder by innovating a new move! The 16-year-old jammed her left hand high up and put the upperside of her right shoe on the texture of the wall and then, sitting on her foot like a ballerina, she made a kneebar and continued doing the boulder on her first try.

1. Natalia Grossman USA 44 - Kokoro Fujii JPN 34
2. Brooke Raboutou USA 34 (6) - Adam Ondra CZE 23
3. Johanna Färber AUT 34 (9) - Gregor Vezonik SLO 13 (2)
4. Jessica Pilz AUT 34 (11) - Jakob Schubert AUT 13 (3)
5. Miho Nonaka JPN 33 - Anze Peharc SLO 13 (4)
6. Oriane Bertone FRA 24 (2) - Mejdi Schalck 13 (12)
Complete results

Yoshiyuki Ogata won the qualification in Salt Lake City ahead of Adam Ondra, the only two making all five boulders. Nathaniel Coleman was #21 scoring 35 (3 Tops and 5 zones), in eight attempts which were two too many. Tomoaki Takata was #22, scoring also 35, Jernej Kruder was #29, scoring 34, and Sean McColl was #33, scoring 33. Otherwise, all big names made it to the semifinal. Complete results

Marcello Bombardi, who won one World Cup in 2017, has done the third ascent of Lapsus in Andonno giving it a 9a+ personal grade. Stefano Ghisolfi put it up in 2015 and it is an extension to Noia. The first repeat was done by Adam Ondra. Marcello has previously done five 9a's out of which four the last year.

Miho Nonaka won the qualification in the Boulder World Cup in Salt Lake City doing all five boulders in just seven attempts. The big surprises were that the two Olympians Petra Klingler was #25, scoring 25 (2 Tops and 5 zones) and Shauna Coxsey was #36, scoring 13. The other two Olympians who did not qualify to the Top-20 semifinal were Kyra Condie #30 and Erin Sterkenburg #42, out of 49 participants. Complete results
(c) Vladek Zumr

It should be noted that Janja Garnbret, who has won eight consecutive WC's, did not participate but will compete the next weekend. In total, 12 out of the 20 female Olympians did not participate including also; Akiyo Noguchi, Julia Chanourdie, Chaehyun Seo and Mia Krampl.

In the 8a Practice and Ethics in Sportclimbing, first published in 2002, we have suggested, in regards to pre-clipping quickdraws, that it is ok to have one pre-clipped if it is for safety reasons. In the old days, pre-clipping was not allowed, and originally you were even supposed to place the quickdraws on lead, which is still the case in trad climbing.

Over time, the ethics gradually changed, and at one point you could see top climbers starting redpoint attempts with the rope pre-clipped on 10+ quickdraws. The rationale for this was that you could pre-clip as high as from which you could downclimb. The climbers pushing this the most actually first redpointed the route from let's say the fourth quickdraw and later started projecting the down climb or even jumped down to claim that they were allowed to have multiple quickdraws pre-clipped.

Today, it is a common practice to use one pre-clipped. Two, or even three, pre-clipped quickdraws you sometimes see on relatively hard starts with bolts far apart and on climbs with bad landings. The 8a ethics suggest that this practice is an "ethical dilemma", but anyhow OK if it is done for safety reasons. In practice, we have labelled such ascents as a "yellow card" to not have any fixed rules but rather recommendations. When it comes to three or more pre-clipped, we have said that "normally" such ascent should be called top-roping and that down-climbing, in order to get more pre-clipped, is ridiculous.

However, the 8a ethics are not set in stone and it is up to each climber and community to practice them or set up new guidelines. There are of course many unique situations where the 8a ethics are not applicable. One example is if the FA did it in a special way, surely the repeaters could do it in the same style or improve it. Another example is if the bolter put up one extra bolt in very steep starts in order to increase the safety for the belayer to not get hit by a pendulum swing by the climber. In any case, when you are pushing the yellow card area making it slightly reddish you are best off describing your practised ethics.