Nine months since the last IFSC World Cup, most of the best athletes, beside the Asians, are gathered in Briancon for a Lead World Cup. Here you can follow the qualification results digitally. The live-streaming starts on Friday 19.30 with semis. The final takes place on Saturday 19.30 for the female and 20.45 for the male. No ranking points will be awarded. "...a series of guidelines concerning hygiene, social distancing and the use of personal protective equipment..." have been implemented.

In practice, volunteers and belayers should were a mask and "During observation time all athletes and officials shall wear their mask."

Kintana Iltis, who did her first 8A+ at age 14, has done two 8B's in Reunion island; Psychopad rallongé in Ravine des colimaçons and Le spartiate direct assis in Ravine de trou. The video shows extreame hip flexibility and a spider style almost like Oriane Bertone also from the Reunion island.

"In March, I returned to Reunion with my parents for the lockdown. During the whole period, I trained almost every day on my campus board in my garden. At the end of the lockdown, I had a mad desire to get back on the rock and it was an opportunity to try hard boulders. Shortly after, I released my first 8B boulder in June, Psychopad, a magnificent boulder. Just watching it gave me chills and I dreamt of doing it. Plates, heels, compress, inverted, change of hands, flexibility...all day long I imagined doing it. As the sessions progressed, I thought more and more that I was going to do it. After falling more than three times on the last movement of the boulder, I end up going back there with friends my father, and ten crash pads. Followed by the encouragement I made it and got an incredible smile spread over my face.

In the meantime I did four 8A's and one day, I discovered that it exists an 8B variant of one of the 8a that I had released, Spartiate assis direct, a ramp of slopers with heels and a big rise in the reverse flat with the right hand. When taking this reverse in my trying I said to myself, - Kintana, you are going to do it! I was so sure of myself that I did have the impression of having strength I went up with ease on this reverse and put the hand at the top out right hand and got amazed! Stars in my eyes, I go to bed at night with another 8B in boulder in my pocket Now I have returned to France for the selections for international competitions and for my return to school too. Climbing in the rock was really good for me :)

I have known Oriane, Max and Margot (Bertone) since I started climbing after school Stefano came to pick us up and we went indoor climbing together. The openings of the boulders were quite morpho for Oriane max and me. With Oriane, we climbed with the adults of the room on the same boulders. Being both small we had to find different beta from the others. We started to climb heels above the head, to stretch in the boulders to try to gain height to catch the holds, to climb higher feet etc ... I think now I have flexibility comes from there. Since then I have continued to climb like that. Two of my strengths are heels and body flexibility."

Lukasz Dudek, who previously has done 20 routes 9a and one 8C boulder, has roped solo Alex Huber's Pan Aroma in the Dolomites with nine pitches up to 8c. (c) Piotrek Deska comments, "It was both inspiring and thrilling at the same time. But I was only there with Łukasz during his preparation trips when he was still figuring out everything. While he was making the actual ascent he was there alone, so it was the real solo ascent as it should be."

Hom come you choose this amazing challenge?
I have great respect for the achievements of Alex Huber. Pan aroma is a very important step in the history of the Dolomites. This line is amazing, spectacular and terribly exposed. I wanted to climb this route in the best style I could. For me it was rope solo. I use the most popular climbing device - gri gri 1 with loops connected to the harness with carabiners.

It was totally crazy project. This ascent is a summary of what I have learned in these 20 years of my climbing activity. It is a combination of hard sports and mountain climbing, complicated equipment logistics and newly discovered solo climbing. It was my biggest challenge in my life. I feel that I am completely fulfilled as a climber. I lead all the pitches on the first attempt. After 17 hours of climbing, at 2 am I was on the top of Cima Ovest. The hardest pitch is a 60m traverse which should be graded at 8c. Next pitch is a very spectacular but very easy 8b+. The other pitches are not harder than 7a - 7b. Earlier this year, I decided to climb Pan Aroma alone. As part of the preparations, I started making several dozen of solo rope ascent in Polish Jura up to 8c grade. Last year I lead Tortour 8c (270m) rope solo which is located on the southwest face of Schartenspitze, Austria.

Here is the Huber's description of the route from 2007. It should be mentioned that ascents of Pan Aroma have made headlines several times as it is one of the hardest in the world, so this rope solo should be something for the climbing history books.

Mia Krampl, #2 in the Lead World Championship last year and who later qualified to Tokyo, has done Jack's broken heart as well as three 8A's in Magic Wood. (c) Vladek Zumr

"Honestly the trip was amazing! I wish I could go on rock trips more often 🤩 I just love the simplisity of waking up, drinking coffee climbing, spending nights with great company of climbers and not thinking of all the worries happening around the world. I still have many projects in Magic and I am definitely comming back in September!

Without any competitions this year I was really able to focus on next year's goals. So yes, I started to train speed, which was completely new to me and focused on bouldering, more exact on all my weaknesses."

So have you done below 10 seconds yet? Haha, no I just came from 🐌 to 🐢.

Iziar Martinez, who did her first 8c three weeks ago, has done her second, Hulk extension in Rodellar after five days of projecting. Last week, she also did Geminis 8b+ in just two days. Until one month ago, the personal best for the 15-year-old was one 8b.

"I did Hulk 8b+, because I wanted to do something that was not my style. I did it fast so I decided to try the extension 8c. But first I did Géminis 8b+ that motivated me a lot. Know I want to find other rout that motivates me."

She has spent six weeks in Rodellar together with her parents who both have been active climbers and her father runs a boulder gym. Last year, she was Spanish youth champion in Boulder and #2 in Lead. "I love comps, they motivated me a lot. I compete in nationals and this year the plan was to do international comps.".

Drew Ruana, #13 in the Combined World Champion in 2019 and one spot from making it to the Olympics, reports on Insta that he has done Creature from the Black Lagoon 8C+ in RMNP. It was set up by Daniel Woods in 2016 and it has now seven repeats. In October last year Drew stopped competing although there were one possibility left in the Pan Am Championship. Since then, the 20-year-old has done 18 boulders 8B+, 6 8C and 3 8C+ which means he has the best track record in the world by far, the last year. (c) Alton Richardsson, who comments,

"I had definitely not seen so many people at one time in that cave before. It was absolutely a strong representation of the current generation of hard bouldering, or climbing for that matter. I got there just after Brooke Rabatou sent Jade, then Drew set to warming up and fired Creature first go. He looked so dialed and strong on it, it was hard to image he had already spent 15 days on this! Shortly after Drew’s send, Brooke also sent Two Ton Skeleton for two V14’s in a day. Pretty rad sports action."

Brooke Raboutou has during the same day sent two 8B+ in RMNP; Two Ton Skeleton and Jade which originally was 8C. In the 8a ranking game, the Olympian is now #2. On her Insta she comments with the picture by Finn Stack, " It was an incredible day, one I will remember forever!🥰 I feel so grateful to have this time to explore the park. I have learned so much in the past few months from pushing myself outdoors. I continue to grow as a climber and person every day I spend out there, realizing what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it."

Two Ton Skeleton: "Very unique climb for the park, no individual move is too bad, but I found the transitions hard. I also can't hand jam so I added three extra moves just for fun! Not sure how to grade it, time will tell.
Jade: "Such a special climb!!! First try on my third sesh, felt like a dream."

With more gym climbers getting outside this year, it is important that all we experienced climbers take some safety responsibility. Last week, I was climbing alongside some outdoor beginners and one thing I told them was to repeat commandos. Once I get to the anchor and say "Take!", I think it is much better to repeat this instead of the belayer just saying "OK".

If the crag is crowded, it just might be that one guy screams "Slack!" ore or less the same time and another climber screams "Take!" If unlucky, one belayer can take in rope at the same time the climber wanted some slack creating possibly a fall or a situation with uncertainty.

Other safety problems I have witnessed often this year is top-ropeing directly in the clip in, or thread the rope in just one anchor ring or trying to top-rope from an anchor two routes to the right. Another issue I think should be avoided is to scream instructions to an uncertain climber having done a back-clip. It is much better to just let the climber hang in the rope and fix it later rather than to unclip and clip again. From a good safety point, at least in Sweden, it seems like half of the new generation climbers use a helmet. Do you have any other remarks that could improve safety?