Angy Eiter, the only female who has done a 9b, started bolting in Leonidio in 2015. The last year, the four time Lead World Champion, took it to a new level and made the FA of Schatzinsel after four days of bolting and in total four months of projecting. (c) Claudia Ziegler "It was such a great experience to bolt this steep and long line. It was tough work and at the same time, a wonderful thing to free it and give it a name :-) The route has a mixture of different moves (crimps, slopers, pinches, underclings, shoulder moves, etc.). It begins on a slightly overhanging wall, then it traverses to the left into a roof and finishes with a slightly overhanging wall. Altogether the route is about 40 meters long, with mostly hard moves and three crux sequences. My husband Bernie regularly lives out his passion for bolting and is already quite experienced. I made the most of this knowledge and asked him to coach me in bolting my own line. We searched for a virgin wall and after some time, found a place not far away from my home region Imst. In the beginning, I was worried about the bad quality of this rock there, but at the same time, I loved this place. Bernie was ready to help me bolting. It took me a while until I found the ideal beta for me and could start real attempts to complete the line. I failed many times, but on one day I could put enough effort into the line, I found my flow and found myself overjoyed as I clipped the chains. I managed to complete my line that I called „Schatzinsel“. Concerning the grade, it’s not my hardest route but belongs amongst the hardest ones I have climbed. Repetitions are needed to find a consensus."

Climbing Canada have decided to not send any youth team to the Youth WCH in Russia in August. They do not think their athletes will be able to prepare good enough and, " logistics to travel to Russia in August are very difficult and health and safety concerns in Moscow are significant." They have also listed several criteria in order participate in World Cups like, "Medical advice indicates health risks to athletes and staff related to COVID-19 and the travel/logistics of the event are zero."

Jana Vincourkova has come back stronger than ever after the lockdown with two 8A+', Rigger in Blansko (video) and the FA of Dab Police in Zelená Hora (video) In 2012, she won a Euro Cup and last year she started climbing again after two years break. "Since there is the lockdown and I am working from home already for two months. I had/have quite some time to do hang boarding. We have the PUC series and it is way harder than the fixed ones like Beastmaker for example. It improved my core by miles. And finger strength for sure to. A lot of pizza helps as well. We started to visit less frequented granite areas that offers small crimps, which is the thing that suits me the most. One of them I managed to do in a day only. It is a variation of a 7C+ in a roof where you skip the biggest jug, creating even harder crux-moves in super tiny finger crack. It is really hard to avoid any dabs. It was a project and since I saw it I knew I had to try it, so that is my first 8A+ FA."

Matt Fultz has done the second ascent of Daniel Woods' Everything Gneiss in Clear Creek Canyon suggesting an upgrade to 8C.

Steve McClure has spent part of his time in the quarantine by putting together some training advice for guys 45+, published on his Insta. The 49-year-old is the best climber in the world around 50 and says he has been in peak shape since 45+. At age 46, he did hist first 9b, last year he did his hardest ever trad onsight 8a and just the week before the lockdown he was in France onsighting a bunch of 8a+ and plenty of 8a. Training for old Folk. Part 7. Have fun Sounds a bit corny. But sometimes the fun element can be lost in search of numbers, and the joy harder to find as performance starts to slip. There is no doubt that for many of us numbers do count, and we measure ourselves by them. But take the pressure off. For nearly every climber in the world, no one else measures you by numbers. They don’t really care. What they do care about is that you are happy and having fun. A joyful tick of a 7b is way better than a screaming fall off the last move of an 8a. It’s absolutely true we have to keep pushing hard; it’s satisfying to be the best we can be and to know we worked hard to get there. Know that, know you are your best, don’t allow numbers to judge. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. We don’t have as much time as we used to have. Fill those days on the crag with fun and good memories (but of course still cranking hard after all the training we did..) All these training notes will be combined over the next few days and on my website Steve-McClurse.com. There will be extra detail, and working with rockcity climbing, I’ve answered a load of questions. If you have additional questions ask away here and I’ll answer them in the article.

With 16 male and female selected for the Tokyo Olympics, here is a prediction. It should be noted that as there are four female and three male Speed experts, most likely the speed qualification winner will make it to the Top-8 final. Then mathematically, even if they are dead last in Boulder and Lead, they will end up as #4. 1. Adam Ondra - Janja Garnbret 2. Tomoa Narasaki - Miho Nonaka 3. Jakob Schubert - Shauna Coxsey 4. Bassa Mawem - Yiling Song 5. Alex Megos - Akiyo Noguchi 6. Kai Harada - Petra Klingler 7. Alberto Gines Lopez - Julia Chanourdie 8. Jan Hojer - Jessica Pilz It should be mentioned as there are some athletes qualifying from Africa and Oceania, Speed experts like Anouck Jaubert and Rishat Khaibullin could be #15 in Lead and Bouldering with a little bit of luck. This means that if they are runner-up in the Speed qualification, they could anyhow make it to the Top-8. With two Speed experts in the final, the fastest could in fact get the bronze.

"Spring is here and it's the best time to check your climbing bag and do some cleaning. Rope is a textile product and it's possible to wash it in the washing machine or by hand. It not only removes all the dirt but it also prolongs the life span of the rope. The water temperature should be set between 30 - 40°C and instead of common washing powder a special rope cleaner should be used for safe washing without changes in rope parameters. The rope should be dried properly in a dark place protected from direct sunshine and away from heaters." Full article.

Vertical-Life continues to present articles in regards Covid-19 and gyms management. In their latest paper they discuss how gyms could open and presents new software tools like; Integrated counter widget for front desk staff, Boulderado POS integration and Check-in and Check-out and Slot booking etc. They are also working on Free Gym profiles. "We’ve published an additional 2,000 basic gym profiles to our Vertical-Life app, enabling climbers across the world to quickly and easily find information about their local gym (live on iOS, Android to follow soon). Get in touch and sign up for access to update your basic gym profile, including opening times, links to crowdfunding, and other campaigns. In response to Covid-19, we are rolling out a series of features, available to all gyms, to support reopening and to facilitate clear communication between climbers and gyms." VL wants to add that hopefully, the restrictions will not have to be applied for indoor climbing but in case it´s the only way to open up the gyms in some countries, these solutions could help to bring gyms to open up faster.

Michael Piccolruaz has made his dream qualifying to the Olympics in Tokyo 2021. "Well, it means a lot to me!!! I've obviously been dreaming about this for a long time now! Even though it has a slightly bitter aftertaste because I know that this comes unexpectedly now and maybe it's not the fairest solution, especially for my teammates who were still training hard and were willing to fight for the last spot at the European champs, I'm really happy I got this spot! Every athlete knows the amount of work there was and is put behind this, and too few get lucky enough to be rewarded eventually. So I' am just super glad to be one of those few!"