Stephan Schibli, who started climbing in 1989 has made the FA of Frittenbude 9a in Ibergeregg. The picture is from another route. "Since I couldn't go to Bleau because of the border closings, I was able to send the route. Holidays are often project killers, since a week of vacation means 3 weeks of absence in the project. I was able to climb the lower part of Fritierte Neutronen (8c+) in 2011. At that time I had no solutions for the upper part. Last year I figured if I wanted to climb the route I should start slowly. I found the solution for the lower key train again in late autumn. Thanks to the early spring and the dry weather, I was able to get into the route regularly this year, which made the climb possible."

Based on a poll with almost 1 000 unique votes, Who is the male climbing legend? Wolfgang Güllich, who made the FA of Action Directe 9a and who also was the first to do 8b, 8b+ and 8c, got most votes. 30 % Wolfgang Güllich 22 % Chris Sharma 20 % Adam Ondra 12 % Fred Nicole 05 % Yuji Hirayama 03 % Alex Honnold 09 % Other (Alex Huber, Alex Megos and David Graham most mentioned)

Gymclimber has presented an interesting interview with Adam Ondra not just reflecting on climbing. In any case, here are some of his thoughts on climbing and improvement. (c) Alvaro Susena captures Ondra's flexibility. "Flexibility in climbing is totally underestimated by most of the people. And it’s actually one of my key ingredients in climbing." "People think of climbing in too physical a way. For sure, it’s very important. Just by climbing, you will improve physically. But I think most people just don’t climb on the level they might be able to climb physically because they just don’t climb well enough." "I like climbing with perfection and I think on the way to get there being open-minded helps a lot. Because even if you have the best coach in the world, if you are not able to reflect on your own climbing based on your own feelings, it is really hard to be the best."

Treadstone Coloumbus Climbing Gym in Georgia has reported on their Facebook that they have reopened. "We are taking all reasonable measures to maintain a reasonably safe space here. I believe we are also the cleanest climbing gym in the world today."

Oriane Bertone, living in Reunion outside Madagascar, has been in quarantine near Fontainbleau and have not seen her twin sister, Margot, and mother since two months. Together with her father Stefano and brother Max the plan was to do the French Youth Boulder Championship and continue projecting her first 8C in Fontainebleau when the lock-down started. Stefano reports he thinks they all got Covid-19, from a supermarket, a month ago but without any major impact. "Our friends have a very good private wall that allows us to keep the level, until May 11 when we hope to be allowed to go out again on the projects started before the confinement. Oriane was very well on 2 or 3 hard (or very hard) boulders :-). We also manage to climb in a private little sector, which is not prohibited. Oriane and Max alternate bouldering sessions and resistance training, by doing circuits on the private wall. On the rest days, we try to go outside around the house to do some exercises and stretching. The rest of the time, the children do their homework and we connect on a video call with Margot, who climbs on our wall in Reunion Island. So I can see and encourage her." They do not know when they will be able to fly back home and possibly they will stay the whole summer in Europe and if so, the plan is to have the twin sister Margot joining them. The twist of the situation is if also the Euro (Olympic qualification) Championship in October is postponed to 2021, Oriane might have a chance to qualify to Tokyo, as she turns 16 the next year. Last year, Oriane won all Youth competitions but one she entered, and she also managed to challenge some of the best seniors. At age 12, she did her first 8B+ and she is #3 in the 8a ranking game.

Ledauphine.com reports that four equippers in Verdon di get caught by the police last week violating bolting and stay at home restrictions. First the police found static ropes and later they were caught in action equipping new routes.

IFSC reports that the European Championship in Moscow, with two slots to the Olympics, has been reschedueled to take place 1 - 8 of October. It was first scheduled in March and later in June. It should be noted that the day after the finals in Moscow, the Xiamen Lead World Cup starts. In other words, directly after the finals, the athletes have to jump on a two legs 13 hours over night travel to Xiamen. As there is a five hours different time zone, the first climbers will probably climb around 05.00 Moscow time.