"A few years ago, I accompanied Kilian on his projects to climb "Hotel Supramonte" in Sardinia and "Delicatessen" in Corsica. After we returned back home, I noticed that these big walls left a big impression on me. I wanted to find out if I could climb such a big wall. Physically, I trusted myself, but I also have great respect for the height and exposed character of huge rock faces. My mental skills, which I've been able to use so well in competitions, seem worthless when dangling 100 metres above the ground. As a climber, I set myself a goal, I wanted to become more versatile. I wanted to be so bold as to tackle a long, high and steep project, and the route I chose is called "Ali Baba" - which is located in the Maritime Alps in France. This route would push my limits, as it has a grade of 8a+ in difficulty and a total of 8 pitches in length (around 250 metres). My goal meant that I would be breaking new ground in every sense: from short, powerful boulders to a long and steep multi pitch route…” Full story at Salewa.com

Hannes Puman, #8 in the Lead World Championship in 2019, was preparing for the upcoming competitions including the Olympic qualification in Moscow when everything was canceled due to Convid-19. As there are very few restrictions in Sweden he climbs almost like normal besides having had time to do some more outdoor climbing. On the picture by (c) Stefan Droguet, Hannes is flashing a 7b+ trad in Bohuslän. "Such a good feeling fighting with the jams as you place trad gear. So please describe how you have been climbing and training the last month? Have you made any precautions due to Covid-19? As there are no competitions and very good weather lately, I have climbing more outdoors than normal a mix of boulder, sport and trad. Indoors, there are less climbers and I use liquid chalk in order to reduce the risk of catching/spreading the virus. How do you plan to train and climb in the coming weeks? I will continue to train hard indoors. I do some double sessions indoors and sometimes I combine it with outdoors. I prepare to be in best possible shape in July. I like to train and I benefit from it even if there will be no comps this summer. If the weather is good I will take the possibility to continue to climb outside. There are just endless trad challenges waiting for me. This is what makes climbing so much fun. April 8 at 21.00, The Schnitzel Show #3 Hannes Puman

IFSC has previously said that no World Cups will take place prior to June 30. Now they have also added a 60 days respite. At the latest May 1, IFSC will confirm World Cups scheduled for July and June 1 for August etc. "To allow athletes, officials and organisers to prepare in the best possible way, competitions scheduled on a determined month will have to be confirmed with a 60-days notice."

If you take a long fall in an over hang, you end up hanging having a very hard time get yourself up and in contact with the rock again. The Circus princess move is a good option and might be possible to try out while in quarantine. Make sure you can not hit anything while starting to practicing it.

Isabelle and Volker Schöffl are both active climbers and medical doctors. Both have done first ascents up to french 8b, many of them in Laos and Thailand.They are team physicians to the German Climbing team and Volker is a member of the MedCom IFSC and author of „One move too many“. They have done 100+ scientific papers on climbing medicine and are teaching world wide on this topic. They are right now working for an aid organization as doctors in Laos where they also were among the pioneers for Thakhek. Injury Prevention in Rock Climbing and Bouldering.

Several clicks possible and you can instead mark, "Climb like normal".

In Sweden, all gyms are open and this weekend there is a competition which will be streamed as spectators are not allowed. Outside, there are more climbers than normal. The only recommendation is that you should not travel from your region during Easter. At the same time, in Spain, Italy, France, the UK, Greece, Austria etc you are not allowed to leave your home unless for shopping etc. In general, in most other European countries you are allowed to go out rock climbing. In Germany you are just allowed to be two persons together but there are exceptions like in Bamberg where rock climbing are totally forbidden. Is there any other country, except Sweden, where the climbing gyms are open? It should be mentioned that we get reports from different parts of Europe that some climbers violate the restrictions. This is not acceptable!