Martin Stráník has been one of the best boulderer in the world since he got the silver in the World Champion in Aviles in 2007, being 17-years-old. Outdoors, the Czech has done ten 8C's and he is #4 in the 8a ranking game. So please explain how you started climbing and what attracted you from the beginning and how this has changed over the years? My father was climber so he took me to climb since I was 5 years old. Soon I started with serious training with my brother. We trained a lot and we were successful. I would say I did not love climbing when I was a child, I just did what father said. Then, when I was 13 years old, I moved to Brno to study sports gymnasium. There I developed my talent thanks to greater training facilities and more important - climbing partners such as Tomáš Mrázek and Adam Ondra. Please explain Aviles and how that silver changed your life? Aviles was a huge surprise to me. I was lead specialist, but when I travelled to compete to, I thought, why not to start also in bouldering. I climbed without pressure. The problems fit me very well and I was also very lucky (made it to semis from 19th position, then to final from 6th place). In finals, I realized that I am on the same level with others which gave me some confidence and I was very close to win the comp in the end. Aviles changed my climbing live a lot, I understood that my body is naturally more talented for bouldering, so I changed my focus on from lead to bouldering. With my brother, we were also developing bouldering in CZ especially in an area called Bor and we totally fell in love with bouldering. How was it focusing on the Olympics? I tried, I couldn´t give it 100%, I was ready to quit my job but financial support was not strong enough. At least I shorten my work time to 4 days, and that one day I drove to Brno to train with Adam, where we train all disciplines and where it was my only chance to train speed. I was injured my leg so training especially speed did not go as I wish. Maybe one day Paris… What was your plan 2020 and how did Covid change that? My plan was to focus on lead World Cups and I still hope and I am looking forward to comps late this year. I keep on training for that and now also spend some time on rocks as the situation allows. What are the restrictions in your country and how do you adapt to that? All climbing centers are closed now, so I train at home especially doing a lot of pull-ups and handboarding, I really love to train for 1 hour and every minute do some exercise, I train every day. It is hard to stay motivated but I found it fun. I try to stay positive and take this situation as the opportunity to be stronger. As I said I also spend some time bouldering on rocks, in CZ it is even recommended to be in nature, but be sure you are alone. (The last weeks he has made the FA of one 8B+ and two 8B's).

Jongkuk Seo, father of Chaehyeon (15) who won the Lead World Cup last year, reports that his climbing gym, as well as most gyms in South Korea, have opened up and there is no restriction how many can enter. "Official restriction is if we open gyms; we have to wear mask, use hand sanitizer when visiting gyms and write down a visitor book. In Korea, there’s no restriction for going rockclimbing so we boulder also outdoors nowadays! Whenever we have to close the gym, we go out to the mountain."

IFSC has presented their 2019 annual report and all the figures show a great increase since 2018.

Andy Gullsten, who previously has done some 25 boulders 8B+ and 8C, reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Silver Lining 8C in Hyvinkää some 45 min from Helsinki in Finland. (c) Joonas Sailaranta Andy says it took him six proper sessions to do the projects since some 20 years and that it is his proudest FA. All gyms are closed in Finland but there are no real outdoor restrictions. "People have been advised to keep distance and to avoid crowded areas. There are still few projects around and I am sure more to be found."

For 16 years in a row we have made a poll asking, Best climbing shoes? Based on 1 600+ unique votes we can see that it is the Italian shoe makers who totally dominate. In comparison to last year, Scarpa has strengthen their role as runner up after La Sportiva. 42 % La Sportiva (43 % in 2019) 32 % Scarpa (28 %) 08 % Tenaya (8 %) 08 % Five Ten (10 %) 10 % Other brands (12 %) Most mentioned are Ocun, Boreal

Samuel Ometz comments his send of L'oeuvre 9a in Salvan which he did last month. "I first tried the route in fall 2018 when Shawn (Raboutou) made the FA and I fell in love straight away. I tried it alot in spring -19 and was really close but couldn't finish it. Then many rainy days and always slightly wet holds didn't help either... then fall was just too wet. I sent it in march this year, on my 12th session I think. It was at the very start of the restrictions in Switzerland. We are strongly advised to stay home and avoid sports at risk but no interaction. You won't get a bill for hiking or going climbing in a small group but the government advises against it as you could injure yourself. I just climb on my home wall, mixing short boulders and power endurance. Also some weighted pull ups, rings and core. It's also a good time to do stuff like stetching/mobility training that I never find time to do normally. I use that time to go hunt for boulders/cliffs to to stay connected with the outdoors.”

Based on a poll with some 700 unique climbers, where they marked what they missed the most in the Covid-19 situation, here is the result. 27 % Climbing outside 15 % Being outdoors 13 % Socializing with climbers 12 % Climbing in the gym 09 % Doing/Planning trips 07 % Pushing at your limit 06 % Staying fit 03 % Following a training program 02 % Following competitions 02 % Adrenaline In total, 8 % said they climb like normal.