Climbing gyms are run with a lot of heart and personal commitment and investment from their founders and operators. During these difficult times due to Covid-19, many climbing gym owners and managers fear that months of closures and restrictions will be life-threatening for their businesses. They cannot afford to have no income for several months, but still continue to pay their monthly costs. Especially since it’s not foreseeable when normal operations can be resumed. It’s in every climber’s interest to have a place to meet, climb and train when this difficult period is over. We’ve gathered a few ideas and ways that we think we can all contribute: Pay now & enjoy later: Buy punch cards NOW, Keep your monthly gym membership up and running, Buy entry, food or coffee vouchers as an Easter or birthday gift, Make a pre-payment for the renewal of your yearly pass, Check if your gym offers other options to support them. Are you a lawyer, tax consultant or working in the banking sector? Then perhaps you can now advise your gym in dealing with the difficult situation and help them to apply for emergency aid and special loans. The current crisis has left nearly no one unscathed. Yet, all we see is a constant wave of solidarity and support from people and industries everywhere. Let's make sure we keep giving what we can to our climbing communities which in turn gives us their all.

In Sweden, all gyms are open following the official guidelines. Klätterdomen in Göteborg has tried to go further and is offering liquid chalk to everyone. They do also clean much more frequently and they tell both their customers as well as workers to stay at home even if they just have very mild symptoms of a cold. Currently, they estimate a 50 % drop of climbers meaning there are plenty room in their gym. Their spring Mega boulder was canceled and instead, they run a competition during one month via the Vertical-Life App. Lars Höström is the founder of the gym and he reports. "Climbers are very happy that we are open and they strictly follow the guidelines. Nobody showers here and, in fact, as there are so few climbers here and we are offering liquid chalk and clean much more often, it is a nice atmosphere. Climbers do not hang here long hours as they used to. Instead, some quick boulders or laps, often on the auto-belay, and they are off. Climbers are keen of doing the new boulders for the competition and it is great that this can be organized in the Vertical-Life App.

With climbing gyms around the world closing down and outdoor climbing options limited, climbers are now looking for at-home training solutions, such as hangboards, to maintain, and even build strength. In order to support climbers in making the best use of this time, the Vertical-Life team is working on the release of a series of new training plans, rankings, and interactive challenges for the Zlagboard. Check out the board and remember: Stay strong, stay connected, and train at home! #trainathome #comebackstronger #trainnowsendlater

Dorothea Karalus, who previously has done four 8B's, did Santoku 8B in Ticino, six weeks ago. (c) Simon Weisser "The past weeks made me appreciate how lucky we are to experience these intense adventures, to travel freely, to be healthy. I'm for sure more grateful than ever for this. Looking forward to more climbing experiences like this, but for now let's figure out how to get through this together! Staying healthy physically and mentally, being there for others (while #physicaldistancing) and maybe even getting a bit stronger with all this training going on." More info of the 34-year-old working full time as a software developer on her wordpress website.

Stretching is probably the easiest way to progress for most of us. Here are some advice we published in 2018 from Klaus Isele, MSc D.O. Physiotherapeut and Osteopath of the Austria National Climbing Team, formerly working with Adam Ondra on Silence 9c in Flatanger. "If it’s the case that you always fall off your slab project just because your hips can’t stay close enough to the wall stretching exercises could maybe help. If you do proper stretching you might achieve your goals faster and better. Bodyweight and stretching have something in common. You might not have the perfect body weight for climbing. Nature puts you somewhere but with some effort, you can gain or lose some kilograms. What I still monitor is that some climbers believe that it is enough to stretch for 40 seconds in order to get “longer” = forget it. You need to hold a stretching position for two minutes (I often recommend three times the same position with that holding time). That works! To really gain length you have to repeat it every day. Your results will be visible after approximately 14 days. Afterward depending on what you want to achieve keep going. If you’ve forgotten to stretch one day, you are thrown back for about four days, especially at the beginning. The so-called hysteresis phenomenon is the base of this, if you want you can say that it is the “supercompensation” of stretching. CONCLUSION: There is no wrong or right stretching, it just depends on what you wanna achieve with it. If you prepare yourself for climbing it might be sufficient for you to stretch for 30 seconds. But if you are really interested in gaining length in some muscular areas then you need to work on every section for two minutes in every stretching position."

In France, you are allowed to go out doing short walks in your close neighborhood but you need to have to carry a paper saying where you live, when you left your home and why etc. It is thus strictly forbidden to go out climbing. Nevertheless, some do and some have got caught having to pay 135 Euros in both Fontainebleau and Céüse and as other crags. There are several controls and it is said that Verdon is controlled with drones, see the picture. When the police see cars parked in the forest they check them and tickets of Euro 135 are given out. Please respect the restrictions in each country so not climbers get a bad reputation. It should be mentioned that in some countries like Sweden, there are almost no restrictions at all and there are more climbers outside rock climbing than normal. The recommendation is however that you should not travel during Easter.

Little Eden is located some 35 min walk or 5 min with boat from Vathy. It is in the shade from 12 o'clock and currently, there are some 25 routes bolted primarily 6a to 7b but there are more potential for easier routes. Aris Theodoropoulos, who took the picture, says that there are no activity at all in Kalymnos as you are just allowed to take short walks in Greece. He is currently working on a new topo of Greece covering 31 sport venues including 2 600 routes.

Eric Hörst. one of the leading climbing trainers the last 20 years, reports from the current situation in USA. "All gyms are closed in the USA. There will be no outdoor climbing for us this in April (and perhaps May) due to stay-at-home orders. Luckily we have a well-equipped home gym with bouldering wall, treadwall, campus board, more than 12 different hangboards, free weights and more. So we are training like it's winter. Sad that we are losing the Spring climbing season, but happy that we are healthy and able to train at home together. Praying this COVID-19 plays out quickly and the world (And climbers) can return to normalcy sometime this summer. Here in Pennsylvania we can only leave our house to get food and medicine...and to exercise. Each USA state has slightly difference restrictions, but 80% of the country has stay-at-home orders...so most climbers are following this order and staying home (but unfortunately there are some climbers still going outside to climb)." 16GMT (18.00 Euro Time) he will run a live streaming talking - Hangboard training protocols....and planning for a positive future beyond COVID-19, through his Coffee Training Talk.

Whether you are an enthusiastic newcomer or an experienced indoor climber, the Innsbruck region is the perfect place to make the move from indoor climbing routes to rock. The 500 climbing routes and 200 boulder problems on the colourful climbing walls at the Innsbruck Climbing Center are ideal for practising and training, while the around 1,200 single-pitch routes in the region's 29 sport climbing areas give you the chance to try your hand at the rugged rocks. The free SAAC Climbing Camp Zirl-Innsbruck on 12 and 13 September 2020 provides the perfect opportunity to try climbing on rock for the first time led by a mountain guide. Climbing professional Anna Stöhr is also familiar with the advantages of climbing outside surrounded by nature. Born in Innsbruck, she knows the rocks in the region like the back of her hand and plans on increasingly using her muscle power for rock climbing projects in the future. The World Bouldering Champion will be at the SAAC Climbing Camp Zirl-Innsbruck where she will share her climbing tips with participants! Registration for the camp is now possible (from 15 March) at www.saac.at www.saac.at. Detailed information about the region can be found at www.innsbruck.info.