1978 - Drilling bolts on rappell Jacques Nosley drilled bolts manually on Dingomaniaque, 6c+ in Verdon, as he was rappelling down in 1978. Some define this as the very start of the sport climbing era. Previously, hand-drilled bolts had been placed but only on lead. The rappelling created a big controversy in the community but nevertheless the sport climbing ethics were quickly spread in Europe and came to USA in 1983. Picture from the French magazine, Alpinisme in 1979, the Dingomaniaque! Other important development which had impact of the start of sportclimbing 1910 The first Climbing Carabiner 1927 The first rock drill and expansion bolts 1955 John Gill Introduces Chalk 1974 First indoor gym in Bolzano 1970s Kurt Albert introduced red point 1975 First sticky shoe on the market, (EB and Asolo etc) 1985 1st official competition, Bardonecchia 1980s Chak is getting popular 1991 The belay device GriGri 1990s The Crash Pad commercialized 2021 Olympic Sport in Tokyo

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.