Daniel Woods has done his sixth 8C+, Off the Wagon sit in Valle Bavona. Shawn Raboutou made the FA adding an 8A sit to the original Nalle Hukkataival line. "Each session I put 50/50 odds on myself if it would go down or not. This soon turned into a mental battle. I was pretty limit on the send, but somehow managed to maintain zone state and top it out. Top 3 power blocs in the world for me. Nice work shawn for establishing the blocs full line!" Including also 26 8C's, Daniel is the boulderer in the world with the most impressive ticklist.

Visa det här inlägget på Instagram

Ett inlägg delat av Daniel Woods (@dawoods89) 9 Mar 2020 kl. 7:55 PDT

Stefano Ghisolfi, #2 in the Lead WC in 2018, has been focusing on Combined during the whole winter trying to get an Olympic ticket in the Euro Ch. in Moscow starting in ten days. Due to the coronavirus, there are now severe restrictions until April 3rd in Italy and he might loose his dream. "The situation in Italy is quite critical now. We have to stay home and cannot travel outside our towns. We can go out only for primary needs, to buy food or go to work, but everything is going to be closed now. I and Sara already decided to stay home a few days ago, we train in our garage and wait until the situation gets better. Her immune system is not effective because of a kidney transplant, for this reason for her is important not to be in contact with the virus. The virus didn't arrive yet in Arco, but it could so everybody is invited to stay home to avoid contact with other people outside the family. For climbing, Asian championship has already been canceled and so it could be the European championship, I hope it will be postponed, but in any case, it will be impossible to arrive in Moscow from Italy, and in ten days it probably will be hard for other countries to travel to Moscow. I think is very important to follow these rules now for Italy, and other countries can learn from what happened here and try to avoid it before it spreads too much around Europe. Everything is closed but I'm quite lucky I have a good wall in my garage so the only thing I can do is keep training but at home! Stretching in the morning and boulder, circuits or hangboard in the afternoon, and I will have time for reading books and work on my social media between the sessions. The problem of climbing outdoor is that if an accident happens, is it very dangerous to go to the hospital because of the virus, so for the moment, we will climb only at home. It is possible to go outside to walk or hike, in places where there are no people, close to home.

Climbstat has based on the 8a database published an interesting graph showing how much harder it is to onsight compared to redpoint. The analysis goes in hand with the 8a system giving three grades minus fives to the onsight ascents. It should, however, been mentioned that we plan to increase the onsight bonus with ten points possibly encouraging climbers to focus more on onsights rather than redpointing. "This indicates that an onsight becomes harder the harder you climb. The average onsight maximum is 2-3 grades lower for climbers who climb up to 7a or 5.11d redpoint but it increases to almost 4 grades for climbers with a maximum grade of 8a or 5.13b (and still widens further)."

Paul Robinson, who has done 995 boulders 8A and harder out of which 20 8C's, has done the first repeat of REM in Cresciano calling it 8B+, video. (c) Lizzy Ellison "For me I think it’s important to keep grades consistent around the world. When I think of 8C+, I think of the absolute hardest boulders in the world, climbs like Hypnotized minds, Burden of dreams (which I have not tried), etc. REM just does not feel close to that range to me. I was able to do the crux move on my second try and climbed the boulder in a few short sessions. You can only try it 4 or 5 times in a session because it is so sharp. To me I think 8B+ is more of a fair grade for this climb. Regardless, it is very cool that Giuliano made the first ascent of this line on such a legendary boulder. I think it is very important for people not to just take the high grade on repeats and first ascents. The media is very much drawn to high numbers which I think leads to an overall inflation in grades."

Laura Rogora, who has qualified to Tokyo, reports on Insta that she has done the FA of Corvo Morto in Ferentillo. In total the 18-year-old has now done nine routes 8c+/9a and harder out of which four FAs. In combination with her competition results, the Italian must be considered the best female climber in the world after Janja Garnbret. (c) Marco Iacono

Jorge Diaz-Rullo, who last year did three 9b's, has done his eigth 9a+, Joe Mama in Oliana. His comment on Insta is rather interesting. "At the moment, I don't feel 100%. I've been doing a lot of bouldering and I think I'm still lacking the endurance for these routes." (c) Williclimb Including two 8C's, the 20-year-old is the superior #1 in the Combined ranking game.

Marta Palou Carol has done the FA of Eclipse super total 8c in Rodellar, which is a combination of four routes. "

Stefan Scarperi has done his first 8C, Bügeleisen sit in Maltatal and it only took him four sessions. Nalle Hukkatival put it up in 2014 saying it could be the hardest thing he has done and also other repeaters have indicated that it should be a hard 8C. In 2015, he got the bronze in the Euro Bouldering Championship. In the Combined 8a ranking game, the 28-year-old is #8.

Studio Bloc Masters is the biggest bouldering competition in the world where the best compete together with the ordinary gym rat. In the qualification, there is 80 problems and your score is based on how fast you did your most difficult 20 problems. In total 161 female and 350 male participated. Semi 11.30 and final 16.00 will be live-streamed. 1. Janja Garnbret 725 - Vadim Timonov 852 2. Oriane Bertone 722 - Jakob Schubert 841 3. Lucka Rakovec 708 - Michael Piccolruaz 825 Complete qualification results: Female and Male