Annie Chouinard, who started rock climbing at age 31, has done her first 8c+, Pure Imagination in Red River Gorge. Last month the 155cm tall published The shorter you are the stronger you have to be. More info to come. (c) Tiffany Nardico

Isabelle Faus, who previoulsy has done three 8B+', has done her 22nd 8B, Chimichunga in Scoop. Screenshoot picture from her Insta video captured by Chad Greedy. Isabelle is #1 in the 8a ranking game and with one more 8B, she will set a new personal high score. With one more 8B+, she will beat Alex Puccio's All Time High score by any female.

On Saturday, 23.11.2019 a unique charity event will take place at E4 Bouldergym. All proceeds will be donated to the organization "CAC - Climbers Against Cancer". Thanks to a donor box, donations can easily be made by mouse click or mobile phone From 6 pm the doors will be open for you and the BBQ will be heated up. For anybody who can not attend in person, the Livestream starts at 18:45. Look forward to an exciting competition, autograph sessions, delicious food and local beer - be part of this good cause! Visitors can expect an exciting battle of many well-known top climbers. Participants include Melissa le Nevé (France), Jana Garnbret (Slovenia), Alexander Megos and Gabriele Moroni (Italy). A team of international route-setters will provide spectacular problems: Laurent Laporte, Reini Fichtinger, Dirk Uhlig, Manuel Wiegel, Carlos Catari and Tobi Reichert. The athletes can test the problems in the afternoon before the competition and develop the ideal beta. Also well-known and popular climbing icons like Stefan Glowacz, Gerhard Hörhager, Bernd Arnold and Boone Speed support the Masters of Stone on site. As soon as the winners are determined, the three DJs Robert Lux, Rob Ramirez and Monsters of Jungle will provide the best music at the aftershow party. More info - Facebook

Jonathan Siegrist, who previoulsy has done 44 routes 9a to 9b, has made the first repeat of Jason Campbell's Ground Zero in Mt Charleston from 2002. Interestingly he suggests an upgrade from 8c to 9a (c) Shaina Savoy "Jason took 8c... which is completely insane because it adds a v10/11 (7C+/8A) boulder problem directly into the crux of Hasta La Vista (14c) (8c+) without any rest. It almost seems like he intended to sandbag the route." In 2015, Jonathan did the opposite, saying Era Vella, a confirmed 9a at the time, was more like 8c to him as it only took him three tries. On his Insta he says Ground Zero took him "a good number of days".

As running means that an increased proportion of your around 5 litres of blood circulates in your leg, it can be counterproductive both for warming up your forearms and for it's recovery. Clearly running is good for your heart in order to fight big overhangs but then it should be done in short intervals. Long distance running will just build up your capillary bed in your legs learning your blood circulation to redirect it from your forearms. The worst warming up is done, running or cycling, to your gym getting cold finger tips as you instead of opening up your capillaries, you close them learning your blood to avoid the forearms. Here are some more detailed thoughts and explinations from Dr 8a, Björn Alber, MSc Training physiology and one of the best kayaker in the world during the 80'ies. "All gyms and top climbers should have a kranking machine or a rower. This would make most us get better endurance.

All climbers - from seasoned big wall experts to indoor beginners - are invited to complete the International Climbers’ Survey 2019. The survey, published by Vertical-Life in collaboration with the IFSC, is intended to learn more about all climbers’ interests and behaviors in outdoor and indoor climbing. With the Olympics 2020 around the corner, climbing is in the midst of a period of significant changes, such as urbanisation and rapid growth. We would like to find out what climbers love about their sport and how they feel about these developments. The results of the survey will serve as a snapshot of today’s global climbing community and provide answers as to where climbing is headed as a sport and lifestyle. Your reward for completing the survey is a voucher for one month of free access to all digital climbing guides on the Vertical-Life app. Additionally, many other great prizes from FiveTen, Salewa and Zlagboard will be raffled off among the participants. Completing it should take no more than 20 minutes. A summary of key results will be shared via Vertical-Life’s online channels and selected media.

We have been informed that Alexey Rubtsov will be allowed to compete in the Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse. This means that most probably, IOC has agreed on 22 male and female participants, meaning also Jernej Kruder, Sandra Lettner and Iuliia Kaplina are in. The reason for this late change is that first IFSC invited Rubtsov etc but later changed the rule meaning they were out. In the end, IOC must have agreed that this is most fair. Here is the full starting list. Rubtsov reports that he has only been doing bouldering and one hour Speed training lately so he has just one week to catch up before it starts next Thursday. Kruder has as always been climbing outside so now it is time to get back on that Speed wall again.

The Toulouse Olympic qualification starts November 28th and here is the 8a speculation who will make it. Among the male, no Boulder specialist have been listed simply because of Team Japan, although no one can qualify, is sending four Boulder specialists. This means that it will be much harder to get a good ranking in Boulder compared to in Lead. At the same time, as the Japanese are also very good at Speed they will, in general, get a high ranking overall meaning that most probably being Top-10 will be good enough. This will open up for possibly two Speed specialists qualifying to Tokyo. The ones suffering the most that the Japanese are allowed to compete are the boulder specialists that are also good Speed climbers like Jan Hojer and Manuel Cornu. Furthermore, as Jernej Kruder and Aleksei Rubtsov do not yet know if they can make it, the odds are against them. 1. Adam Ondra - Lucka Rakovec 2. Bassa Mawem - YiLing Song 3. Alberto Gines Lopez - YueTong Sang 4. Stefano Ghisolfi - Jain Kim 5. Sasha Lehmann - Julia Chanourdie 6. Alfian Muhammed - Anouck Jaubert Among the female, only two from Japan will compete at the same time there might be five Speed specialists. This will open up for the ones being relatively weak in Speed. At the same time, it is expected that both Slovenia and France and possibly also the USA will fill their country quota. This means that it just might be good enough to be Top-12 to get the Olympic ticket. In theory, it just might be three Speed specialists going to Tokyo.