Zach Galla, the US Combined Champion who did most of the WC's until Hachioji where he was #31 in Bouldering, has done two 8B+'; Echale in Clear Creek Canyon and Mirror Reality in RMNP. "Sick one! Fell on the jump almost every try for the first two days. Hooked it up minutes before the snow melted all over the crux holds today!" Michael Rosato

Seb Bouin reports on Insta that he has done Jorge Diaz-Rullo's Patanics in Rodellar suggesting a down grade to 9a+. "For me it feels closer to 9a/+. Yet the route is 100% my style, that's why my opinion is to propose a downgrade to a 9a+." (c) Julia Cassou Ten days ago he also did the FA of Detectives giving it 9a. ”The King Line of Rodellar in this Grade. Bolted by Chris Sharma and Dani Andrada. Seb's trip to Rodellar started with a broken car. Then the rain come and later he had to go to emergency to remove a metal piece from a quick draw from his eye. "Nothing will perturb a climbing trip !" The French is #2 in the ranking game after Jorge.

Climb Kalymnos presents Heroes, which is a new sector with 25 routes which mainly have been developed by Aris T. (c) Kieran J Duncan "The crag consists of three small caves connected to each other with vertical walls. There is a big variety of climbing styles, from very steep cave climbing on big holds or some tufas to grey walls, off-vertical pocketed walls, short and steep athletic routes, and so on."

"1.2Selection Criteria The Athlete Quota within each gender will be filled from: 1)the highest ranked Athletes from the IFSC Combined World Cup Ranking as at 01 November 2019; and/or 2)where following (1) the Athlete Quota remains incomplete, the highest ranked Athletes from the 2019 World Championship Combined Ranking,in each case a)excluding any Athletes who have a confirmed Quota Place for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the 2019 Combined World Championship; and b)subject toa National Quota of two (2) Athletes." A. Should Japan be allowed to send anyone to Toulouse? B. Should countries with one already qualified to Tokyo be allowed to send one, two or everyone within the Top-20 criteria? In other sports with Olympic qualifying events, the countries are allowed to send everyone who qualified, not just a max quota.

Clément Lechaptois has had a great month doing two 8B+'s in Colorado and his second 8C, Foundations Edge in Fionnay which was opened by Dave Graham in 2013. "It's a huge overhang of perfect granite. The hard part consists of 10 intense movements on edges and delicate feet deplacements. I started to try FE last fall and thought I was close to do it because I was able to do the hands moves pretty well but it was actually the feet moves that gave me the more troubles. I had a busy year at university so I couldn't come back there at that time. Just coming back in pretty good shape from Colorado, I needed two more sessions to climb this incredible boulder. Respect to Dave for the FA."

It has been confirmed by an email from IFSC to the federations that Japan has selected Kai Harada and Miho Nonaka to take part in Tokyo 2020.

Martin Urrutia skips 8c+ and does his first 9a, Psikoterapia in Valdegobia. This year the 19-year-old Spaniard got his first senior podium. "The route is in a place where I usually climb frequently. It is a place where I do well. I like that stile so I decided that it would be a nice challenge because it has only three previous ascents. I started trying the route at the beginning of September, but I broke an edge of the route and I was not able to climb regularly afterwards. I had to wait until it was fixed. Finally I have been practicing and trying it for 2 months and 16 attempts. I have enjoyed the route a lot. I was progressing in each attempt and it felt very well psychologically."

Alberto Gines Lopez was the only one topping out the semi route and Janja Garnbret got highest among the female. Japan got another great result with four female making the final and six male in the Top-13. USA got two male to the semi which was their best result this year. No french in the final and thei best male was #33. Also Austria struggles with their best result #17. It should be mentioned that especially among the male, most of the best Europeans were missing. Complete results

Hiroto Shimizu and Jain Kim did win the last stage of the Lead World Cup taking place in Inzai, Japan. Interestingly, this was just the second appearance for Shimizu in the Lead WC in 2019. In his first event, he was #2 and overall this made him #6. (c) Eddie Fowke Among the women, Jain Kim got her first victory in 2019 ahead of Janja Garnbret who has had her worst Lead WC season since she entered the scene, five years ago. 1. Hiroto Shimizu JPN 38+ : Jain Kim KOR Top 2. Alberto Gines Lopez 36+ : Janja Garnbret SLO 39+ 3. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 32+ : Chaehyon Seo KOR 37+ It should be mentioned that the route setting was great with good separation in all rounds.