Closed projects have created a lot of controversy over the years. I have bolted some 500 routes but tend to stay in the middle out of the two extreme opinions. My idea has always been that anybody is allowed to climb my routes as long as my project name is kept. Once Yuji Hirayama showed up and wanted to climb a cool line my friend had bolted and was working on. We come up with the solution that Yuji could climb it as long as he symbolic grabbed the anchor while clipping it. Yuji thought that was great and actually found a better solution on his onsight and my friend did it soon after. In the topo of Göteborg, my name is all over the place but for some hard routes I did not do the first, two FA names are mentioned. This means both the name of the first ascent as well as the founder ascent are mentioned. I think this is a nice midways solution for the controversy of closed projects. We have to bear in mind that nobody can climb ownership of some piece of rock but on the other hand, it could be nice to show some respect to the guys investing money and time in order for the community to get some more climbing challenges. As long as we are talking routes of climbs not that hard, there should be no such thing as a closed project or a challenge for the first ascent. What is important is the founder ascent, i.e a new way of saying FA. I think we should respect red-tagging in the first hanger but this means that the Founder should actively work on it. However, anybody should be allowed to try it out. When it comes to boulders and trad routes, I think in general that they can not be closed if it does not relate to investing multiple of hours cleaning and building landing platforms etc.

1. Stefan Scherz AUT 44/4 - Sandra Lettner AUT 34 2. Nicolai Uznik AUT 44/5 - Camilla Moroni ITA 33 3. Maximillian Milne GBR 44/6 - Flavy Cohaut FRA 33 Complete results The European Youth Championship in Bouldering in Brixen have had a good start. The Norwegian coach Reino Horak says great organization and route setting in all rounds so far besides the male junior final which was to easy. Maximillian Milne was #3 doing all four problems in six tries including having been called down due to a false starting, which cost him the silver. Here is the video from the streaming. Finals for the younger two categories continues today and you can follow it on the Live-streaming.

1. Oriane Bertone FRA 44 - Toby Roberts GBR 33 2. Zélia Avezou FRA 34 - Edvards Gruzitis LAT 24/2 3. Markéta Janosová CZE 24 - Alessandro Mele 24/4 Complete results Oriane Bertone, who won two golds in the Youth World Championship in Arco and almost made it to the final at Adidas Rock Master, got another superior victory. In the 8a ranking game, the 14-year-old is #3 after having done multiple 8B's. Her father accompanies on all trips. "We still live in Reunion Island. Sometimes it is difficult because there are 11 hours of flight from Paris. For example, we return Monday, September 2 after Arco and we return to Stuttgart for Adidas Rockstar a week later. Then in Brixen for the European Championships on September 20th. In short, it's tiring. To prepare competitions, she does nothing but climbing outside and on plastic. There is nothing special about training. Climbing a lot, solving problems, doing hard projects and so on, is very motivating for her and it makes her progress without having the impression of working."

From 19 to 22 September, Europe's young talents will be competing for the Boulder titles at the European Youth Championships. More than 300 athletes from all over Europe are expected. Starting List The event takes place in Brixen/Bressanone (South Tyrol, Italy) and is organized and hosted by the Brixen section of the South Tyrolean Alpine club together with the local climbing gym 'Vertikale'. Free access for all sports climbing enthusiasts and interested parties! Live-streaming

Adam Ondra has taken some free time from competition preperation by doing his 42:nd 9a+, Qui in Geisterschmiedwand. "2nd ascent after 23 year, FA Stefan Furst in 1996. It took me over 10 years and roughly 10 days. 1st day this year. Stefan gave it 9a, possibly something have broken, but very possibly it has not got much harder due to breaks. I believe it is more 9a+ now, even though the crux is very hard to grade. The difficulty is not to be underestimated as the first 8c section is suprisingly tiring and makes the crux so much harder." Really nice that his belayer was Furst captured on Adam's Insta, with all details. Interesting is that Furst gave it 8c+ in 1996 as Action Directe was considered 8c+/9a at the time.

During the last years, we have seen more climbers using a fan to improve the climbing conditions. Lately I have actually heard about guys pushing the limit actually using an air conditioner in order to create cooler temps. In practice this can be taken much further by specifically cooling down big sloopers etc. In theory, you could bring in some industry fans which could reduce the gravity so the question is how far can we take the usage of fans in climbing before it would be called unethical or even cheating? On the picture, Giani Glement is using a portable fan while doing Practice of the Wild 8C (B+).

Rock & Ice report that Molly Mitchellhas done China Doll 8b+ R on trad. It is a 40 meter link up of an 8a+ sport route with an 8b R trad route. In Frankenjura the terms "green point" is used for doing sport routes on trad. (c) Scott Crady "I worked on the route since mid May. I sent the first pitch on the bolts back in July, then sent the first pitch on gear back in August, then sent the whole line on gear last week. It’s funny because somewhere over the course of working on it I got really used to the first pitch and would warm up sending it on toprope every time I went out. And when I first started working the second pitch as the extension, it came along a lot quicker than I had imagined. I was constantly making pretty big progress, and everyone seemed to believe in me that I could do it. It was just hard for me to fully believe. I started to put a lot of pressure on myself. When I sent it was not the best conditions, which honestly I think helped just get my mindset into just trying my best as opposed to feeling pressure to execute. I was in disbelief clipping the chains. It was a huge breakthrough for me mentally. I think for a bigger perspective - it makes me want to keep pushing. It’s motivating for me to find a new project and aspire to more things! I thought I’d want to take a break from projecting after this long summer project, but honestly I’m just so excited to find what inspires me next!" Molly has done several 8b+ sport routes and 8a on trad. Previously just a handful woman have done 8b+ on trad. It should be mentioned that there are at most just a dozen male who have done an 8c or harder on trad. Documentary video when Heather Weidner did the first female ascent.

Bernd Zangerl, one of the most active ambassadors of bouldering worldwide, publishes an inspiring book about the sport, its history, destinations, training, and much more. The book is the first of its kind, and it's a true bible, providing insight into the current bouldering scene. Some of the world’s most famous photographers have supported the project, hence you’ll find many breathtaking shots together with information and stories. Bouldering pioneer John Gill shares his thoughts in the foreword. So far, the book is only available in German, but hopefully an English version will follow in the future.

Martin Stráník, #2 in the WCH in 2007, has a a great day in Labské Údolí where he did his first 8B flash, Sicarios. As can be seen on the video, it was raining heavily. "Cooling temps and high psyche made everything easy in Elbe valley yesterday, i sent 8B, 8A+/B, 8B+ FA and my first 8B Flash :) called Sicarios. So refreshing after all comps this year ". In the 8a ranking, the 29 yer old is #4. In the Combined Ranking the Czech is #36 after, surprisingly, having a hard time performing in Bouldering (best #29 and #43) at the same time he has been #6 and #9 in Lead. In Speed he has been #81 and #95 meaning, he has a great chance to qualify to Toulouse if he can make a good result in the last Speed event.