Gonzalo Larrocha, who did La Rambla 9a+ in March, has done Chris Tierra Negra 9a (+) in Margalef. In total, the 34 year old who did his first 9a being 30, has done 12 routes 9a and harder. Interesting to see from his scorecard is that he started climbing being 13 years old. Being 22 he did his first 8a and then he has had a continues progress for 12 straight years almost. The successful strategy seems to be to do several of each grade building a solid foundation of his grade pyramid before starting projecting a new grade. In total, the Spaniard has done more than 1 100 routes 8a and harder.

99 boulders has published another great article listing 44 trad routes in the world from 8b+ to 8c+. There is also some ethical thoughts and some "grey zone" ascents have been included. But in in order to make the list, "the majority of the difficult climbing is protected by removable gear (placed on lead)." There are five 8c+' listed with all ascents: (*pre-placed gear) Blackbeard's Tears - Ethan Pringle Meltdown - Beth Rodden, Carlo Traversi Pura Pura - Tom Randall Recovery Drink - Nico Favresse*, Daniel Jung Rhapsody - Dave MacLeod*, Sonnie Trotter, Steve McClure, James Pearson, Jacopo Larcher, Gerome Pouvreau Jacopo Larcher's recent Tribe was not given a grade but it should be at least 8c+ as he thinks it is his hardest ever. In regards, Rhapsody there are some controversies and also the grade has been questioned. The FA-ionist did place the gear on lead but then he downclimbed it 25 meters to the start. On the actual sent he did not place any gear. It has further more been called an eliminate. The diagram shows the ones having done most 8b+ and harder with Jacopo Larcher and Sonnie Trotter on top. Noteworthy is that Barbara Zangerl is up there tied #7. Including also Beth Rodden's Meltodown, it is obvious that the best female is almost equal to the male. It just might be that trad climbing is unique when it comes to gender equality of all the thousand sports out there? In the record book, Alex Megos flash of The Path 8b+ R should be mentioned. Comparing trad grades to sport grades, it is quite obvious that sport grades are at least one grade softer. Almost all of the trad experts have, relatively fast, done harder grades in sport.

James Squire has done Skadossh 8B+ in just 30 min and Spray of Light 8C in Rocklands. "Amazing boulder. Two sessions this trip and a few days last year. Happy! Video on his Insta with some "Ondra-screaming". How can you explain your recent peak performance? The only thing I have done differently on this trip would be investing more time into single hard boulders rather than trying to tick larger amounts of slightly easier boulder problems. This sounds simple but is mentally very difficult when you are in Rocklands and you have a million five star lines to distract you. I tried about four other 8C boulders before deciding to sick with this one, so having more patience I think is what helped most with my recent performance."

Japan won the national team ranking for the sixth year in a row. Slovenia, with just two million inhabitants, had their best year ever. The country struggling the most were Italy at #15 with only 156 points. 1. Japan 1 693 2. Slovenia 1 359 3. France 766 4. Austria 591 5. Germany 534 Complete results Noteworthy is that Japan could participate with ten male in 2019 as they had five guys in the Top-10 ranking in 2018. Currently they have just three but there are another five who can make it with good results in the Tokyo WCH. However, IFSC have reduced the extra-quota so only six male from Japan is allowed to participate.

Jonathan Siegrist has done his 33rd 9a, Manphibian in Mt Charleston. "Strength endurance underclings and squeezing with a full-on slab crux finish!" More info on his Insta. Including also two 9b's and nine 9a+', the 167 cm tall climber should be in the All Time Top-10 sport climbers. Next up is finishing bolting his big multi-pitch project.

Janja Garnbret set a new IFSC Boulder WC record by winning all six events in 2019. In total she failed to top only four out of the 78 boulders she tried. Her most extraordinary superiority was shown in the semi in Munich by doing all four problems in just eight tries at the same times her 19 opponents did together just manage to get one top and on an average 1.26 zones! 1. Janja Garnbret SLO 500 2. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 320 3. Fanny Gibert FRA 308 4. Futaba Ito JPN 206 5. Jessica Pliz AUT 203 6. Petra Klingler SUI 180 7. Lucka Rackovec SLO 163 8. Katja Kadic SLO 161 9. Julia Chanourdie FRA 157 0. Shauna Coxsey GBR/Ievgennia Kazbekova UKR 145 Complete results

Angy Eiter, four times World Champion and 25 WC wins, has done Adam Ondra's Pure Dreaming 9a in Arco. In total, the 154 cm tall has now done four routes 9a and harder including La Planta de Shiva 9b which puts her as #1 also outdoors in the history books. (c) Bernie Ruech So how do you train nowadays and what is next? Nowadays I listen what I need and what motivates me, I have no strict plan. This winter I followed strength exercises (push-ups, pull ups, muscle ups, rings) and did bouldering in the gym. I don‘t have any specific projects, I want to climb nearby my homeplace because of my working tasks I want to want to fullfill at the moment. I guess in autumn I go for a climbing trip with Bernie, but no idea where yet :-)" On Angy's Insta, Adam Ondra comments, "Mindblowing how you can jump between those distant holds on the top!"

Yoshiyuki Ogata got his first ever World Cup victory which moved him from #11 in the ranking to #3. (c) Eddie Fowke Tomoa Narasaki was second and got the overall victory, ahead of Adam Ondra, although just participating in four out of six. 1. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3. Jongwon Chon KOR 4. Jan Hojer GER 5. Adam Ondra CZE 6. Sean McColl CAN Complete results

Tomoa Narasaki, who won in 2016 and was runner-up the last two years, is the Boulder World Cup winner in 2019, in spite of just participating in four out of the six events. His worst result was #2. Adam Ondra, who has not done any Boulder WCs sin 2015, was the impressive #2 only five points behind. The biggest step forward was done by 21-year-old Yoshiyuki Ogata who advanced from #13 in 2018 to #3 this season. In total there were 8 guys from Japan in the Top-16. 1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 340 2. Adam Ondra CZE 335 3. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 264 4. Jongwon Chon KOR 228 5. Kokoro Fujii JPN 227 6. Jan Hojer GER 223 7. Aleksey Rubtsov RUS 214 8. Anze Peharc SLO 205 9. Jernej Kruder SLO 191 0. Jakob Schubert AUT 184 Complete results