Nicholas Milburn has done Chris Sharmas' Dreamcatcher 9a in Squamish. (c) Matty Hong "This route took me about 10 weeks of work over three seasons. I came really close last year, but ran out of time. I trained hard before returning this year to make sure I would be strong enough to send. The weather was also the best I have ever seen in Squamish. The day I sent was super windy which made a huge difference. Matty taught me some advanced sport climbing strategies and I finally caught the dream. I'm psyched that such an iconic route is my first of the grade."

New to Spring 2019 is the ALEON, developed by Fred Nicole together with Five Ten. Fred’s passion for design began at art college with sculpture work, however his transition into shoe design was self taught, saying it was simply a “natural & instinctive process”. What is the best & worst part of the design process? I find it all interesting, however the hard part is when people critic a shoe you’re proud of. On the other hand it's great when people are psyched about what you have produced. If you could go and re-climb any of your problems in the world, in the ALEON to make the problem easier, what would it be? It would be great to re-climb Amandla (8B+), Slashface (8B) & Terremer (8C) in the ALEON, as they have really small footholds and require a very precise shoe with good heel tension.

Jonatan Flor, who previously has done two 9a's, reports on Insta that he has done Dani Fuertes' No Pain no Game 9a+ in Rodellar. (c) Ignacio Mulero The two times Spanish Bouldering Champion has also done several hard core boulders including Crisis 8C (+) in Crevillente. "It is a very demanding route. During the first attempts I did not understand many sequences of the route. It seemed very hard with a lot of resistance. It was a great challenge to try this route. For days I was deciphering and worked the route. As the days were passing, attempts were becoming better but a very hard section of resistance high up always threw me off. In the last attempts I did not know if I could do the route. It's an amazing line and being able to make it has been very satisfying."

UIAA has presented a map with known corrosion locations and interestingly almost all spots are crags very close to the sea.

Giuliano Cameroni has done Dave Graham's Topaz 8C in RMNP in just one hour on his second go from the start and first giving it a personal down grade. "After climbing Jade I realized that Topaz is more complete and a little harder." (c) Keenan Takahashi One week later he continued showing great form by doing two 8B+' in a day; Jade and Domestic Cat. Earlier this year he put up two 8C+' and in the 8a ranking game the 22 year old Swizz is #3. Mofe info and pics on his Insta.

Seb Bouin has done the FA of Beyond 9a (+) in Pic Saint Loup where he previously has opened one 9a and one 9a+. "I hope, one day, there will be some guys motivated by these world class routes.​" (c) Raphael Fourau "This project Beyond is going straight in the most overhanging part of the crag until the top (50 meters). There is a first anchor. The first part (the one I did) is an incredible route. I was thinking the crux almost impossible at the beginning. It's almost roof climbing on bad crimps. After finding some micro betas for the first moves, it was missing me the last hard move to go on a good tufa. I was thinking to give up until I found the tufa dyno. This move is incredible, you are falling on the crimps, and you have to jump on this tufa. This route will be for sure a hard classic of Pic Saint Loup. About the grade it could be hard 9a, or 9a/+. Next repetitors will confirm it.​ About the second part of this route, there is a hard boulder problem straight after the first anchor. After four goes in, I am still not able to do the move."

Laura Rogora, who did her first 9a (8c+) Grandi Gesti being 14 years old, has done the FA of Rèveille-toi 9a in Cueva di Collepardo. (c) Marco Iacono In total the 18 year old has done six routes 9a (8c+) or harder and as a matter of a fact, Anak Verhoeven is the only female who has done more. Two years ago, she was, within two weekends, #6 in the European Championship as well as in the Chamonix World Cup. Last year she won the Boulder Youth World Champions as well as three Euro Youth Cups in Lead.

karoline sinnhuber is back on track in bouldering after a finger injury she got three months ago with two 8A+'; Der Nihilist and El Gauhara in Zillertal. "1st go today after my 1st session a week ago. Shape is here again! I didn't take a rest after the injury happened, I just switched to routes because it‘s not so aggressive for the fingers. I'm still not able to fullcrimp with my pointer. My other three fingers adapted to fullcrimp without it, but I don‘t have 100% fingerpower. Due to my booked trip to Rocklands in July I started with my bouldering training again a month ago and adapted my Rocklands ticklist haha (no super crimpy boulders). (c) Stefan Welkhammer

220 youngsters up to 14 years old participated in the Youth Color Climbing Festival in Imst. Interesting is that Bulgaria was the best country and in general Eastern Europe dominated. Everyone climbed at least six routes and in the qualification the belayers were parents, coaches and friends. 12: Nina Hentschel SUI - Timo Ossig GER 14: Martina Bangeeva BUL - Andrei Rapa Darius ROU Complete reults