The ethics in trad climbing is very strict. In order to make a valid ascent you are supposed to place all gear on lead. This means that you have to clean all gear after each try which especially makes overhanging routes very hard and time consuming to do. In the late 70's, climbers started to rappell down in order to manually drill bolts and this sport climbing ethics came to USA in 1983 creating a big controversy. According to Wikipedia the term trad climbing was invented by Tom Higgins in 1984 with the definition that the gear should be placed on lead as it had been done traditionally. Historically, routes where the FA were done hammering in pitons and even drilling bolts on lead where considered trad routes. The dilemma is of course that anybody repeating routes with fixed pitons and bolts will do it with pre-placed gear, aka not the best style in regards trad climbing. Another problem is also that hammering in pitons could be considered as chipping as once they are removed, often due rust, new holds have been created. As a matter of a fact, it is said that Lynn Hill could take advantage of such holds for her small fingers as she did the FA of the Nose in 1993. If fixed pitons are needed for safety reasons, it might be better to place a bolt and define the route as mixed. From a strict ethical perspective, any route with fixed pitons could be called mixed as they do not follow the trad ethics, i.e. all gear should be removed before the next try.

Tomi Nytorp, who previously has done a couple of 9a's, has made the FA of Piratvägen 8c in Finland, an open project since 20 years. The Finn had placed a fix piton as well as some preplaced trad protection. "All together I visited the cliff about 15 times, and of them: serious projecting maybe 5 sessions. I personally thing the grade could be closer to 8c. I did lead it on my second lead try, with gears placed. The line itself is such a beautiful clean crack, hard, and trad. I train about 4 times a week, outdoors when possible, otherwise I train by bouldering in my own home climbing gym at home. I seldom visit commercial gyms."

Peru Pt. 1 || A World Less Traveled from Cold House Media on Vimeo.

Here is the result from the Japan Combined this weekend where the Top-5 qualified to the World Championship in Tokyo. The biggest sensation was that Futaba Ito, worst result in Boulder WC 2019 is #9, did not make it as she was #6. ClimbersJP 1. Miho Nonaka 7 - Tomoa Narasaki 6 2. Akiyo Noguchi 12 - Kai Harada 12 3. Ai Mori (15) 12 - Kokoro Fujii 36 4. Natsuki Tanii (15) 72 - Keita Dohi 40 5. Nanako Kura 128 - Yushiyuki Ogata 22

Janja Garnbret won The Rock Ljubljana and interestingly, Garnbret had to do the last boulder first try as otherwise, the winner of the Euro 5 000 had been Vita Lukan. More info. Among the male, Alexey Rubtsov got the victory but very sadly he reported on his Insta that he tore the tendon of the long biceps head. Most probably this mean he will not be able to compete in the WCH in Tokyo. In order to make it to the Top-20 qualification event in Toulouse, he needs to be fully recovered for the last two event in China and Japan in October.

Here are some old training articles that could motivate you to keep pushing. Patxi Usobiaga Zlagboard training Running can be contra productive Steve McClure training Training 40+ Technical endurance advices Dyno tips Recruitment finger training

00: Nicolai Uznik AUT - Lucia Dörfer GER 02: David Colombo ITA - Lucie Delcoigne BEL 04: Edwards Gruzitis Lat - Alex Totkova BUL Complete results Austria was the best country in the European Youth Cup in Sofia with a total of five medals.

Based on some 1 500 unique votes, "Best climbing rope 2019?", we can see very small changes in comparison to the 2016 results, shown in brackets. 19 % Sterling (21) 18 % Beal (19) 17 % Mammut (18) 15 % Petzl (12) 14 % Edelrid (13) 10 % Tendon (12) 06 % Other (5)

Cathy Wagner, who did her first 8a in 1994, has done her 8a+ #155, Da Lineking in Rodellar. "Sooo happy! Fell at the last move on my first go 2 weeks ago totally pumped and today, despite the wobbly warm-up, I felt steady. IMO, the right knee-bar in the middle of the 3rd part of Maskoking makes the route easier, so I'd say a soft 8a+." The 53 year old teacher did her first 8b in 2001 and yesterday she did her 17. Interesting is that she has never started off a year as good as in 2019! If Cathy would have taken part in the ranking game, she would have been #2 in the Age & Gender ranking game, after Adam Ondra.

From the starting list to the Boulder WC we can see only four of the female Top-10 will participate. Among the male, the winner in Munich Jakob Schubert and Anze Peharc skip it. In practice this means that in Vail, like also in Munich last week, many of the best do not participate. Most probably, the reason for this is that many think the Olympics is more important. The season is very long and will be finished with the qualification event in France.