Qualify for the top-class bouldering invitational and compete with the best bouldering athletes in the world! This year, two users of the Vertical-Life app will have the chance to compete at the prestigious adidas ROCKSTARS among the best climbers on the planet – it could be YOU! Here is how the selection works: Check if your gym is on Vertical-Life, and if so, mark your climbed boulders in the app and take first in your gym’s bouldering ranking by July 31st. The best climber from each gym will enter into the crowd voting. All Vertical-Life users will be able to vote for their male and female favorites. If you are among the 10 athletes with the most votes, you will enter into the jury stage. An international jury will select one male and one female climber. The winners have the honor of competing in their gym’s name at adidas ROCKSTARS in Stuttgart on September 13th-14th. The Underdog winners will get an athlete invite to adidas ROCKSTARS and compete with the top athletes of the international bouldering circuit. They'll enjoy the same privileges on site as the invited pros. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered. There's an additional bonus for all high performing climbers: adidas will reward the 10 crowd favorites with an adidas / Five Ten Underdog Package, while the best climbers of each gym will receive a prize from Vertical-Life. 1. Participate in your home gym’s ranking on Vertical-Life 2. Be among the top 10 athletes in the crowd favorite voting 3. Be chosen by the VL jury and participate at adidas ROCKSTARS Check out the Underdog Website to find out more about participation and ranking criteria. If your gym is not yet on Vertical-Life, you can send a request to [email protected] and encourage your gym’s management to sign up.

Carlo Traversi has done the first repeat of Jimmy Webb's The Outer Limits 8C in Donner summits, in six sessions. "5 star line, great movement. Broke one of the crimps that Jimmy used, so had to adapt the sequence a bit. Maybe the hardest boulder I've climbed?" Carlo has now done seven 8C's and in the Combined ranking, including having done the second ascents of the trad 8C+ Meltdown, he is #16.

Martin Keller has published a a nice passionate blog about his FA of Ninja Skills SDS 8C/+ in Sobrio. It took his some 150 sessions including many during the night. It should be noted that in 2012, Martin put up Der mit dem Fels tanzt after some 100 sessions. In 2016, he did the FA of Highlander 8C (B+) after 13 years of projecting. Further more, last week Martin did the Story of Two Worlds Low 8C which he used as a training preparation.

8a was the only media present during the IFSC Olympic meeting with IOC in Lausanne last month. Here are improvements in regards the Bouldering format and rules suggested by me. Understandable 1. Digital understandable scoring live updated on the TV-screen so even the non climbers can follow who is in the lead and what is needed to advance. 2. Take out the letters T and z and count and present only points 34 points instead of 3T4z. Ties will be separated by number of tries as already done. ”Welcome to the Bouldering Final. You get 1 point for controlling the zone and another 10 for topping out. The best possible score is 44 points.” Anticlimax/Fairness/Cheating 1. How to judge ”control” matching the top but swinging out at 3.59 sec? The solution is to say you just need to touch the top before 4 minutes. 2. Appeals must be filed within 10 min and presented on the live screen. 3. How to deal with spectators screaming beta? 4. How to deal with boulderers looking at each other in semi? 5. The conditions deteriorates and with 8 finalists the disadvantage starting first increases. Better brushing after 4 two climbers including standing on stairs with blowing equipment. Change to LED-spotlight so the temperature do not rise. Format changes after 2020 – This could be tested on Youth a. Add one more zone = More fair and more excitement b. Increase to 8 finalists/4 boulders = More countries and more action c. Save 30 – 40 min: Rotate on 2 first boulders and only Top-6 finish d. Break before last boulder = Commercial/Coffe break needed in 90 min show e. Rotate starting order before last boulder = More fair and increased excitement

Matt Fultz, who just got married, is having a great peak being 27 years old. Yesterday he did his second 8C Bridge of Ashes in RMNP, just two weeks after he did his first. In the meantime the late bloomer also did the FA of Kenny Loggins 8B+ in St Vrain, meaning he has done 23 8B+. Including also 67 8B's, he has a solid pyramid for building upwards. In the 8a ranking game, he is #6 but continuing the peak and with an upcoming trip to Switzerland, for the 183 cm powerhouse at 78 kilos, he just might soon be in the Top-3. Videos on his Insta.

Ema Seliskar, who previoulsy has done five 8b+', has done her first 8c+, Beautiful pain in Kotecnic. "It was really beautiful and painful - especially after falling from the last move in previous attempt. I tried this rout for the first time I think this was like one month ago and than it took something around 10 sessions to climb it. Now, I just want to climb a lot of 8a's and when we will go to Spain this autumn I also want to try something harder."

Caroline Sinno, who previously has done three of the hardest traverses in Fontainbleau, has done one more La Valse aux Adieux. "Super short and intense trav (shorter than long boulder problems). I would grade it 8A+ boulder. Nicest holds ever and one of the prettiest trav here." (c) Lucien Martinez In Font, traverses normally get a traverse grade which is in between boulder and route grades. Caroline suggested 8B as the traverse grade in order to respect the history in Font. 8a has previously said that traverse grading might be confusing because it is hard to understand when a climb by definition is a traverse or not. Outside Font, traverse grading is not so often used andbecause of that we always add the estimated boulder grade to the news. There is an 8C (trav graded ) extension to La Valse aux Adieux. "I am very close in the extension, hopefully I can try again Monday! The 8c trav extension is a bit longer and could be around 8B/+ boulder. Trav grades are confusing and not relevant."

Climb Greece reports that Yann "Diego" Ghesquiers has done the first repeat of Gerome Pouvreau's Halva Power Ext 8c+ in Kyparissi. (c) Isabelle Bihr The 48 year old mountain guide, who has previously done four 9a FAs, the last one two years ago, is one of the guys bolting new routes for the upcoming Kyparissi festival. All the hard core routes in Babala has been bolted by Diego, who also works as a helicopter rescuer.

Coudert Camille, who previoulsy has done five 8B's, has done the second repeat of Alban Levier's La Force 8C (9a or 8Cc+) in Fontainebleau which has a harder exit then the more frequently done Quoi de neuf 8C. "The boulder is 7C+/8A and 8B to 7C finish, with a good rest between 8A and 8B. it is about 35 moves long so it is hard to give the whole line a boulder grade. A 9a route grade has also been suggested but in comparison to existing trav grades 8C+ would fit. I started working on La Force seriously a month ago. I needed five sessions to take it down. It is my biggest achievement so far in a style I'm not used to work on (a long effort being a boulderer). I think this problem cannot be considered as a route or a boulder. It is something in between that's why I think the 8C+ traverse grading is more appropriate." (8a agrees with Camille but instead we call such long climbs without a rope, a boulder route and adding 8Cc+, in order to separate from route or boulder grades).