The Slovenian team had a comp simulation on Boulderwelt München and Kruder did go up-side-down!

First he was assisted by his brother for two months drilling and hammering in 250 bolts. On the second trip, which lasted five months, his father was mainly his partner. Waking up at 06.00 for breakfast then walking 1.5 hour before starting climbing or jumaring to the roof. "It was the hardest process of my life to be totally focus on this project for 2 + 5 months. I feel really happy to finish this crazy project. I did not know if it was possible to climb free. I was worried about to find some impossible points for climbing. Every two weeks I had to go to Guiyang to train indoors to keep my power. It was also hard to not talk to people for a long time because the Chines in general do not talk English." Edu did his first 9a being 17 years old and he has previously done three 9a+ and Chilam Balam 9a+/b. With 14 pitches including one 9a+ and two 8c+', Valhalla is a contender for being the hardest graded multi-pitch in the world. The FA took nine hours. Some days ago, he fell on pitch 12 after a foot hold broke. More info and pictures on his Insta (c) David Lopez Campe

Martin Stráník, #2 in the World Champion in 2007, has made the first repeat of Adam Ondra’s Pata Ledovce 8C in Holstejn. In the 8a ranking game the 29 year old Czech is #3. Video "4 days this year, I have never thought that these moves are possible but it has changed this year, great climbing including power, finger strenght and technique. First repeat of some Adam´s 8C in CZ." In two weeks time, Martin will compete in Meiringen where he got the silver in 2016. (c) Jakub Konečný ”My ambition is to compete on 'Europe' world cups in lead and bouldering and in Tokyo (World Championship). I am also trying to learn speed, but not too much as I could cause I am still working full time (meteorologist).

Margo Hayes reports on Insta that she Papichulo 9a+ in Oliana. Including her two previous 9a+', La Rambla and Biographie, the 21 year old is a contendor for having the best ever female tick list. (c) Jan Novak. Last year she was #10 in the World Championship. In two weeks, she will change the 45 m wall in Oliana to compete in the bouldering WC in Meiringen, hopefully to get a good start on her Olympic quest.

Jacopo Larcher, who three years ago did La Rambla 9a+, has done his hardest route ever. "I have never invested so much time in a route before. Anyway, I decided not to grade it ;)" The Italian found it six years ago and the last year the 25 meter line in Cadarese, Italy, has been his big focus. He says that he has worked on it during possibly 50 sessions or more. In regards placing the gear, Jacopo says it is not so hard to place. "It just makes it more pumpy between the two hard sections." (c) Paolo Sartoro Photo It is a well known fact that trad grades are harder than sport grades. One reason for this is that in the beginning of the sport era, you had to place the quick draws as you were climbing as you had to place the trad gear. Later, the sport ethics changed towards pre-placed quick draws. Further more, it seems that at the same time we have seen grade inflation for sport routes there has been deflation for trad. Currently there exist some four 8c+ trad routes meaning that there possibly should be a two grades gap comparing it to sport routes. Understanding that the gear placement did not have so much impact on the difficulty for Larcher, it just might have been 9a+ or 9b with bolts. So what do you think? Did Jacopo do the first 9a trad route in the world?

Last year there were 208 participants in Meiringen and this year there are 222 in the Starting List. Each country are allowed to participate with five male and five female plus the Top-10 in the world ranking, which means Japan will participate with ten males. In the qualification, it is the highest ranked who start first. Among the ones, who did not get Top-30 in any World Cup or WCH, the starting order is done by random. In practice, this mean that Stefano Ghisolfi could start last having to fight both worse friction and higher temperature in comparison to the guys going out first. Noteworthy is that Gabri Moroni, who won one event last year, will not compete for Italy as they have made in mandatory to go for all three disciplines, in order to get support. In the schedule, it says that the isolation will close 08.00 for the male and that the female will be finished by 22.00. Based on the large number of participants, they possibly will have to extend it. Ghisolfi just might have to spend 6 hours in isolation.

Taylor McNeill has done his third 8C, Squoze in Red Rocks. Video on his Insta "Couldn’t do any of the 3 hard moves for my first two days on it. Had a breakthrough on day 3, but still had some figures to do. Day 4 I sorted it out and somehow got it done Hardest I’ve ever climbed in shorts. Dope one from Jwebb. Hard to say on the grade. It’s the fastest I’ve ever done a boulder this hard but I’m also feeling really fit."

Edu Marin, who in 2006 won the World Cup in Chamonix, has done the FA of Valhalla 9a+ in Getu which has 14 pitches and overhangs by 304 meter. More info to come.

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Ett inlägg delat av Edu Marín (@edumarin1) 20 Mar 2019 kl. 9:10 PDT

Matt Fultz has had a great day in RMNP, having done two 8B+' in a day. In total the 27 year old has done 21 boulders 8B+ and as can be seen on his scorecard, he has been on a ten year almost steady progress. More info on his Insta. How have you been able to raise your level in 2019? The US Bouldering competition ended a couple months ago, so I have been 100% climbing outside or training on the hangboard/Tensionboard/ Moonboard. Just improving finger strength and power, and not worrying about long days in the gym doing comp-style problems. But most importantly, I’ve been psyched!