Ryohei Kameyama reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of Charles Albert's No Kpote Only 9A in Fontainebleau. More info to come. (c) Ryosuke Hibino " I feel "Burden of Dreams" is more a little difficult than this problem. I think this boulder is v16/17 (8C+/9A)." Burden of Dreams is the 9A by Nalle Hukkataival. Ryohei has previously done two 8C's; The Big Island and Kuzan.

Ryohei Kameyama has done the first repeat of Charles Albert No Kpote Only in Fontainbleau and what makes it totally amazing is that he just needed four sessions! He could not do the bar foot sequence by Charles so he found new beta. In comparison, Ryohei could not do the first move on Burden of Dreams 9A, although he could within eight days link it to the top from the second move. (c) Ryosuke Hibino who has helped us out with with some further info. Next is probably La Révolutionnaire 8C+ and then possibly The Big Island sit project. They will stay until 24/3 in Font. Ryohei's secret training is campus board five sessions a week.

Justin Salas has about 10% of his central vision left, after his optic nerves began to atrophy at age 14. With his peripheral vision, mainly intact, he can see the overall shape, contrast and shadows. Old 8a interview with the ParaClimbing World Champion in 2018.

Fedir Samoilov and Nika Potapova (16) just recently did Fuck the System 9a in Santa Linya. Last year Nika was #2 in the Lead Youth WCH and she won the Youth European CH in Bouldering. Fedir was #9 in the World Cup in 2017 and in the last three events in 2018, his worst result was #11. How was the trip to Santa Linya and what are your 2019 plan and ambition? Nika: I was very satisfied with the trip. Everything went just perfect! I am super happy to have reached the 9a level in climbing. At the beginning of my climbing career I cold just to dream about this. My coach name is Artur Pechii and I am very thankful to him for support and everything he does for me. My plan for the next year is to participate in youth comps and senior WC’s and WCH. I will also try to qualify to the Olympics. Fedir: This year we have been in Santa Linya two times. First trip (in January) we had very cold conditions and the whole three weeks we were just running on the routes until the fingers become totally numb. On the second time we was much more lucky with the weather and all things went better. I was getting stronger and stronger every day. It’s a pity that time gone so fast. I think that Santa Linya is a special place with especially dynamic style of climbing and the routes usually requires a lot of power and endurance. I think this style does not fit my style of climbing and this is the reason why we are coming. I'm trying to make it to the Olympics. This year will be very hard and the very hectic for sure :) because you have to take a part in almost all WC`s. When climbing became the Olympic sport things are much better. Almost all official events are funded. But 2 - 3 years ago we almost hadn't any financial support.

Giuliano Cameroni, who did his first 8C+ last month, reports on Insta that he has done the FA of REM 8c+ in Cresciano. It shares the start of the classical Dreamtime and then it goes straight up so climbers should have looked and tried it for 20 years. The 21 year old Swizz is #2 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Hannes Kutza "The crux is a low percentage move off two micro grips. Fell on this move for a month, then took two weeks off the boulder and did it first try at 1AM!"

Climbing is unique as there is no other physical sport where female are so close to male top performance. Actually, there are some examples where women have actually performed on a higher level than male like Lynn Hill making the FA of The Nose 8b+ MP in Yosemite and Ashima Shiraishi setting age grade world records. Another example is Beth Rodden doing the first 8c+ trad climb. Several coaches and route setters have over the years said that, if the routes had been adjusted to female lengths, the best would always made it to the semi and possibly the finals. Two years ago,being 15 years old and 152 cm, Ashima's outdoor performance would have placed her Top-20 among the senior male. Talking about multi-discipline climbers, Barbara Zangerl would easily fit into Top-30 or even Top-20 in the All Time High list. Climbing is a great powerful platform for promoting gender equality and empowering women and girls.

Commenting on Youtube, the climber said that he made some novice mistakes. I do not agree at all. Easy routes should be better bolted!

Escalade9 keeps track of all the 8c+/9a and harder ascents. In total there are 17 female that has done a 9a and harder and another five who has done an 8c+/9a. Era Vella and Esclatamasters are examples of routes given 8c+/9a. Here is a list of the ones having done at least two 9a's 9b: Angela Eiter (c) Red Bull Contenpool/E. Holzknecht 9a+: Margo Hayes (2), Anak Verhoeven, 9a: Angela Eiter (2), Anak Verhoeven (2*), Josune Bereziartu (2), Julia Chanourdie (2), Ashima Shiraishi (2) Here is a ranking based on the 8a points, excl. 8c+/9a 1. Angela Eiter - 4 000 2. Anak Verhoeven - 3 950 3. Margo Hayes - 2 700 4. Chanourdie, Bereziartu and Shiraishi - 2 600 5. Eleven female with one 9a - 1 300 Noteworthy is that Angela Eiter is a contender for being the best female Lead competition climber having won four World Championships and three times she won the Lead World Cup.

Over the years, I have checked and asked possibly around 100 athletes and at least 20 coaches to understand what is the best training practice. In general, there is actually no mainstream idea but instead many different approaches. This means that you should not try to copy the ideas from just one athlete or coach randomly but instead try as many regimes as possible before you will find what suites you best. However, what has struck me most is that the best male like Adam Ondra, Chris Sharma and Daniel Woods are that they did not followed any training regime being teenagers. They just followed their passion and climbed as much as possible living the moment instead of just focusing on short term progress. The other thing that have made extreme impression is watching and talking with the Japanese athletes over the years. They can not stop playing around having fun together. After the final in Munich 2017, when everyone had left for the party, they continued trying the final boulders in their sneakers for an hour until their hands were bleeding. Thirdly, Jernej Kruder won the Boudering World Cup in 2018 did contrary to most of the successful boulderers not focus on indoors. Instead of power training and jumping around on volumes indoors, he spent many hours sport climbing, DWS, bolting and even doing vertical multi-pitches, see picture. On the other hand, there are several athletes that have been successful following extreme training programs mainly training alone. In other words, the best training is individual and you better start trying them all. It seems it does not matter so much what you do as long as you are so motivated so you put in as many hours possible.