Sean Bailey, #2 in a boulder WC last year, reports on Insta that he has done Joe Mama 9a+ in Oliana. (c) Bearcam Last month, Sean won the USA Bouldering Nationals and now he is on his way back to US again, competing in the Lead nationals this weekend.

Brian Nugent, who previously has just done one 8B+, has flashed Spectre 8B in Bishop. "I cannot think to dream of a climb in first try, but sometimes we cannot think of a dream of truth. First flash in historic problem and I can feel an incredible overwhelm of joy, anger with others for not realize their potential, and most of all FEAR in horrible choss top slab. To rephrase what is said to me by amazed friends “Nuggles on Fire!!!!!” I had a big spray down from friends Bryce and Vincent with specific hand crystal beta and even a mental checklist, but I’m the moment it’s just like a freestyle, “follow the path, go with the flow.”

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Ett inlägg delat av Brian Nugent (@babybizzazzle) 3 Mar 2019 kl. 8:09 PST

Cathy Wagner has done No sombra 8a and BTRM 8a+ in Rodellar. "For me, a hard and logical link-up starting on BTR and ending with the crucial top section of Montserrat, much better than the chipped ending of BTR. One of the best routes for sure!" In total, the 53 year old has done 712 routes 8a and harder the last 25 years out of which possibly one fourth second go.

CWIF turned out as always to be a good show and a great start of the comp season 2019. Especially among the male, many of the best participated and Nathan Phillips, #6 in the WCH 2018, had secured his victory even before he had tried boulder #3. Runner up was Sean McColl ahead of Alexey Rubtsov who did score four zones. Among the female, we saw more tops and Melissa Le Neve, who stopped doing Boulder WC's in 2016 when she was #3 overall, won ahead of Stasa Gejo. Third was Chloe Caulier who could have won if she would have stuck the last boulder as we see on the picture.

Isabelle Faus has done her 18th 8B, out of which eight just the last year, Catllica 8B in Clear Creek Canyon. Two weeks ago, the 26 year old did her third 8B+. Isabelle is the new 8a ranking game leader. (c) Chad Greedy "Great one! Harder if you don’t swing your feet early, can’t belive how good this one turned out! Chad vision."

National Geographic has appointed Babsi Zangerl as one of their adventures of the year presenting her in a long great interview focusing on her repeat of Magic Mushroom in 2017. She did it together with her partner Jacopo Larcher and it was the first and second repeat of the 950 meter long route including pitches up to 8b+ which was set up by Tommy Caldwell in 2005. 8a has for many years said that Babsi is the best allrounder in the world. In 2008, she did the first female 8B boulder and then in 2009, she got an herniated vertebral disc which had her to stop bouldering. In 2017, she did an 8c trad and in 2018 she also did her first 9a. Strangely, nothing of this is mentioned in the article. In total, there are five adventurer of the year and the other climbing related is Maureen Beck, disabled climber without left arm below the elbow who has won the Para Climbing Championship twice and in 2018, she got the bronze.

Nika Potapova and Fedir Samoilov have done Fuck the system 9a in Santa Linya. Nika did her first 8b+ being 12 years old. Last year Nika was #2 in the Lead Youth WCH and she won the Youth European CH in Bouldering. Fedir did two 9a's in 2016 being 18 years old and then he had an amazing 2017 being #9 in the Lead World Cup. The following winter he got some elbow and wrist problems missing training but in the last three WCs 2018, his worst result was #11. " I have a very good coach. His name Artur Pechii and he is like a superman doing all the things that sportsman need including: coaching, planning trips, driving a car, doing massage, etc... 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"

Alizée Dufraisse reports on Facebook that Dave Graham has finally done La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. More info to come.

Stefano Ghisolfi has been #2 in the Lead World Cup the last two years at the same time he has done four 9b's as well as a 9b+, last December. This year his focus is qualifying to the Olympics and he just won the Italian Cup in Bouldering. When it comes to Speed he was the Italian Champion in 2010 at 7.96 which has made him take it kind of slow with the Speed focus until now. In other words, the Italian is both one of the best rock climbers at the same time he is one of the contenders for a medal in Tokyo 2020. (c) Sara Grippo from Queen Line 9b he did three days ago. How have you been training this winter and what is your next focus? After Perfecto Mundo (9b+), in January and February my focus has been mostly competition bouldering, I trained a lot on my weakness (slabs, coordination, jumps) and in February I was already improving and I won the first Italian Cup. During the week I choose to go rock climbing for one day per week, and I started trying the Queen line. The focus continues to be bouldering and improving in speed too, I'm running around 8 seconds The comps I planned to do are the first four of bouldering, and all the lead circuit, and some of the speed ones. The main focus will be Tokyo and Tolouse if I don't qualify in Tokyo. I hope to do under 7.50, I think it could be enough for qualifying, but i could be wrong. I will continue climbing outdoor once a week, I'm lucky to live in Arco so I can go half day outdoor and even train in the afternoon, Laghel is just 10 minutes from home. Now I will try another project there, the King Line, that has a harder ending to the Queen Line and is at least 9b+, and there are still other 2 possible 9b or harder routes there, my rock projects for this year will be close to home so I can still focus on training without traveling too much, because I will travel a lot for competition already. What kind of impact will the Olympics have for the federations and the athletes? Olympics had a strong impact in our federation, the focus now is 100% on the people who want and can qualify for Tokyo and want to train in the combined, and unfortunately the choose not to have specialist (for the single discipline) in the world cup circuit, so many strong climbers in bouldering and speed will be cut out the world cup circuit to let the combined climbers to compete. There will be a huge split between competition climbers (that will try to qualify for Tokyo) and rock climbers (probably all the specialist who cannot compete in the world cup will focus on rock climbing).