Michaela Kiersch, #1 in the Lead ranking game, won the Hueco Rock Rodeo by doing five boulders 8A and harder during one day. Highlights were two 8A+'; Barefoot on Sacred Ground and Tequila Sunrise. Once they are logged, she will advance to #5 in the Boulder ranking game. Merrickales 1. Michaela Kirsch 6 870 - Keenan Takahashi 7 290 2. Alex Puccio 6 630 - Sam Davis 7 050 3. Paige Claasen 5 910 - Thilo Schröter 6 990 Complete results

Rock & Ice have published an open letter - Chipping and Manufacturing Climbs in Ten Sleep Canyon Needs to Stop. The original letter is mainly pointing out one guy who last week come clean and said he had stopped chipping almost a year ago. This is how he finished a post in a Facebook thread. "I also in no way am trying to discount what I have done. Regardless of what was done previously in the canyon, I have crossed lines when bolting some of my routes. I own this 100% and have paid for those choices, am now paying for them, and will no doubt pay more in the future for them." I have been in contact with the guys writing the open letter and asked the question why they run the - Stop the chipping campaign, when it was stopped almost a year ago? As I did not get any answer, is there anybody who knows what this really is about, as also R & I picked it up?

Isabelle Faus reports on Insta that she has done Memory is Parallax 8B+ in RMNP which is a 3-star line where the crux revolves around two knee drops. Isabelle is the new #1 in the ranking game and she will be #45 among the males ones it has been recorded. In the history of 8a, only Alec Puccio has had a higher female score but with one more 8B+ by Isa, she is the #1 All Time. "I tried really hard and found the right beta, it took probably ten sessions maybe more. The key was this new foot sequence I found, makes one move a bit harder but sets me up really well for the ending. Finding that beta definitely made it all click together. In a month I go to Swiss and then Africa this summer again. I wanna try hard and have fun!"

National Geographic has presented some more insights in regards Alex Honnold's Free Solo of the 950 meters Freerider 7c in Yosemite. It turns out that he had practiced the boulder crux, midways up, >60 times. "One move on the most difficult section required him to cling to a pea-size nub while “karate kicking” one leg to reach a toehold." The Freeblast slabs he practiced >90 times and the Enduro corner >40 times. This just underlines the strong message in the movie that Alex is not a lunatic but instead he had rehearsed so much so the risk was very low. In practice, the boulder crux was probably 7A+ meaning for him it was just more or less a technical and mental difficulty and the same goes for the Freeblast slab. Alex has 961 climbs recorded in his scorecard out of which two 8A+' as well as three 8c+'. (His next climbing goal is to do 9a). So his safety margin doing 7c pitches and one 7A+ boulder was probably very big. In reality, the best estimation how dangerous it was might be to say that if he had done it 100 times, he had fallen to the ground once. This 1 % risk of death could be compared with trying to summit K2 with a much higher probability to die. So the million of movie viewers should instead think about how much dangerous it is to summit K2. "About one person dies on the mountain for every four who reach the summit."

Zach Galla, who recently won the US Combined Nationals, has done his first 8B+, Aggravated Assault in Griffin Falls. "Oh my god yes. Used some weird heel beta. Thought it was gonna make it 8B but it still felt quite a bit harder than the others I’ve done." Full video by (c) Ashima Shiraishi

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Ett inlägg delat av Ashima (@ashimashiraishi) 10 Feb 2019 kl. 8:40 PST

Keenan Takahashi did his first 8A being 23 years old and then he has had a strong progress for four straight years. Just during the last one month he has done four 8B+', out of which two the last week in Hueco Tanks; Blood of a Young Wolfand The Seventh Circle. (c) Brian Hedrick How can you explain this peak? I’m feeling pretty fit and motivated this year; I started doing some basic supplemental training to work my biggest weakness (core). Otherwise just lots of volume trying hard boulders, and some added training at the end of climbing days which I’ve never tried/done before. What is the plan and ambition for 2019? I’m heading to Switzerland for 6 weeks soon; the last couple of months have kind of just been preparation for that trip. I haven’t really climbed in the Ticino area so I’m really excited to finally get to spend a good chunk of time there and hopefully find some new stuff. The other big trip I have planned for the year is to get back to Rocklands in summer; I have two boulders I want to repeat but mostly want to try and develop hard highballs. It’s always been my biggest driving factor and finally having more power I’m hoping it can open doors to really pushing myself both physically and mentally.