FREE SOLO is the mind blowing documentary of Alex Honnold preparing and, without a rope, climbs the 900 meters Freerider 7c in Yosemite. Watching him training and doing the boulder crux was almost like watching a horror movie. He and his girlfriend come out as such nice people and just thinking about him falling 900 meters to the ground... On the other hand, there is probably a greater risk trying to summit K2... Photograph © 2018 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. Alex has recorded 961 climbs including three 8c+'. This is his comment of Freerider which he did 17-06-03."Solo! 3:56 on route. The end of an epic life dream. Such an experience. Logged it as a boulder problem - thanks 8a." 8a has a general policy to not publish solo or death potential climbs but we have often made exceptions for Alex Honnold, as his free solos are out there anyway. The very good thing with Freerider is that he has probably more or less killed the free solo genre. Sure some will continue to climb without a rope but the competition is over.

1. Chuck Odette (63) 2. Cathy Wagner (53) 3. Toni Lamprecht (47) 4. Franz Fackler (48) 5. Dai Koyamada (42) 6. Iker Pou (41) 7. Maggie Odette (48) 8. Fabrizio Peri (47) 9. Israel Olcina (43) 10. Matteo Gambaro, Nicola Vonarburg, Johnny Dawes (54), Dino Lagni (50), Gareth Parry (45), Bernhard Schwaiger (43), Jędrzej Wilczyński (44), Duygu Haug (42), Katrin Grûndler (40)

Vadim Timonov has flashed his second 8B, PFC in Albarracin where he the day before flashed Zarzaparilla 8A+. One year ago he had a bad snow board accident where he ruptured the acromion joint that left him with two plates in the shoulder. He started training in May and then in September he was #25 in the Boulder WCH. More pics and training videos on his Insta.

Almost everyone knows that you are not allowed to look at the next boulder during comps although it is called flash. However, sometimes it is almost impossible to not have a glance of your next boulder once checking your personal boulder. The big problem is that in the rules, there is no paragraph, saying that you are not allowed to look at other climbers trying your upcoming boulders. Most probably, a climber checking the other boulders, will be told to not do so by the judges but nevertheless, the important beta might just have been found. What will happen if a climber neglects what the judge say and go around checking the other boulders during the Olympic qualifications? Based on the rules, it seems very hard for the judge to disqualify that person as he/she is not breaking any rules, beside fair play. IFSC need to add a paragraph saying that bouldering is an onsight competition, as in Lead, where you are not allowed to see the other climbers trying your upcoming boulders.

1. Janja Garnbret (19) 2. Oriane Bertone (13) 3. Laura Rogora (17) 4. Jakub Konecny (19) 5. Rei Kawamata (15) 6. Moritz Welt (17) 7. Kai Harada (19) 8. Futaba Ito (16) 9. Meichi Narasaki (19) 10. Chaehyeon Seo (14), Sandra Lettner (17), Margo Hayes (19), Loic Zehani (17), Keita Dohi (17), Giorgia Tesio (18), Angie Scarth-Johnson (14), Alex Totkova (13), Ema Seliškar (14), Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi (13), Filip Schenk (18), Philipp Gaßner (18), Zander Waller (15), Natsuki Tanii (15), Elena Krasovskaia (18), , Brooke Raboutou (17), Sam Avezou (17), Ai Mori (15), Shuta Tanaka (17), Alberto Lopez (16), Katie Malinowski (18), Cameron Hörst (16), Conner Herson (15), Jan Vopat (15), Jakob Kronberger (17), Kintana Iltis (15), Lukas Mayerhofer (18), Clay Gordon (17), Lucka Rakovec (17), Hannah Slaney (19), Vita Lukan (18), Nika Potapova (15) Yannick Flohé (19)

Cathy Wagner has done her 149th 8a+, Le monde perdu in Destel. "An exceptional route defined by a very physical endurance effort (for me anyway) as you climb on the edge of a prow-like overhang. Took me 2 days to get the right beta and was totally wasted afterwards! Today, I managed to send it straight away after warming-up, thanks to the perfect conditions and Seb cheering me. Getting fit again after a bad cold which lasted 3 weeks feels good! In total the 53 year old has done 703 routes 8a to 8b during the last 25 years. Interestingly, like one third she has done second go. Possibly it is time to raise the bar to 8b+ in 2019?

IFSC Lead semis and finals are run in onsight format. This means that the athletes are allowed to look at the routes for five minutes, even with binoculars. Further more they are allowed to cooperate and discuss and sometimes they draw sketches in the iso. In practice, also including the often straight forward route setting, most athletes share the same sequences often making the semis quite boring, like they were flashing or even redpointing big parts of the route. In IFSC bouldering semis, the athletes get much less possibility to check the boulders and they are now allowed to cooperate. The key is often finding the right beta but nevertheless this format is considered flash. In Lead comps, the definition of flash is totally the opposite. The athletes are provided with a beta video and they can sit and look at each other climbing. Further more, they can talk even to the guys having tried the climb. It must be quite confusing especially for the non-climbers why IFSC commentators say bouldering semis are run in flash format as it clearly is a more pure onsight, in comparsion to the Lead onsight format. It should be mentioned that in the IFSC rules, they never define whether bouldering is run in flash or onsight format. In other words, it is the commentators and climbers who confusingly call it flash.

Max Bertone, little brother to Oriane, starts to catch up to her level. During two weeks, the 11 year old has done 13 boulders 7C to 8A+, ouct of which second go of Proa 7C+ and Light Saber 8A+ in less than ten tries sticks out. As a matter of a fact, the latter was put up by Dave Graham as an 8B but it has been recorded as a soft 8A. Both are captured in this video.