Charles Albert has done seven 8C to 9A boulder problems but what is unique is his barefoot style. If he could go beyond his ethics, using one shoe, there are probably many more hard core boulders to be done, which could be unrepeated for several years. It would take any climber several months to learn and develop their toe strength, bouldering shoe less, but for Charles it is just to lace up. In regards his No Kpote Only FA in Fontainebleu, there are some ethics question to be answered before we could call it the hardest graded boulder in the world. The grade 9A suggest that when it comes to difficulty it can only be compared to Hukkataival's Burden of Dreams. The hassle is that it seem more like a constructed problem and not a natural boulder as the start seem contrived. Instead of starting in the first logical sit start position, three traverse moves have been added to the left. This is quite often done in bouldering in order to increase the difficulty. Creating harder challenges are just great but for me, they should be called problems instead of boulders. Further more, the problem finishes with some chipped holds. In route climbing, sit starts can be said to be the same constructed problems opting for a high grade. The dilemma is that we should not have the hardest and glorified routes and boulders as contrived chipped problems, as this could just popularize such ethics. So for me, No Kpote Only is not the hardest graded boulder in the world although it is the hardest graded problem. On the other hand, Charles is possibly the first contender to set up the world's first 9A+ if he started to use one shoe!

Oriane Bertone has done Bio-Affinity 8B in Rocklands which is an extended version to War of Attrition 8A+, which she did two days ago. Both boulders were put up as 8B's by David Graham in 2014. The 13 year old is now the new ranking game #1. The video is just mind blowing.

Gudmund Grønhaug, project leader at Østfold hospital trust and Flatanger pioneer, has recently published a study showing no associations of performance, chronic injuries and BMI. The study, which includes a web-based questionnaire with 667 climber, is one of the largest epidemiological studies on climbers so far and the only to assess chronic injuries alone. Although the conclusion seems counter intuitive, the study gives a good explanation on the lack of relationship between performance, chronic injuries and BMI. For a short-term goal, losing weight might seem to be a good idea to increase the strength to weight ratio. Still, loosing weight means to put a significant stress on the body by under-eating. In this period of undernourishment, the possibility for injuries and sickness or disease raises at the same time as the ability to train as hard as possible drops. In periods of malnutrition restitution is prolonged as well. And that’s for the short-term goals! In the longer term it seems to be a far better idea to have a few kilos extra, live a happy life and train injury free rather than being skinny! The reason is simple; the body adapts to whatever stress we put to it and losing weight also means training with a lower resistance at each repetition. The full paper is to be found here.

Nika Potapova has done her second 8c, La Fabelita in Santa Linya. The pic by Henning Wang is three years old when she first tried it being 12 years old. "She worked on the route just for few days and fell several times on the last hard move on her last day. The hanger of the last bolt had fell of so she took some very long falls and hit the wall some times due to a bad belayer. Great will power to try hard." Some months later she did her her first 8c. When she was 13 years old, Nika hung on the Zlagboard for some 2 min and 40 seconds, which is an un-official female world record.

Grimper reports that Charles Albert has made the FA of No Kpote only 9A in Fontainebleau. "Mowgli" stopped using shoes some five years ago and says the biggest problem is that you have to rest more in order for the toe skin to recover. Previously he has done a handful 8C's and one 8C+ in Fontainebleau, out of which several unrepeated. Video from last year together with Giuliano Cameroni, who comments. "If you use climbing shoes you need them super soft and no you would execute a slightly different move: instead of swinging with your left arm straight and your body out of the wall, you try to rock on the right foot, stay close to the wall and fall into the shoulder. The first three moves are more or less 8A. The the two crux moves, iron shoulder into cross, followed by the 7C+ stand." It should be mentioned that the 7C+ finish, which is not in the video, was chipped some years ago.

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.