Stefan Scarperi, #3 in the Euro Bouldering Championship in 2015, has done Back Road 9a in Rovereto after three days of projecting. In the Combined ranking game, the Italian is #11. (c) Fabio Fin "Next week I will go to Frankenjura for two weeks. The main goal is to climb Action Directe and other cool stuff, then bouldering in Ticino.

Janja Garnbret started last out and looked to have everything in control three moves from the top when she slipped and it was obvious that the hold was wet, as the exact same thing had just happened for Jain Kim. As the rain seemed to just get stronger they decided to cancel both the finals. This means that the final results was based on the semifinal. As both Janja and Jain topped both qually routes and had the same scoring in the semi, we got two winners among the female. This also means that Janja Garnbret secured her overall title 2018. 1. Janja Garnbret/Jain Kim - Romain Desgranges 2. Jakob Schubert 3. Jessica Pilz - Hyunbin Min 4. Akiyo Noguchi - Hidemassa Nishida 5. Katharina Posch - Stefano Ghisolfi Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke Among the male, Romain Desgranges got his first victory in 2018 and Jakob Schubert secured the overall title without having to climb the final. Overall, Japan got sex male and female in the Top-15 although some of the top male did not participate.

1. Jakob Schubert 495 - Janja Garnbret 550 2. Stefano Ghisolfi 437 - Jessica Pilz 460 3. Romain Desgranges 313 - Jain Kim 330 4. Domen Skofic 270 - Manon Hily 238 5. Alex Megos 230 - Hannah Schubert 202 Complete results National Team Ranking 1. Austria 1 526 2. Slovenia 1 328 3. Japan 1 298 4. France 945 5. Italy 759

Several of the finalists in Wujiang were upset about the cancellation of a final again in China and said unofficially that they will not compete in China next year. Most of the athletes spend a full day travelling from Europe and then they are not allowed to climb a final in fair conditions or to climb the final at all. As this has also happened in Europe, it is time for IFSC to either have all events indoors or to really cover the walls so it is possible to compete also during heavy rain. Do you know any other sports, beside regatta sailing and snow sports, where cancellation like this happens as often as in climbing?

From the Start List for the coming weekend's Lead World Cup in Wujiang, we can see that Stefano Ghisolfi will try out Speed but in general, the interest for Speed is not so big for the Lead specialists. Further more many of the top ranked Japanese will not participate and instead there are some new names out of the 15 that will participate. In general, eight of the Top-21 male ranked are missing and that goes also for the following weekend in Xiamen. Live-streaming of the semi, 13.00 - 15.30 on Sunday followed with the finals at 18.30. If Jessica Pilz wins the last two events, Janja Garnbret secures the victory overall by being runner up in one event and #3 in the other. If Jakob Schubert wins in Wujiang, he secures the overall title even if Stefano Ghisolfi is #2 in Wujiang and wins in Xiamen.

SA Mountain report that platforms at the base of Montgu have been built and that more are coming. It seems such platforms are coming all over the place in order to increase access. Such initiatives will increase the facility to the gym rats and families to try out climbing outdoors. At the same time we see more hikes being comfortized as well as more via ferrata etc. Climbing is booming and the society is starting to understand that climbing, especially outdoors, have a great impact on public health. With Tokyo 2020, most probably what we see in order to lower the first step to get outdoors climbing, is just the beginning.

Adam Ondra is the best climber in the history and he is also probably also the one, relatively to his age, who has climbed most hours in the world. Sure there great short term physical training programs which will make you improve but the #1 criteria to have a long term progress is how many fun challenging hours you put in. A coach that can motivate her/his group to train and challenge themselves 20 hours a week, is probably much more successful in comparison to the best physical climbing trainer in the world, motivating the group just 10 hours a week. At the same time a youngster that not also love outdoors, if possible, will have hard time to keep the hours and motivation during the summer. "I love training as much as competition!" is a recent quote from Akiyo Noguchi which also Ondra and other top climbers often say in public. Ondra interview from when he was 11-years-old. "More meters, more experiences, more fun!" The bottom line is that you and the coaches should carefully pay attention of what motivates the youngsters in order to make them climb 20 hours a week. This might of course be a training programmed but it can also just be climbing. Everyone is unique but it is a fact that most of the best climbers did not have any coaches focusing on short term progress through strict training programs, when they were kids.

Julija Kruder did follow her brother Jernej to Mallorca to try out DWS for the frist time. No fear - she started by doing a 7c onsight and then it just took her eight tries to do Chris Sharma's Weatherman 8a+ including some falls from 12 meters. This might be the hardest female DWS ever? "I was extremely surprised, because she didn't feel any fear." Jernej, who also put up two 8b+' says that there is a video coming up.

Ivana If Řezníková has done Star gate 8A+ in Szklarska Poreba. This was her second 8A+ this year when she also did six 8A's. More info on her blogspot.

Fanatic Climbing presents an interview with Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson in regards their Dawn Wall ascent which has become a movie. Interesting is that Tommy had to do a variation pitch, including down climbing, as he could not do the dyno going more straight up. In fact, they say that either Chris Sharma and Jonathan Siegrist could not manage the dyno and even Adam Ondra did choose the loop pitch. In the topo, both the loop as well as the dyno pitch are graded 9a but in practice, Jorgeson's straight up pitch is probably more like 9a+?