UKC has published an article saying, "Guidebooks should omit specific Sport Route Lengths". For me this is wrong. Looking in a topo for planning which sector you want to do, it is great to know the length of the route. I mean, maybe you do not want to climb 10 meters routes and instead your focus is 30 meter long endurance routes or vice versa. To not include route length in the topo, mean you might end up at a crag with 35 or 40 meter long routes with just a 60 or 70 meter long rope.

Fanatic Climbing reports that Gerome Pouvreau has done Alex Megos Supercrackinette 9a+ famous after Adam Ondra's flash. “For the grade, after the 2 amazing guys who have sent the line before before me, nothing to add! A huge congrats to Adam for his flash, it’s very nice for our sport, and it’s also fascinating how he combines waiting, observation, projecting, sending… Hats off!” The day after Florence Pinot did La ligne claire 8c+ also in St Léger. Here is an interview with the former competition climbers who previously has done a couple 8c+' including Escalatamasters which some consider 9a.

Nando Zanchetta has searched the internet for the weight and length for some top athletes in order to measure BMI. Based on that IFSC reports males with lower than 18 and female with lower than 17, it seems under weight seems not be be such a big issue. Bear in mind also that Asians normally have a lower BMI and that goes also for teenagers. On the other hand, the Boulder World Cup winner 2017, Jongwon Chon from Korea has a BMI at 17.1 by 176 cm and 53 kg. However, coaches and athletes have said that it seems he actually eats healthy. He is just like some Asians, naturally very skinny.

Isabelle Faus has done the FFA of Delusion of Grandeur 8B (on the picture) and after she sent as well Electric Ant 8A+ in Chironico. Days ago she also did an 8A and 8A+. ©Chad Greedy "Wow! So psyched, super classic boulder. not my style at all....slopers.. really big crux move that is my full extension. Top out is high and committing and satisfying... I was scared on the slab! not usually an FFA type of girl.. I think its dumb in most cases.. but I think I'm the first girl to do this, and it's one of the most classic boulders in Ticino so thats kinda cool.. Went up and the Electric Ant (the new start) right after! Probably one of my best days of climbing!" Isabelle has logged on her scorecard 93 ascents from 8A to 8B+ and is one of the best boulderers of all time.

Talking about flexibility and that the top Japanese boulderers stretch four hours a day, we have asked Klaus Isele, MSc D.O. Physiotherapeut and Osteopath of the Austria National Climbing Team and Adam Ondra, for some advice. Adam has been stretching systematically since he was a kid and is probably the top climber with most flexibility, which is part of his success. The picture is taken during the stretching preparation just some minutes before Ondra did the world's first 9c, Silence in Flatanger. "If it’s the case that you always fall off your slab project just because your hips can’t stay close enough to the wall stretching exercises could maybe help. If you do proper stretching you might achieve your goals faster and better. Bodyweight and stretching have something in common. You might not have the perfect bodyweight for climbing. Nature puts you somewhere but with some effort you can gain or loose some kilograms. What I still monitor is that some climbers believe that it is enough to stretch for 40 seconds in order to get “longer” = forget it. You need to hold a stretching position for two minutes (I often recommend three times the same position with that holding time). That works! To really gain length you have to repeat it every day. Your results will be visible after approximately 14 days. Afterwards depending on what you want to achieve keep going. If you’ve forgotten to stretch one day, you are thrown back for about four days, especially at the beginning. The so called hysteresis phenomenon is the base of this, if you want you can say that it is the “supercompensation” of stretching. Conclusion: There is no wrong or right stretching, it just depends on what you wanna achieve with it. If you prepare yourself for climbing it might be sufficient for you to stretch for 30 seconds. But if you are really interested in gaining length in some muscular areas then you need to work on every section for two minutes in every stretching position."

Fanatic Climbing reports that Julia Chanourdie, #5 in the World Cup last year, has done her second 9a, Molasse’son in Mollans. Photo: Jocelyn Chavy "It has been a while some people were speaking to me about this crag of Mollans. I was there for the first time last October. from the beginning, “Mollasse’son” inspired me a lot. This route is in a 45° overhang and maybe more in some parts. It could be broken in very intense parts of finger resistance between few rests. The hardest part is for me the start, very bouldery."

The graph shows the Google Trend female statistics based on Sports. Alex Puccio is rather superior and surprisingly Lynn Hill is second, well above Ashima Shiraishi and Janja Garnbret.