Shauna Coxsey and Leah Crane have become well known as inseparable training buddies, the grueling hours spent down at the gym, hanging on the fingerboard or lifting weights have become interspersed with lighthearted yogabatics, 360 degree rotation challenges on the wall and of course plenty of giggling! “When you train so intensely, having a training partner makes all the difference. There are good times and hard times, down times and psyched times... it's always better with a training buddy.” Leah Crane & Shauna Coxsey Both Shauna and Leah come from non-climbing families, yet started indoors around the age of four. Shauna, originally from Runcorn and Leah from Nottingham would compete in local and national comps before gaining a place on the Junior British team at around the age of twelve. They have been climbing together on and off for the last fifteen years, from the early days of competing at junior national finals, GB trips to Fontainebleau and now to full times training and competing to-gether. Shauna is 2016 & 2017 world IFSC Boulder World Cup Champion and is also the first British women to climb 8B & 8B+. Leah has been competing on and off for many years and with a couple of national titles under her belt she committed to a full Boulder World Cup session last year, finishing 11th overall and this year 25th overall. Before the Boulder World Cups began this year the pair headed across the pond to California for a two week training camp, visit to muscle beach and of course Joshua Tree. Alongside this, they also managed to fit in a trip to 5.10 HQ where they provided feedback on the ideal competition shoe. 5.10 have been working closely with Shauna to design the perfect competition shoe. The new Anasazi VCS Pro will be introduced in spring 2018. The ‘Pro’ model will have a Mi6 rubber toe patch, improved heel tension for better fit and performance and a breathable, padded mesh tongue.

Chong Pli, with some 70 routes in between 5 to 8, is located some 10 km from Ao'nang, where you take the boat to Railay. "As this crag “Chong Pli” is fairly recent, polish on the routes is not an issue. We have opened up a humble bungalow resort with restaurant at the base of this crag. We climb here and take the longtailboat on days when we want to climb on Tonsai/Railay."

Lucy Humphreys has done her first 8A+, Diaphanous sea in Hueco Tanks. She has previously done four 8A's out of which three last year. Here is the video. "I can't believe it! Two weeks ago I could hardly walk properly, and today, I ticked a climb from my life list, gimpy ankle and all! Couldn't be more stoked to return to Hueco healthy to see what I can put down. I sprained my ankle four weeks before my trip, but we had already booked everything, so I decided to go anyways! The injury meant that I wasn't able to heel hook, toe hook, knee bar, or drop knee properly, which is not an easy task in Hueco. However, the biggest challenge was that I wasn't able to fall on it at all! I had to be extremely careful, and either be sure that I could do a boulder, or sort of eject from the problem onto my back! It was pretty frustrating at first, but as the trip went on I got used to it.

Being a fan of fingerboard training for many years, I am now also a fan of Fingerschinder and that goes for the whole family. We have had regular gymnastic rings in our living roof under our staircase for a year and my kids are hanging there regularly. Once we put up the Fingerschinder, we have all found new exercises. Sure my Zlagboard is better but often it is hard to get started. Rings are like irresistible so you get the warming up for free and this is actually the best thing of them. Then it is just to start experimenting. I just might bring them along out to the rock as you can do the recruitment training without destroying the skin. Fingerschinder has great chances to become a great success but they need your help at Kickstarter

The seventh edition of the La Sportiva Legends Only was as always a nice show. Good job by the route setters, the athletes and the commentators. On the other hand it lasted over three hours and there were a lot of waiting to see the action. Some girls were complaining about all the shoulder moves that is a bit risky from a injury point of view. The thing the show missed was the competition feeling and the commentators did not know who won and we had to wait few minutes to get the winner, even if it actually had been decided once Shauna had secured her bonus. 1. Shauna Coxsey 3T3 5b6 2. Stasa Gejo 3T5 5b6 3. Petra Klingler 2T5 5b8 4. Fanny Gibert 2T5 4b5 5. Melissa LeNeve 1T1 4b5 6. Katja Kadic 1T2 4b8

Moritz Welt has done Zerberus, "Simply one of the best! Fell three times on the very last move in my second session, today solid first go!" and For about life for a while in Frankenjura and he agrees with the down grading to 8B. The same day he also did the FA of the left crux start variation also calling it 8B. All three went down in just some few sessions and although having done 34 boulder 8A and harder, the 16 year almost never needed to project them down. When it comes to routes, he has done one 9a and there he spent six days. (c) Franz Kaiser

Clear visible points marked on the specific zones. I do not agree with the points, from this example, as a Top should always should count more than getting high up on two boulders. The 8a suggestion is two zones, 1 & 3 points, and 10 points for the top, including 11 for a flash. Several years ago I also suggested that IFSC should mark up their routes like this.

jan kares has set his fourth world record in 2017 by doing 238 pull-ups continuously during 34 minutes. Video In 1998, he was #17 in a Lead World Cup but nowadays he is a bolting and onsight fanatic. Since 2008, Jan has spent some 180 days bolting, paying everything by himself, in Sardinia and that is what he does all his vacations. His dream is that this area, close to Cala Gonone, will be one of the best and most famous climbing areas in Europe. The 42 year old has until now done some 250 routes and he thinks it is possible to make 1 000. He will create a topo through Vertical-Life soon.

Nina Williams has done her seventh 8A+, A Maze of death in Bishop. "Turkey-day sending!! Had to figure out my own special beta. 3rd go, 3 days this season." In the 8a ranking game, Nina is #4. (c) James Lucas