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

For several years, I have always getting pumped faster in my right arm and consequently I am always hanging in my left arm while clipping. Three months ago I went to a chiropractor and he did some things with my neck saying that possibly the pump comes from squeezed nerves in my neck and shoulders. He also told me to lean against a wall and then push my chin down- and upwards five times several times a day. Remarkably, I am getting slowly better and the chiropractor says that it is just normal for squeezed nerves to take month to recover. Reasons for getting such problems could be looking up while belaying, working with the fingers moving the mouse or iPhone, ageing and too much climbing training. In other words, there just might be many climbers that could benefit from a chiropractor and some chin stretching.

8a has presented a new scoring system with points for IFSC. If you top a boulder you get 10 points and for a flash 11 points are awarded. In other words, four flashes means 44 points, similar to the today optimal score 4T4. For the first zone, 2 points are given and for the second zone, 4 points. Alternatives have also been proposed like 1 and 3 points for the two zones and 10,2 points for a second go Top. When the scoring is tied, the same tie-breaker as today are used, aka # of attempts to Top and Zone. However, the first tie-breaker is the result in the last boulder in order to increase the drama.

Dylan Barks has done his first 9a, Southern Smoke Direct in Red River Gorge. The 22 year old has previously done three 8c+, out of which the last one when he was 18 years old. Then he had some health issues and climbed of and on until he took one year off. His come back started one year ago. (c) Dru Mack "Southern Smoke Direct was a route that I tried 4 years ago and wasn’t able to put together. I came back this week and managed to climb through the bottom v12 boulder pretty quickly, but heartbreakingly fell on the very last move. I took a rest day and returned to the route on a beautiful, crisp and cold day. I hopped on the route expecting to fall on the bottom boulder at least a few times, yet somehow I executed the moves better than ever and found myself at the jug rest in the blink of an eye. From there I warmed up my hands as much as I could and just started climbing and trying to flow to the best of my ability. As I entered the last few moves I felt pretty confident I would be clipping the anchors on my first 9a, the hardest grade established in the Red. Grabbing the last few crimps and being able to shake out felt pretty surreal. I grabbed the last hold and pulled one more move to the rest jug and couldn’t believe I had just done a rock climb I’ve dreamed about climbing for years. Doing this route meant a lot to me, and I am extremely excited to continue improving and pushing my limits as a climber. As a side note, I did another dream route today with Pure Imagination 8c+.

Stefano Ghisolfi has repeated Adam Ondra's recent One Slap 9b in Laghel which is a direct start to Ghisolfi's One Punch 9a+. In the Lead World Cup 2017, the Italian was #2. (c) Matteo Pavana "Queen Line into One Punch, my third 9b and second of the year! Probably one of the hardest route I've ever climbed, but still very far from my limit!"

8a has suggested a new bouldering format to IFSC allowing more finalists. The Norweigian Sports manager and National coach Reino Horak, hope to see 12 finalists next year on their national competitions. - 12 finalists mean that double as many get the opportunity to challenge themselves and have fun in the final. It also means a bigger interest to travel to a competition as many more will hope to be able to do two rounds. It is a waste of route setters time to just allow six guys in the final and further more, the more finalists, the greater chance for tied score and drama on the last boulder. I think all coaches and athletes would agree that more finalists would be more fun. The simple solution for increasing the # of finalists is simple to make three participants rotate on the first three boulders. After a short break, the Top-6 athletes will make it into the "super final", starting in reversed order. This means an increasing drama where everyone will exactly know what the last guy out needs to do to get the best overall score. When it comes to competition time, the rotating format, including 8 or 9 finalist, will save around 20 minutes. Also though having 12 finalist will not increase the competition time. 8a has also suggested a new point scoring system that will be presented in a few days.