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!"

Ryohei Kameyama has had an extraordinary three weeks trip to Fontainebleau where he did two 8C's The Big Island (c) Takuya Nakamura and Jour de chasse as well as three 8B+'. Interestingly, the 20 year old Japanese have done three Boulder World Cups with the best result #43! We will follow up with comments.

Emontana has put together long article including all details how the climbing grades have eveloved from 6a to 9c. At the same time Climbing has put together a list for female achievements since 1799.

Patxi Usobiaga, one of the best competition climbers in the history, has updated his scorecard and goes to #4 in the ranking game. In total the 37 year old has recorded 20 routes 9a and harder. Soon to come a follow up interview from his recent 9a+/b personal best. (c) Ignacio Sandoval Buron