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

Most of the best competition climbers did take one more trip to China to finish of the season. Janja Garnbret won in Lead, climbing faster than Jessica Pilz, who also topped both rounds. In bouldering, Miho Nonaka won and and Garnbret was second. Miho was also the fastest among the Combined competitors with 10.30 and Janja Garnbret did her debut with 13.60. Overall, Janja would have won the Combined if such multiplication would have been done. Among the male, Jakob Schubert got one more victory and in bouldering Jongwon Chon did also win again. When it comes to Speed, Jan Hojer was superior among the Combined guys by being #11 which also was his results in Lead. In Boulder he was #4. The best Combined male result was however achieved by Ogata Yushiyuki (19), who was #3 and #3 and #17, third last, in Speed. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke

Vertical-Life is about to redesign and improve the 8a.nu platform. Are you a software engineer and would like to work together with a highly motivated team? Please send your application to [email protected]. Required skills: - Object oriented programming - Experience with relational databases - Basic web development skills (CSS, Javascript, DHTML, HTML) Desired skill: - C# / ASP.NET - Ruby / Ruby on Rails

La Sportiva Legends Only will take place for the seventh year in a row in Klättercentret in Stockholm 25/11 and it will be a live-streaming. The line up is impressive as always. Shauna Coxsey, Petra Klingler, Staša Gejo, Katja Kadić, Fanny Gibert and Mélissa Le Nevé.

Vertical-Life Climbing App recently integrated the Tarragona Climbs guidebook by Pete O’Donovan and Dani Andrada in its topo collection. This means that there is now a digital version of the famous climbing guide, which presents some of the major crags of Catalonia, among others Siurana and Margalef. Tarragona is known to be a treasure trove for sport climbers and one of the most important sport climbing destinations in Europe. A very active climbing community has turned the area into a true climbing mekka for pros and for amateurs alike. The second edition of the guidebook by Pete O’Donovan and Dani Andrada contains more than 100 crags, which represent only part of the huge range of available sectors. However, the authors have taken their choice carefully and made sure to present the most worthwile areas. The digital guidebook is now available in the Vertical-Life App, where climbers can purchased the full guidebook or smaller chapters. The printed guide will be out by the end of November.

Adam Ondra has done another two 9a's, the FA of Ci Sta in Arco and Mongo in Schleier Wasserfall. In the picture by Roland Hemetzberger you can see it was done in snowy conditions. Overall, the 24 year old has now recorded 149 routes 9a to 9c in his scorecard that has been opened 2.1 million times. Alex has done 74 routes 9a and harder and is runner up on this list ahead of Ramon Julian Puigblanque (66) and Dani Andrada (65).

During the last months in 8a we have been testing the excelent Boreal Mutant. This well designed shoe (as many of Boreal) is extremly precise in many of the rock types we have tested on. The shoe is leather made and adjusts with one velcro strap. They're also made in Spain. (c)Talo Martín - Muérdago Films It is very interesting the LTS (lateral torsion system) that avoids the shoe to lose the shape, spreading the tension over the sides and keeping the comfort. The covering for the toes is made with Friction Skin that makes the toe-hooking very comfy and accurate. The midsole works super good on edges feeling the holds way bigger. The heel is completly filled with no gaps, wich makes it easy to use even in small crimps despite being rounded. The sticky 4mm Boreal Zenith rubber completes this sending pack for your proyects.

Based on the IFSC provisional calendar 2018 it seems there will be a record number of comps during 2018. In total the senior calendar includes seven Lead and Boulder World Cups plus the World Champion. For the juniors, there will be a total of ten Euro Youth Cups in Lead and Boulder, a World Champion and also Olympic Games. At the same time there are more comps then ever, they are spread out more meaning more travel. For the guys focusing on Tokyo 2020, the schedule is so hectic that it will almost not be possible to do all Boulder and Lead events, without loosing some valuable training time. Boulder 13/4 Meiringen - Switzerland 21/4 Moscow - Russia (Speed) 5/5 Chongqing - China (S) 12/5 Taian - China (S) 2/6 Tokyo - Japan 8/6 Vail - USA 18/8 Munich - Germany Lead 6/7 Villars - Switzerland (S) 12/7 Chamonix - France (S) 20/7 Briancon - France 27/7 Arco - Italy (S) 29/9 Kranj - Slovenia 20/10 Wujiang - China (S) 27/10 Xiamen - China (S) World Championships/Games 6-16/9 Innsbruck - Austria 7-19/7 Central Saanich - Canada: Youth 6-18/10 Buenos Aires - Argentina: Youth A

Although nobody agreed on the Combination format in the Olympics, many of the best have said they will go for it or have started trying the other disciplines. However, with the multiplication format it might be counter-productive to seriously train Speed before the qualifications are over. Most likely, some 20 Speed specialist will try it out, as if you win the Speed and get lucky in Boulder, you just might make it to Tokyo. This means that the very best Speed climber, out of the regular guys focusing on Lead and Boulder, can only get #21 in Speed. On the other hand, training Speed and especially the leg muscles, will most certainly have some negative aspects on Boulder and especially Lead performance. Here is the math showing that it might be counter-productive to seriously train Speed before the qualifications is over. The base of the analysis is that you drop (at least) one position in Lead and Boulder if you seriously train Speed. 21 (Speed) * 3 * 3 = 189, looses to 47 * 2 * 2 = 188 21 (Speed) * 2 * 5 = 210, looses to 52 * 1 * 4 = 208 Training Speed seriously to become #21 in the World Champion qualification should mean at least 5 hours a week. This will make you gain at least 2 - 4 kilos at the same time you will have less time for training Lead and Boulder as well as getting outdoors. In other words, the guys investing in serious Speed training will loose much more than just one position. This means that the "ordinary" results in the World Cup also will deteriorate and if you can not evolve yourself into an Olympic robot, your mental health and strength will be poor when the qualification starts. In fact, Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra just might have greater chances to win the golds by totally skipping any serious Speed training what so ever. First they will enjoy and have fun winning all the World Cups as many of their competitors will be weaker both physically as well as mentally. The twist of this counter-productive claim is that in Tokyo, where all the Speed specialists that eat Lead and Boulderers as breakfast, have failed to make it. The #21 Speed guy would finally get turn on his investment winning Speed in the first round where 20 competes. Any how, if Ondra walks the Speed track in 20 seconds and then win Boulder and Speed, he will get an multiplicative score of 6 points. Even if the Speed winner remarkably gets #2 and #3 in Lead and Boulder, he is runner up overall. 1 (Speed) * 2 * 3 = 6, looses to 6 * 1 * 1 = 6 on count back