Innsbruck 2018 has published a full length interview with Margo Hayes conducted during the Youth World Championship. (c) Heiko Wilhelm "I don’t think that "first female ascent" is a negative thing. There are also first male ascents and there will be more. Historically, women have not been acknowledged for their work in science, technology, politics, art, and much more. We are trying to narrow the gender gap and I think that by documenting a woman’s achievement it becomes part of history."

Fanatic climbing reports that Yann Ghesquiers has done his fifth 9a by the FA of , Crotte de geek in Ailefroide. Interesting is that he actually started to climb at this crag 40 years ago. In 1991, he was #11 in one Lead World Cup. (c) Jan Novak

Andrea Cartas reports on Facebook that she has done her first 8c+, Cosi Fan Tutte in Rodellar. (c) Javi Pec

Katja Kadic and Rustam Gelmanov got Euro 1 000 winning the fourth edition of the Lienz Free Solo competition. This means climbing on an 18-meter-high, mobile climbing wall without rope only secured by an oversized airbag. Imagine having this set up during the Olympics :) Complete results

Sascha Lehmann SUI - Michelle Hulliger SUI Filip Schenk ITA - Vita Lukan SLO Alberto Lopez ESP - Camille Pouget FRA It should be noted that Filip Schenk competing on the same final route as the juniors, scored the same as Sascha. Laura Rogora, who was #6 in the European Championship for seniors, was fourth in the European Youth A Champion, indicating that there are more girls that could compete in the World Cup. Complete results.

Daniel Woods and Klemen Becan are the two big names for the Kalymnos Festival that starts 6/10 and finishes 8/10. "Climbers can participate in pairs (male, female or mixed) climbing as many routes as possible from 08:00 to 17:00. Each route is graded with certain points depending on the difficulty. The pair that collects most points is the winner of the Rally. The areas set for the Rally are the sectors between North Cape and Poets."

Muriel Sarkany, the most successful Lead WC climber who between 1997 and 2004, won the Lead WC 5 times and the remaining 3 years she was runner-up, has done Era Vella 9a (8c+) in Margalef. Muriel reports on Facebook, "Thanks Chris Sharma for bolting this amazing 50 meter long King line." Era Vella has 35 ascents the most repeated 9a in the world even if the FA was from 2010. Strangely, Muriel's ascent was the first in 18 months. In her last World Cup in 2010, being 36 years old, she was #6. Muriel did her first 9a in 2013 and last autumn she did an 8c+. The pic is from that celebration.

Mile Heyden, who did her first 8B+ six months ago, has done Pura Vida 8A+ in Magic Wood. (c) Matti Staniek "Pura Vida was just the line which was always in my mind. After my 2 month break because of a knee injury I'm pretty happy to be back in the game. I had the honor to do it on the same day Alex Puccio did One Summer in Paradise. She helped me withe the beta and inspired me. So maybe the next plan is One Summer in Paradise. "