Joker Plus is presented among Boreal's "Comfortable" shoes and the 2017 version has an updated fit and rubber compound. The 8a testers have said that this is the most comfortable shoe that they have ever used. As soon as you put it on you will notice the soft padding in the front of the shoe which will make you feel like you have a sock on your foot. Also the heel is padded and below it you have the cushioned heel system which will make boulder landings softer. This anti-impact system feels similar to what is found in running shoes when we actually tried to run with the climbing shoes. This shoe you can use comfortably for an all day session. If you decide to go for smaller size, it is easy and fast to take off and on with the three opposing straps. Even for the advanced climber who mistreat their feet, this could be like a present for the feet, while warming up or doing laps in the indoor gym.

La Sportiva has presented a great article with the Hörst family where Eric, who is a famous trainer and auther, explains how they climb as a family and what is most important. "Anyhow, as a parent to two youth climbers I’ve encouraged my boys to play multiple sports. Currently, they both play high school football (August through November), dabble with skiing, train for climbing in the winter, and then climb outside as much as possible from March through July. Via this approach, Cam and Jon have become elite climbers (both regularly climb 5.14a), while also playing a team sport with their high school friends. Most important, they’ve remained injury free and extremely passionate about both sports and the training required for each!"

Alex Puccio, who was #4 in Vail, has done Super kind traverse 8A+ in RMNP. "Suppose to be a rest day again. Really sore from the WC on Saturday but went to show friends around and thought why not. It's a bit of a silly boulder but at least it's real rock!!!" Skipping a rest day the following day also she continued to do Sun Storm 8A in Wild Basin, (c) Jon Cardwell. "Off again tomorrow for another day outside, loving it!!!"

Many have complaint about the trend with less steep and parkour route setting in Boulder World Cups which we also did see especially in the qualification in Vail. Jakob Schubert has expressed it nice on his Facebook. (c) Wilhelm Heiko "3 out of 5 boulders were slabs and only one boulder was pure fitness on holds, some might say that's the new style of bouldering, but in my opinion it's bad setting. Bouldering shouldn't only be about standing on your feet.. When you are done with Qualification and feel like you haven't even climbed today since no boulders were exhausting at all it just feels wrong to me. I like to fight in boulders, feel the physical strain. Sure slabby boulders are part of the game but they shouldn't be the most important thing in my opinion. Crimps, slopers, pinches, big moves, campusing, jumps, coordination, toe hooks, heel hooks, power endurance,...there are so many things, that's what I love about this sport. To be fair, it was difficult for the routesetters because the wall in Vail is not great and they did a very good job in both semis and finals. But still I wanna shout out to all routesetters to try to set more diverse in the future in all rounds and especially also in Qualifiers, I don't think the randomness that some Qualification rounds had are good for this sport. there shouldn't be only crimpy boulders nor only volume boulders nor only slabby ones.. lately holds have fallen out of favor and huge volumes that look cool have taken over, but a mix of both of them would be the best in my opinion. The style of a lot of boulders has nothing to do with rock climbing anymore, that's a fact, whether you think it's good or bad is a matter of opinion. In my opinion some funky boulders are definitely fun, but I don't think we should forget the origins of this sport! Peace!"

Alex Megos has climbed the second ascent of the Jakob Schubert route, 'Companion of Change', f9a+ at Bergstation near Mayrhofen in Zillertal. (c) Liam Lonsdale The route took Alex 3 days in total to repeat, requiring some savvy tactics to avoid humidity and the summer sunshine, all under the watchful eye of local pioneer and climbing legend, Gerhard Hörhager. The repeat came after a string of fast ascents of classic routes in the area, including 'Love 2.1' f8C+ & 'Dolby Surround' f8C+, both at Ewige Jagdgründe, which is also situated near the town of Mayrhofen. Alex said: "Jakob graded the route 9a/+, for me I would say it is definitely f9a+ and a great one at that. This is the first time I visited Zillertal, the whole area is absolutely beautiful and the climbing is even better." Alex is currently travelling through the Tirol & Süd Tirol regions with photographer Liam Lonsdale, in cooperation with Vertical Life Climbing. They are aiming to explore the region as much as possible during their trip, whilst taking in classic areas and routes. Vertical Life is unlocking topos for each area that they visit to climb.

Lately, the response time surfing on 8a has been rather slow. We have asked our server provider to increase the capacity so that problem should be solved soon.

Liam Vance, who previously has done four 8B's, does his fifth through a great flash of Sky in Rocklands which originally was put up as an 8B+. Instagram video "Sky was a boulder I dreamed about trying for 8 years or so since I first saw it on video. It suites me very well as I like to climb dynamically and I'm pretty tall. Still I didn't think I could flash it until I somehow stayed on the rock through the second swing and stuck the final jug. I'm still shocked that my 8 year dream came true with a flash."

Shauna Coxsey, who won the Worldcup in 2016, won her third event this year and in practice she has almost secured the overall title 2017. Among the males, Jongwon Chon, who won overall in 2015 got his second win in 2017 and he is #2 in 2017, counting all but one events. 1. Shauna Coxsey GBR - Jongwon Chon KOR 2. Akiyo Noguchi JPN - Meichi Narasaki JPN 3. Miho Nonaka JPN - Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 4. Alex Puccio - Alexey Rubtsov RUS Complete results It should be noted that Japan participated with ten male and in the qualifications, they had nine in Top-10. In the semifinal, they had seven in the Top-10. The Japanese domination is a trend that has been going on for a couple of years.

1. Alexsey Rubtsov 300 - Shauna Coxsey 380 2. Jongwon Chon 298 - Janja Garnbret 327 3. Keita Watabe 285 - Miho Nonaka 260 4. Tomoa Narasaki 277 - Akiyo Noguchi 251 5. Kokoro Fujii 225 - Petra Klingler 188 Complete results As Janja is not listed to compete in the next event in India, which takes place just one week before the Euro Championship in Italy 30/6, Shauna only needs to be #9 in one of the two last events to secure the overall title again in 2017. Among the boys, all the Top-5 have good chances to win overall. What's amazing is that Japan has six males in the Top-9 ranking. It's interesting that it's the same males in the Top-5, besides that Watabee has been added. Among the ranked 6-13 last year, all but Jernej Kruder and Jan Hojer have dropped out of Top-20 in 2017.