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.

98: Sasha Lehmann SUI - Joanne Brinkmann SUI 00: Filip Schenk ITA - Laura Rogara ITA 02: Thomas Podolan AUT - Nika Potova UKR Complete results Sasha was the only one to top all routes and also Nika was superior. Laura was followed by a total of eight girls from Austria and Slovenia. These two countries have dominated the scene for some years but in 2017, Slovenia has dropped significantly and Austria is just one of the best nations. Italy is the country who has had the best progress in 2017.

Japan has dominated the Boulder WC in 2017 but in Vail some kind of record was set with 9 male Top-10. On Saturday, the live-streaming starts at 10.00 with the semifinal and the final will take place 16.30, GMT-6. Male qualification results will be updated here and female here.

In the same way as Bernabe Fernandez's Chilam Balam has been taken away from the 9b+ pedestal and listing, everyone who presents Hall of Fame ascents and lists must try to keep them correct based on confirmed down- or up-gradings. Today, many such lists are dead wrong and are misleading and spread grade inflation. Further more, it discredits all the honest guys that give personal grades. Surely, based on the subjectivity of grading and that holds can break and get polished, it is impossible to know when to draw the line and kick out a previous mentioned ascent. In such cases, it is possible and necessary to just make a note or put them on a pending list.

Adam Ondra says on Facebook, "We can only discuss whether the free-solo climbing is good or not, whether we should write about it or not… Anyway, it takes tremendous amount of courage to free-solo “Freerider”. From my point of view, it is easier to solo 9a sport route than this one."

Daniel Fuertes, who started climbing in 1995 has done his first 9a+ at 36 years old, the FA of No Pain No Gain in Rodellar. The 40 m route out of which 30 m in a roof has been an open project since it was bolted 15 years ago. (c) David López Campe "And finally the day came! Very glad to get to the end of the process started when I was a kid with my good friend Alejandro Gimenez! We dreamed, visualized and bolted this fantastic line we thought we would never do! But finally we managed to close the project in the better way!"

Ron Kauk did the FA of Midnight Lightning in 1978 and here he shares the story from back then.