Jacopo Larcher and Barbara Zangerl have opened a 15 year bolted project by only using trad gear. They have graded Gondo Crack 8c R meaning there is risk for injury if you fall at the wrong place. (c) Richard Felderer Jacopo reports on Facebook: "Maybe it's not as safe as with bolts, but for us it made more sense to climb it in this way. We called it 8c (or 5.14b R). The bolts are obviously still there, so you can choose the rules of the game you want to play. You should go and check it out: it's really cool! Thumbs up to Barbara Zangerl for doing her hardest trad climb up to date!" Barbara comments to 8a, "We didn't open a new route, it was there bolted since 15 years ago and you can't take the bolts off; it is not our route. People have been trying that route on bolts since 15 years ago and we have to respect that. Of course it makes more sense and we would have been happy to find that route without bolts but it is a old bolted project. You can't just go and remove bolts. It is not our piece of rock."

Adam Ondra is very critical towards the IFSC deal with FloSports and comments on Instagram. "20$ per month for watching IFSC livestreams is the most ridiculous decision ever made by IFSC. Sad, very sad indeed. Where is our sport going? Bad news for fans, athletes and sponsors." Also Stefano Ghisolfi, Jorg Verhoeven, Jakob Schubert, Katharina Saurwein have made their critical voice heard. On the picture by Eddie Fowke, the athletes at Meiringen gives their red card to the IFSC decision. At the same time, several athletes have just informed about the FloSports/IFSC deal on their Facebook page. In some cases, the athletes have actually been asked to make their voice heard in a comment that have received extreme number of likes, without any reaction from the athlete.

Angie Scarth-Johnson, who did her first 8c at ten years old, has onsighted two 8a's in the Red River Gorge: Elephant Man and Straight Outta Campton. She also redpointed Gods Own Stone (8b+). This is the third year in a row the Australian makes a long journey and takes some free time from school. "It's been very wet weather here at Red River Gorge so I haven't been able to climb as much as I've wanted. I'm here for three and a half weeks and I've only taken off a week from school because we are on school holidays. Yes I am still training myself. In the first week here I just spent time looking around for the right project but I'm really hoping the rain stops soon and routes dry up."

By clicking on the FB icon in the header, you can directly share the news on your Facebook. Previously, it was much more complicated. We just uploaded the possibility this weekend and immediately got a new record for Facebook people reached by the Anna Stöhr and Alex Huber news.

It will cost you USD 20 a month to watch the IFSC World Cup live-streaming starting from this weekend in Meiringen. IFSC has signed a 3-year contract with FloSports, which is a US based company covering many sports. Here you can pay USD 20 a month och 150 a year. This is another example of bad communication skills by IFSC. Why not explain the background and rational for their decision? How could they not make the first event free of charge so we could possibly see an improvement. However, in any case, it is extremely expensive in comparison what you get on other sport channels or Netflix etc. Since IFSC published the news on Facebook two hours ago, they have gotten 36 comments, almost of them critical. Austria climbing, who will run the Youth World Champion in 2017 and the World Champion in 2018, has posted this picture and a very strong statement, "No crowd? Is this the future of world cup climbing? The World Cup live stream will no longer be free: A decision we oppose because we believe that access to competition streams should be as easy as possible. If you think the same, head over to International Federation of Sport Climbing and make your voice heard!" Jorg Verhoeven on FB: "Another great step backwards."

Imagine what the sponsors at Meiringen and other World Cups will think when, according to the record negative social media comments, the audience might drop by more than 90 %. What will the IFSC general sponsors think, as well as, the sponsors for the athletes that are supposed to travel around the world to get good exposure? Will any eliminated athlete volunteer for co-commentating the semi and final? The climbing social media is setting some kind of record when it comes to criticism. You can understand that something is dead wrong when, Austria Climbing, the organizer of the World Champion 2018, has asked us all to make our voice heard. Bare in mind that the Boulder World Cup 2017 is about travelling: Europe, China, China, Japan, USA, India and Europe. This just might be a good opportunity for the gyms and companies like Adidas to put together an European Cup or World League, including free live-streaming, that might become equally important as the IFSC Boulder World Cup. Three weeks ago, the IFSC President Marco Scolaris, was very concerned about the future of IFSC during an official press conference. "We expect to convince IOC, but not only, that hopefully before 2020 that we deserve some help, because the sport is growing too fast and we do not have the resources to manage the sport. If it goes on in this way and our income does not increase and therefore we are not able to hire additional human resources. We will become victim of our success."

Persze, hogy nem vén kecske egy 40-es éveiben járó faszi - dehogy megüsse azt a világszínvonalat ahol a legerősebb és legtechnikásabb fiatalok feszegetik a határokat, azért az mindenképpen respektálandó - nagyjából teljesen a fokozattól függetlenül. Dai Koyamada (aki kb. 15 éve mászik a 8C szint környéken és elvileg a legtöbb 8C+ bouldert nyitotta amik vagy lefokozódtak, vagy ismételetlenek vagy csak nem veszünk róla tudomást) ugyanis a hétvégén a Nayuta nevű 8C+ bouldert nyitotta meg: így az Instagram post, "Yeeeeeees!!! Today I succeeded the hardest problem ever in my life after many falls and screams!" Személy szerint érthetetlen számomra, hogy Amerikát miért a fiatal tinik mászásaival lehet megetetni és az ilyen csodabogárnak számító Zenekkel mint Dai vagy akár a szintén japán Yuji Hirayama (aki az első 8c on-sight birtokosa a világon) pedig a mászómédia egyáltalán nem foglalkozik. De visszatérve Dáj teljesítményére - ez igen elgondolkodtató. Nemrég vitatkoztam valakivel arról, a mászás mennyire számít azon élsportok közé, ahol az emberek fiatalon kiégnek. Szertornában főként a hölgyeknél láthatunk rá számos példát a múltból (lásd. gerenda), hogy a pubertás kor megkezdésével gyakorlatilag tizedelődnek a női sportolók, a zsírszövetek feldúsolnak - ami még egy úszásból is képes kizárni a sportolókat, nemhogy egy esztétikára épülő műfajnál. Tény amit tény: kevés szertornász nő éri meg karrierjében a 18-20 éves kort. De ez egy kirívó eset, a legtöbb sportág esetében ez a "csúcsidőszak" valahol 25-30 éves kor környékén áll be. A robbanékonyságot igénylő sportoknál (pl. 100m síkfutás, hármasugrás, vadvízi kajak) kicsit talán előbb jön el, de nagyjából a harmincas életkor az amit úgy tartanak az ember igazán 'ereje teljében" van, ekkor lehet leadni a legnagyobb jattot. De hol helyezkedik el a mászás? Az én szerény véleményem szerint nem tudjuk. Mivel fiatal sportágról van szó, elég kevés mászónk van, aki versenyszerűen vagy életvitelszerűen nyomta évtizedeken át a mászást, így nincs pontos rálátás arra, hogy egy ennyire összetett sportágban - hol jön el nagy átlagban a 'hanyatlás időszaka' - csúnya szóval kifejezve. Az amerikai Chris Sharma 32 évesen mászta legnehezebb útját a La dura dura-t, de jelenleg is azt pletykálják 9b/+ körüli utakat projektel. Az állóképességnek a kor nem szab határt elég sokáig - vélekednek egyes kutatók, és ezt támasztja alá az 5000m és 10000m síkfutás világrekordere is, Kenenisa Bekele - aki 35 évesen fejébe vette, hogy megdönti a maraton világrekordját is, ami tavaly már csak 6 secundumon múlt neki (2:03:03 - Berlin), idén áprilisban pedig a Londoni maratonra készül a világrekord döntésre. Az Ironman és triatlon versenyeknél is köztudott, hogy a jó versenyzők nem huszonévesek. A tavalyi világbajnokságot például a német Jan Frodeno nyerte szintén 35 évesen. De nagyon elkanyarodtunk a mászástól. Szóval hol a határ? Leginkább a sérülések szabnak itt (is) szerintem határt, hogy nem gyógyítja úgy a szervezet magát 40 évesen mint huszonévesen és emiatt már nem biztos, hogy az ember tudja döngetni a régi határokat. De erre is végtelen kirívó példát találunk a mászótörténelemben is. Amire szerintem érdemes fejben felkészülni az az, hogy elfogadjuk a tényt miszerint lesz egyszer egy csúcs és utána fokozatok terén nem tudjuk ugyanazt nyújtani mint korábban. HA megvan az intelligenciánk ahhoz, hogy megbarátkozzunk ennek a gondolatával - azzal a jövőben számos barátunk válláról vesszük le a terhet - akik egyébként a mi siránkozásunk hallgatására vannak kényszerítve a közös edzések során.

Over 64 000 members have added and star rated 4.3 million ascents which, though our Ticklist, will show you the best climbs in the world. In total, you can get Ticklist for over 4 000 crags and 1 700 boulder areas around the globe. You can search by specific grades, highest rating or by climbs that have been onsighted and flashed the most.

UP-Climbing reports that Eric Albertini has done the first repeat of Stefano Ghisolfi's 50 meters link up in Massone, Ultimatum 9a+. Previously, Eric has done all the five routes that are connected, including Thunder Ribes 9a last week. (c) Luca Pialorsi In total, around 60 - 80 guys plus Margo Hayes are estimated to have done a 9a+ before, depending how strict you are on down gradings. (Thanks to Felipe Camargo for helping us counting). Just during the last 12 months, almost 20 guys have done 9a+. The first 9a+ was put up by Alex Huber in the mid 90'ies.

Imagine counting down the seconds in a boulder final and the athlete make a mega dyno to the final hold at 3.59, holds the big swing and the crowd goes wild. Few seconds later they might get even more adrenaline in the body as the referee says the boulder was not topped in a controlled way with both hands within 4 minutes. The IFSC rule says that the athlete, within the time limit, "Controlled the marked finishing hold of the Boulder with both hands." Another time dilemma might occur when the athlete reaches the last hold at 3.55 with one hand but touches only the top with both hands at 4.00. The control position occurs 4.01. Imagine the gold in Tokyo will be decided based on a judge subjective opinion in regards tenth of seconds. Probably this will not happen but IFSC must have this in mind, so IOC and the non-climbing spectators do not just shake their heads in 2020. Siked.nl has also published an analisis with a suggestion. There are many solutions and the most drastic one should be to start on two boulders at the same time which would reduce the time almost with 50 %. The solution for the referee problem above is to say that it is good enough to touch the top with one hand within the four minutes limit and then you can use as many seconds you want to control it.