Ramon Julian has spent the last weekend before the World Championship on doing the FA of Las tres dures 9a in Sadernes and Maya 9a+ in Margalef. The latter, bolted by Vicent Palau, hangs over 45 degrees for almost 40 metres with mainly small pockets and small edges. Ramonet got his first out of three Euro Champion titles in 2004 and the last in 2015. In the meantime, he won the World Championship 2007 and 2011 and he has said he was going for it again. The first time the Spaniard did a 9a was in 2002, and in 2003 he did La Rambla. It is a fact that for the last 15 years he has been the #1 sport climber in the world. (M. Alba)

Some years ago, nobody wore a helmet on ski slopes but now people start using them and child cycling is going in the same direction. As loose rock is one of the biggest risks for rock climbers, it is strange that helmets have not gained popularity, at least for kids. Probably, this has something to do with the previous climbing helmets, which were heavy with no ventilation and goofy looks. Mammut's Wall Rider changes that and will probably have some good impact on climbers. It is made of expanded polypropylene foam, which gives better protection even if it is lighter in comparison to other foams. It is also equipped with numerous generous ventilation openings. Kind of a modern look as well. What do you think?

Marcin Dzieński, 166 cm tall and weighing 65 kg, has won the last three Speed World Cups, often sharing the podium with 190 cm guys. Check him running up the 15 meter wall in less than six seconds. Please explain how much and how you have trained to be #1 in the world. Oh, no! You want to know my top secret and make it public ;) It depends on the time of the year. In winter I have training almost every day, then in season “only” four days in week... but as a pro, I am working on my shape 24/7/365 – it means that recovery, diet, mental training are an integral and permanent part of my training regime. Even if I want to socialize with friends – it goes aside from the plan ;) In season, main training sessions take around 3-4 hours per day, then one day rest. My training is mostly running on the wall and some special exercise for strength and power. Almost the same like for other kind of climbing (eg. campus, pull-up bar etc.). Of course I can’t forget about legs, which are trained on the gym or track for plyometric routine. What is your level in Lead and Bouldering now? Do you plan to go all in for the Combined format? Honestly, I don’t have enough time for training lead and bouldering, because am still studying full time physical education at the university. Fortunately, it’s my last year and will have more spare time. I used to start in all kind of climbing comps when I was youth - and even taken silver in junior category on boulder National Champ. Few times in year I go bouldering for fun and able to repead some 7B/C quite quickly... Do you like the Combined Olympic format or could it be improved? They should do 3 disciplines in Tokyo 2020 as in the world championship. Combined will destroy our work so far. But you have to know that we have to be happy that we are in.

There are 536 athletes registered in the three categories in the World Championship in Paris which is some 20% more compared to 2012. Here is the breakdown for each discipline: Lead: 111 male & 80 female Boulder: 131 male & 98 female Speed: 69 male & 47 female Looking at the combined part, you can see that it is also some 20% more but actually less top climbers in comparison to 2012. Combined: 25 male & 15 female Single discipline: 175 male and 135 female Two disciplines: 32 male and 21 female

The little climbing jewel in the midst of the Aegean Sea, Kalymnos, which now features nearly 3 000 bolted sport routes of all levels, welcomes Climbers from all over the world to its international Climbing Festival taking place on October 7th-9th, 2016. In the wake of several successful festivals in previous years, this year’s event is organised by the local municipality with special guests likeAngy Eiter, Roger Schaeli and Urko Carmona Barandiaran. (c) Nikolaos Smalios The festival will include: Stories and adventures presented by the special guests Climbing with the Pros Open Marathon and “Marasi” Competition for kids Slack line, Rope challenge, Deep Water Solo, DJ party, Live Greek traditional dancing and Video and a photo contest. More info at Fesitival Webpage and Facebook Festival Page.

Julien Gasc has contacted us saying that we and many others in the Climbing community have a wrong definition of "chipped routes". "The verb 'to chip' comes from the idea of 'removing a chip'. In the world of climbing it was used to describe what was done traditionally with a hammer and a chisel. Actually most people use the word 'chipping' for routes incorrectly since they usually mean 'drilled'. The use of sika, in order to reinforce holds, is an entirely different thing. If you further use the words chip or chipping to refer to the use of sika, there will be a lot of misunderstanding. If you want to include all forms of alterations made to the rock to distinguish between a natural vs. non-natural route you should use the word 'manufactured': i.e. a route that was manufactured is not natural anymore, but that does not specify in which way. It could be drilling, glued with sika etc." If this is something the Community could agree upon, we will start using the word manufactured for the routes which have been either drilled, chipped or put sika on. We do not think you should use the term manufactured for the routes that have only been cleaned from loose rock. Clearly there is a fine line between natural routes that have only been cleaned and manufactured routes where chips have been removed.

Alex Puccio is back on track after her bad neck injury and has done Atomic Cow 8b and two 8a flashes in Wild Iris. (c) Eddie Morillas - Hardest route to date. I have been climbing for 2 weeks now after my forced 2.5 month break due to having a spinal fusion surgery in my neck. It has also been about 8 years since I last really sport climbed outside. Psyched to be climbing again and in 8 days I get my 3 month post OP x-ray and hopefully good news to start bouldering again!

South Africa august 2016 from martin mobraten on Vimeo.