The third stage of the Lead World Cup starts today in Briancon, from where the semifinal will be live-streamed between 19.30 and 22.30. Interesting is that three of the Top-6 ranked male boulderers will participate: Sean McColl from Canada and Alex Rubtsov with Rustam Gelmanov from Russia. (c) Eddie Fowke from The Circuit On Sunday, the female finals start at 19.30 followed by the male at 21.00.

Great show in Briancon final, where Janja Garnbret was the first one to top and the 17-year-old did it shaking out on most of the last moves. In fact, this was the eleventh WC route in 2016 and nobody has reached higher than Janja on any route. Also Jain Kim and Anak Verhoven topped the 8b+ route meaning that if they are tied in the final, the faster climber will be ranked the highest. Among the male, Domen Skofic got the highest by touching the top jug. Once again, there was great live streaming with comments also from the route setter and interviews with many athletes including Domen and Janja. Complete results - Live streaming on Saturday at 19.30.

karoline sinnhuber has done her third 8B, Skiroute project in Silvretta. (c) Andi Aufschnaiter One week ago she returned from Rocklands, where she did six Boulders graded 8A to 8B. We asked her for some comments. "I was in Rocklands two years ago and was pretty surprised how easy i could climb the boulders, which were unclimbable 2 years ago. Thank god training payed off"

Megan Mascarenas, who won the last Boulder World Cup, has done her second 8B, Mars Block 3 in Pikes Peak. "Hands down the best line on Pikes Peak! the movement and rock have so much power and flow! Today was awesome!" Here is a video of Pikes Peak, where you boulder mainly above 3 000 meters.

Nora Kiraly who did her first 7C+ this spring, has had a very good month in Rocklands, where she has done two 8A's and Tea with Elmarie 8A (+). "A huge battle with myself. I won. :)" In the great picture by Tibor Varga, the Hungarian is doing Slash and Burn 7B.

Stefano Ghisolfi, who was #2 in Chamonix and #9 in Villars, has done Condé de choc in Entraygues. "Nice revenge after disappointing 9th place in World Cup. 3rd pre clipped for me too." The start has been graded as 8A+ and Adam Ondra has actually said that clipping the third quickdraw is the crux. If you miss it, you could even hit the ground. In the 8a Practice & Ethics we give a yellow card for "Two or three pre-clipped if it is for safety reason". Until like 15 years ago, climbing with three pre-clipped quickdraws would not count as a valid ascent but nowadays it is getting more common. It is great of Stefano to have gone public and it would be interesting to know the number of pre-clipped quickdraws by Tony Lamiche back in 2006. In the picture of Tony we can see that the third bolt is high above the second.

Adam Mach Dolina Kluczwody