Drew Ruana has added 41 ascents to his new scorecard including his FA of The Assassin 9a in Smith Rock, Just do it 8c+, which he did when he was 14 years old and Direct North 8B+ in Bishop. In the combined 8a ranking game, the 16 year old is #6. - I have been climbing for about 13 years, but only seriously for the last eight. I joined a competitive team when I was 8. Since then, I've competed in the youth circuit, and I've climbed outside a lot. My best results are 1st place at the 2015 USA SCS youth, and 2nd place at 2014 WYCH. In the future, I want to send 9a+ and 8C, and have a 8c+ Onsight or flash. I hope to achieve these goals in the next five years His trainer is Tyson Schoene, who actually was babysitter by Drew's mother some 30 years ago a few times and since then, Tyson has had a close relationship with the Ruana family. - I had already worked with many top kids, our team was built of them, but early on you knew Drew was the exception. He had a drive that others didn't. But for the most part that drive was very different than many of the top kids out there. It wasn't like more hours in the gym or harder drills or anything like that. It was more like obsession with sending routes. When he was trying a route, it was, and is gnarly how dedicated to that moment he is. It's like nothing else matters. But in training, it was different. It was nothing spectacular. His climbing during training was good, but the training wasn't amazing. I mean I have a dozen kids that used to work harder than him. But he is smarter. He technically is better than most. His success comes because of the dedication from his family, my assistant coaches, friends and his team that all support him. He relies on all of us, more than he knows. His father and mother are some of the best people I know. They have raised him well and try to give him what he needs to be successful, but it's not just handed to him, he has to work for it. He is also a straight A+ student. He works very hard at that too. He does not like failure. No matter what aspect of his life it is coming from. I have said this 100 times, I am thankful for the opportunity to work with these kids, not just him, but all of them. They teach me things every day. They teach me about coaching, and training, and life.

112 athletes are scheduled to participate in the Vail Boulder World Cup, almost half out of which are from USA or Canada. Live streaming on Saturday - GMT -6 10:00 - 12:30 Semi-Finals Men and Women 16:30 Finals Men and Women

In the Kalymnos topo, there is a recommendation that the first bolt should be placed at 2.8 meters above the ground and the second at 4 meters. Aris Theodoropoulos got these regulations from the French climbing federation (FFME), which in 1992 published them in a book. In fact, FFME did suggest three categories. For example on children routes, the first bolt should be placed on 2.2 meters and the second at 3 meters. Kind of interesting is that most bolting in France seems not to have followed this recommendation at that time. Instead, everyone knows what old-school bolting is alike in France and the rest of the world. Although Kalymnos is known for the close bolting, they still need to put in more in order to follow the FFME anno 1992. Which are the crags you know with most bolts in the world. For me, it is the easier routes I have bolted around Göteborg.

Lena Herrmann, who did her first three 8c's last year, keeps steady progress by doing the FFA of Battle cat 8c+ in Frankenjura. In the 8a ranking game, she is #4. "Without the Jug in the lower part. So happy with this day :-) An incredible line. About 70 moves in the Frankenjura!!"

Alex Honnold soloed The Complete Scream at Fair Head, which is a 60 meter slab graded E7, having rapped down looking for loose rock. The UK E-grading is based on how dangerous it is to onsight a route combined with how difficult it is to find good trad protection. In other words, using the E-grade, which is meant for "flash" solo ascents, is not a good measurement for this ascent. Using the international scale, the pure difficulty should be around 7c. It should be noted that 8a normally does not publish solo ascents as we do not want to promote this activity. However, as most other media have already published it and many 8a visitors have asked us to include also solo ascents in our reports, we have during the last years made some exceptions when it comes to Honnold's extraordinary solos.

Isabelle Faus has done the FA of Peace Frog Sit in RMNP, which is her third 8A+ FA. "Really psyched, its a classic ! Undercling POWER, the Boulder sits under the glass tower and up canyon a lil." Add the only female 8B FA, which she did last month and she is kind of superior in the FA category. In the 8a ranking game, Isabelle is #2, after Alex Puccio.

Climbing has published a long, great in depth interview with Adam Ondra by Chris Noble with many interesting thoughts from the #1 climber in the world of the last six years. (c) Petr Pavlicek "World Cup Lead is the ultimate fitness test, because the climbing is so continuous... And modern World Cup bouldering is now almost a parkour style... My biggest climbing strength is making strange moves like drop-knees and high heel hooks, and rocking up over my feet. I can rest in totally different positions from other climbers because my hips are quite flexible. As long as I have a high foot and I can rock up on to it, I can release the weight on my hands and recover, even if I’m holding onto really bad holds. Having flexible hips is probably my biggest strength. Raw power and campus moves are my biggest weaknesses... In terms of injury I’ve been really lucky. I’ve never had an injury for more than five to seven days... In my opinion, it’s very dangerous if your parents are also your coaches... This means training three times a day, six days a week. I do some campusing, some bouldering, and endurance training every single day... Regardless of how strong you are, the more relaxed and happy you are, the better your results will be... I find that if I eat too much meat I’m not as strong. But at the same time if I go two weeks without any meat—I also feel weak. So I eat meat once or twice a week... For sure I’m capable of climbing 9c [5.15d], and I can imagine what 10a might look like, but someone stronger and younger than me will come along, and hopefully they will succeed on a 10a."

- At age 15, Shiraishi is the best female rock climber in the world. Give her time to finish high school, and she just might become the greatest climber — man or woman — of all time. Check the interview in Time.