NY Times has published a long article about climbing in China - ‘Unexplored’ China? Not for Long the Way These Climbers Are Going.

Fanatic climbing reports that Clerc Maxime has done his first 9a, Trip Tik Tonik in Gorges du Loup. It should be noted that previously he has done Abyss, which he gave a personal 8c+ grade. (c) Adrien Ragiot - Trip Tik Tonik is among the most beautiful 9a's on the planet and we must specify on this crag, completely natural.

NKF - Ledig stilling som sportssjef Arbeidsoppgaver<> Ansvar for forbundets konkurranseprogram, med planlegging, koordinering og gjennomføring av Norgescup, NM og internasjonale konkurranser i samarbeid med lokale arrangører Ansvar for oppfølging av nasjonale lag Ansvar for oppfølging av forbundets trener Ansvar for trenerutdanning og utvikling av trenerløypa Andre oppgaver Andre oppgaver kan bli fordelt mellom sportssjefen og NKFs øvrige ansatte etter behov og kvalifikasjoner: Informasjonsarbeid Kontakt og samarbeid med andre organisasjoner Godkjenning og regodkjenning av trenere og instruktører Organisering av kvalifiserende kurs og nasjonale samlinger Planlegging og prosjektarbeid i samarbeid med forbundets fagkomiteer Administrativt og forefallende arbeid for forbundskontoret Ønskelige kvalifikasjoner Utdanning på høyskolenivå innenfor idrett eller annen relevant fagkrets God kjennskap til klatresporten generelt, og særlig til sportsklatring God kjennskap til idrettens organisering Gode organisatoriske evner Erfaring med prosjektgjennomføring, fra idé til handling

Nathan Williams, who started climbing in 2012, has flashed his first 8A+, Black Hawk Down in Topside. The 17-year-old did his first 7C+ just 17 months ago so do not be surprised if Nathan shows up in more news from Rocklands shortly.

Megan Mascarenas, who was #4 in the last Boulder WC, which actually was her worst result during her last four WC events, has done Jack's Broken Heart 8A+ and Sofa Surfer 8A in Magic Wood. In the 8a ranking game, the 18-year-old is #3. In two weeks she will try to defend her title from last year in the Boulder World Cup in Vail.

Domen Škofic has done the 60 meter long Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger and he comments on Facebook, - Yesterday @jakob.schubert and I hopped on a sending train. He fired of the shortest (Kangaroo's Limb) and I the longest 9a+ of the cave! After 4 days of work I was able to finish my by far the longest, nicest and hardest route so far, Thor's hammer 9a+. We didn't have enough and later both did Nordic Flower 8c, Jakob onsighted and I flashed it right after. (c) Elias Holzknecht Last year, Jakob was #3 in the Lead World Cup and Domen was #4. It should be noted that Nordic Flower was set up as a 9a but was given a personal 8c grade by Adam Ondra once he onsigthed it, which most repeaters seem to agree upon lately.

In total, there are close to 4 million ascents in the 8a database and there is a Tick List available for almost 6 000 crags. You can add more crags to the database in a link at the top where you add routes and boulders. The crag with most ascents is Fontainebleau with 104 000, followed by Kalymnos with 98 000.

Be One is an innovation from Beal that will reduce rope wear, which is especially useful for the redpoint guys working on their projects. Be One has an enlarged receiving zone meaning lower impact on the rope. Instead of the normal thin and often oval bottom of the carbiner, Be One is thicker and more rounded. If you are one of the projecting redpointers, it might be a very good investment to place a Be One at the crux as it will reduce rope wear.

karoline sinnhuber, who was #5 in the China Boulder World Cup last month, has done four 8A's during the last week, including Nothing Changes (in the picture). Full story and more great pics by Lorenz Ulmer.

Sweden, Italy and Slovenia got two gold medals in the European Youth Cup in Imst. Even so, Austria was the best country overall with seven medals. Germany continues having hard time to get any good results and their best result, achieved by the handful of participats they had, was #9. 97: Kajsa Rosen SWE - Hannes Puman SWE 99: Janja Garnbret SLO - Filip Schenk ITA 01: Laura Rogara ITA - Luka Potocar SLO