From 5 to 8 May, the Bouldering world will meet again in Val Masino, northern Italy for the legendary Melloblocco. This year, there’s a new open fun contest, which features the Vertical-Life Climbing App. Everybody is welcome to take part and discover different Masterpiece Climbing Circuits throughout the valley. Climbers can use their smartphones, download the Vertical-Life climbing app, check out the special Melloblocco Event guide and benefit from live social features. The guide provides topos, access maps and gives the possibility to mark sent boulders with a ‚Zlag‘. All the live results are displayed at the Melloblocco Center and on Vertical-Life website. The real time ascents are also visible in the Zlagfeed and in the local hero ranking in the app. In order to be able to synchronize offline Zlags, the organizers provide wifi-hotspots at the Melloblocco Center and throughout the valley. There are four difficulty levels and different rankings for male and female. It is possible to register for the individual and team score. Also, the more difficult money blocs for pros are visible in the app with topos and access info. Climbers can register for the event online or on-site and receive their free access code with the starter package at the Melloblocco registration desk.

Shauna Coxey won her fourth WC event straight, including also having won the last year. Last week in Japan she won both the semi and the final rounds. Last year she was #2 overall after Akiyo Noguchi, who was the runner-up in China. Among the male, Tomoa Narasaki got his first victory, having been #18 and #15 in the two first events. Complete results.

Dave MacLeod has had a couple of very good days in Magic Wood climbing Practice of the wild 8C. He also repeated Steppenwolf 8B in 3 tries and made a quick ascent of Dark Sakai 8B. A couple of weeks earlier he climbed Shallow Water to Riverbed 8B+. Click here for his blog with a video. Dave should be considered to be one of the best overall climbers in the world having been on the cutting edge in trad, winter and ice climbing. auther having publish two training books and here is his 8C story which includes dropping six kilos.

1. Alexey Rubtsov RUS 177 - Shauna Coxsey GBR 300 2. Rustam Gelmanov RUS 165 - Melissa Le Neve FRA 203 3. Kokoro Fujii JPN 155 - Miho Nonaka JPN 153 4. Jan Hojer GER 152 - Akiyo Noguchi JPN 147 5. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 138 - Fanny Gibert FRA 131 Complete results.

The upgraded Quantum is a bit wider and the heel is a bit higher so now it fits my foot perfectly. At the same time, the heal is softer so I can belay standing with half the foot outside the shoe. After the first day I thought they were too big as they were just too comfortable but after ten days, they have not stretched at all and as they are stiffer they are about to become my new favorite shoe for standing on micro-edges. Possibly, it could also relate to the fact that they are relatively pointy instead of rounded. At the same time, they have the fastest lacing I have ever tried, where it is good enough just to pull at the ends of the laces. More info here.

Martina Cufar become the World Lead Champion in 2001 and since than, Slovenia has been one of the leading nations in climbing. In 2006, she onsighted her first 8b and last week, the 39-year-old onsighted her first ever 8a+, Allo ctave, ici Bemol in Verdon. She got the tip from Bruno Clement - Graou, who has established a new sector there, Baume aux Couillones. - Graou told me one evening that he equipped one line in the bottom of which should be written " For Martina", because there are many small crimpers and it's technical. smile emoticon So I went in one day and did it on sight. He was right , it was for me. Otherwise I try to keep my shape with climbing when I can but for sure it's less than before I had my two boys, Tommy and Paco. It's quite a job to entertain them! In the last time I climb often in Bionnassay (half an hour drive and half an hour walk up). It's the place I like, but the problem is that I did all the routes until 8b...So I got myself on the 8c now, a route with a crux with a long move, boys do a jump, that I was not able to do for years (Well I went to check once a year) ,but in december I found the solution. Well I do the move once or twice in three attempts, so I don't really know if I am close ot not. but I enjoy climbign on it. I hope I have some luck and do it this year,:-) I try to climb 3 - 4 times a week, 1,5h or 3 in the rock. I do kundalini yoga every morning when everybody sleeps, from 6 30 to 7 30 - 8.

Angie Scarth-Johnson has reclimbed Welcome to Tijuana 8c in Rodellar, which she already did last year. However, some locals did say that she had used some eliminated holds one meter to the left of the original line, disclaiming the ascent. Kind of a strange thing for a 10-year-old setting a new world standard, getting the info that it was prohibited to use some small shallow pockets where no other can get their fingers into. Anyhow, now Angie has done the straight up elimination 8c. Angie is from Australia and she is on a three-month-long road trip to Europe being home-schooled by her non-climbing parents. In March she did an 8c in Margalef.

Sasha Gerzha has done his second 9a, Estado Critico in Siurana. The picture is from La Rambla 9a+, which will be his next project. - I had a couple of tries in January but just for check the moves and went back to St Petersburg for training. Then I came again in March and was close to send after one week or 10 days but get a cut finger and it took around one another week to recover. I didn't climb for this period and than I start again with no power after the rest! And the weather started to be hot! So it was all the time something wrong

Said Belhaj has finished his longest project ever and done his first 9a+, Chris Sharma's Papichulo in Oliana. Full story on Said's website. (c) Walker Emerson - I don’t think I’ve ever had a route this dialed and rarely had to fight so hard. At the headwall, after the hardest sections, I knew that I could do it if I just didn’t hesitate. And if the 1st section is my anti style, up there I was in my element climbing a muerte. This is what I’ve done and trained for all my life: go fast, go 100%, let go of anxiety and totally tune in with the freedom of moving on rock. There is always a kind of magical feeling when you suddenly succeed with something you kept on failing on before. If I would to pick a route based on the grade (a phenomenon that I’ve noticed: people climbing grades, not routes), ”Papi” would probably be pretty low on the list. The whole first section is harder the shorter you are and I’m terrible on resistance on small holds. A steep route in a cave would’ve been more in line with ”what I’m good at”. But climbing has never been about that: we climb to challenge our selves, it has never been about making climbing easy. Climb routes that we find beautiful and some of them talk louder to us than others.