Jongwon Chon, who won the World Cup 2015, did not qualify for the Top-20 semifinal in the WC in Kazo in Japan. The same goes for Jorg Verhoeven, who was #3 in the first WC 2016. On the other hand, four relatively unknown Japanese boulderes made it. The semifinal starts at 2.30 Euro time. (c) Eddie Fowke

Previously, Chris Sharma has said that the Combined format suggested by IFSC for the Olympics "is a big shame".

Fabian Buhl, a worldclass boulderer and trad climber, spent three days by himself "hang-dogging" solo Alex Huber's 10 pitches of Wetterbock 8c in Austria. In reality, this ascent must have been one of the greatest challenges accomplished in the history of rock climbing. In practice, the 25-year-old, tied in a rope at the belay , just started to onsight the 8c using a modified Grigri to pull out rope. - You fix your rope on the belay, then feed the rope trough your self belay device and start climbing, its attached to your harness. It feeds pretty smooth, after about 20 m you need to get the rope weight to the wall, otherwise it will feed automatically and you have a lot of loose rope in the system. Then you climb to the belay, fix the rope, then rappel down, get the gear out. Jumar up and start the next pitch, so each pitch is a lot of effort, because you have to climb it twice I wanted a Challenge, I mean if you know the route from summer, you know holds and also the way between the bolts. For me it was all new beside some pics and a short clip and Alex said its nearly impossible, so I was sky! And I am really happy for the challenge, without him I would have never tried. When Alex Huber told me about his new line at the Wetterbockwand I was blown away as it offers steep bullet limestone, is very runout and in a pretty remote area. Months later, I started thinking about a possible solo winter ascent. I knew it was going to be very tough. Alex was skeptic about my idea, but supported me from the beginning. Along with him and Lukas, I explored the approach and stashed some gear near the wall. Not only the climbing is difficult, the steep snowy approach has a high risk of avalanches and takes about 4 hours. Most of it is possible on skis, but the last 350 vertical meters of the couloir are way to steep; it's an interesting mix of climbing and hip deep snow digging. But a full-on winter experience was exactly what I wanted. I was willing to go all in to realize my dream. As usual Alex's bolts were far apart, after the first bigger falls I started to trust my self-belay system again and did not care anymore. The only thing I worried about was the next belay, the air mile collection grew steadily. Sometimes I spend 40 min in the runout climbing back and forth, not knowing my way and trying to find the path of least resistance. Deicing holds with my free hand or cleaning snow from ledges. In the end luck was definitely on my side in some situations and I could realise the first repeat from the Wetterbockwand 8c at Hoher Göll North face. Waking up in the cold each day at 4:30 am and climbing until it got dark, was a new experience and it felt good to see how my body works in such a situation. I was 100% focused at all times and felt confident, I did not question any decision I made and never felt tired. Only after reaching the save trail to the car, the adrenaline dropped and I was overcome by a crazy fatigue.

Tiffany Hensley has made a full length interview with Mar Alvarez, who is famous for having done two 9a's even though she works full time as a firefighter. (c)Jon Herranz / Namuss Films How many hours a week do you train? According to the cycle, I train more or less for 20 hours. The [easiest] cycle can be between 15-20 hours a week, while the hardest can round up to 25 hours. I would add to this a few days that I run, and the bits that I dedicate to stretching. This is what I try to do and how I plan it, even though I can’t always complete it because [of] work.

Martin Stráník would have won the first WC if he had gotten the bonus he was standing on in a very controlled position during his second attempt, see the picture. Alexey Rubtsov did stand on it in exactly the same position and then he grabbed the undercling with his left hand and got the bonus. Based on the rule, Alexey should not have gotten the bonus as he did not "achieve" anything by just marking the undercling with his hand. On the other side, both should have gotten the bonus for their foot, as they certainly both "achieved" something and also "controlled" it while they were standing on it. What if you get a no-hands by standing on a bonus, should that not count as "controlled"? Rule 7.4.2: The Bonus Hold shall be considered as “controlled” where a competitor has made use of the hold to achieve a stable or controlled position. It should be noted that one of the IFSC officials, Graeme Alderson, made this comment in a UKC forum thread. "Martin Stranik has been around long enough (medalist at World Champs back in Aviles 2007) to know the rules." If the commentators or one of the most experienced WC boulders did not understand this rule, Graeme and IFSC should possibly show some self-criticism and try to define the rule better, instead of blaming Martin for failing to understand it. A very simple and logical improvement is that the referee should inform the competitor that a bonus has been achieved, in exactly the same same way the referees inform about a top-out. In fact, Stranik marked the hold with his hand on his first try and by doing so he thought that he had gotten the bonus.

Dave Macleod's blog from his ascent of Shallow Water from Riverbed 8B+ in Magic Woods.

Shallow Water to Riverbed 8B+ from Dave MacLeod on Vimeo.

Nico Pelorson has done his third 9a FA, Ametsa in L'Abattoir, which is a new crag located just outside Grenoble developed mainly by Florent Plaze and J Aromatario. Topo. Last year, the 18-year-old Frenchman got the silver in the Youth World Championship and in 2013, he won one Euro Boulder Cup.

The first European Youth Cup in Speed 2016 took place in Poland and only five nationas competed; Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Ukraine and one guy from Austria. In the oldest female category, only three Italian girls competed. Complete results. Is it not strange that IFSC keep focusing on Speed events including promoting it for the Olympics when there are so few interested? In 2016, IFSC organize just one Euro Youth Cup in Lead but two in Speed.

Laura Rogora, who just did her first 9a, has onsighted Batuka 8b in Margalef and she put up all the draws by herself. Batuka has been recorded 57 times in the data base, all with 8b and only two guys have onsighted it before. - The route is divided in two sections with a very good rest in the middle. The first four bolt are hard and I thought to fall every move. The second part is easier but there is another hard move. Today was the first day of the trip. In this week I would like to visit new crags: Santa Linya, Rodellar... Today the 14-year-old onsighted Codigo Norte, an 8b in Santa Linya. "I'm staying here just for one week so I think I will climb only onsight."