Ethan Pringle reports on Facebook that during a night session he did Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger. "YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!! I SENT THOR's!!!!' AAAAAGGGGHHHHH! I climbed through the first crux section on my third go of the night and somehow managed not to fall on the latter 3/4 of the route! I was SO nervous and pretty convinced that I was going to fall everywhere but I had it so dialed that I could machine through it pretty mindlessly, on autopilot. My toes were TOTALLY numb and frozen on the second half of the route and I couldn't see the feet becuause it was pretty much DARK but I just kept trucking and fought to the top!!! Holy SHIT, SO PSYCHED!!! I screamed until my voice was horse. Thanks so much to Dave Graham for this hilarious pic, the belay and eternal stoke! Surprise surprise!!!

Sean McColl is one of the very best competition climbers in the world and also the only male who sometimes competes in Speed. However, as the best run up is the 15 meter high 6b in around six seconds and McColl usually covers it in 8 - 9 seconds, i.e. he is 33 - 50% slower, he finishes among the last. IFSC has suggested that the Olympic format will be based only on the Combined results of Lead, Bouldering and Speed. The Speed world record of the is 5.60 by Danyil Boldyrev. This is very impressive and these guys have been training specifically for several years. To have Adam Ondra competing next to Danyil would be embarassing for everyone involved. I mean it is like forcing the world's best 3 000 meter runner to compete against Usain Bolt in 100 meters. For me the best "combined" format is to select DWS as the Olympic format as this tests the Lead, Bouldering and Speed skills in a fun and understandable way. If "combined" Climbing makes it into the Olympics in 2020, IFSC has to change the WC format in 2019. Imagine how big impact this will also have at the national and youth level. How many of the best athletes are willing to skip maybe 20% of their power and endurance training and just start running on a 6b route instead? I mean, this speed focus will also have a negative impact on their rock climbing performances, beside it being dead boring to train for.

Sasha Digulian has written a debate article in regards to the Rock & Ice article where Paige Claasen says FFA (First Female Ascents) are irrelevant. "FFA are significant because they flag the progress of women's achievements in climbing. The relevancy of labeling something as a "First Female Ascent" can be arbitrary depending the difficulty may be somewhat insignificant. My hero is Lynn Hill for setting the precedent for men and women. Her achievements and highlighting that she is a woman narrow the gender gap. I think that there is something to be said about women putting themselves out there and going after their dreams regardless of past ascentionists. This encourages me to push myself as well. Perhaps people who are not in favor of emphasizing "female firsts" find organizations like the Women's Sports Foundation and UN Women irrelevant as well. Reinforcement of female achievements are necessary to encourage progression." 8a agrees with the thoughts of Digulian even if FFA should not in general be considered as important as a FA. Although climbing might be the sport where female are closest to male performance, of course it is important to state who was the first female on Mount Everest or which female will do the FFA of a 9a+. If climbing media should not divide and select male and female performances differently, we would almost never see any female ascents reported. Most certainly, no media would report Paige's 8b+/c ascent, as probably 500 guys do it every year.

Kairn reports that Seb Bouin has done the second ascent of Remy Bergasse's L'intégrale du toît d'Orsay at The toît d'Orsay which is made up by two problems put up by Jacky Godoffe. Seb is mainly a route climber and he has done about a dozen 9a to 9b's and, regarding the grade he compares it with an 8c+. Furthermore, he says he did not manage to do several 8B's in Fontainebleau. © Pierre Délas/Kairn

Domen Škofic was in the Top-4 in the last four WC in 2014 and then he did his first 9a+, Papichulo. After training very hard this year, he started out being #9 in the European Championship and continued with somewhat disappointing results in the first four WCs: 9 - 9 - 3 - 7. In the last comp in Puurs, he topped out all the four routes. ©Vincent Lescaut How can you explain the great progress? I was in great shape all the time this year, in much better than last year but I think the expectations killed me in the start of the season and then I relaxed again, didn't care and just started to enjoy climbing again. How will you prepare before the last WCs and how to deal with expectation now? I will train on as I did up until now and I have no expectations for the last two stages. I just want to be relaxed and enjoy climbing in the comps! Expectations killed me in the start of the season so I don't want it to happen again! I love outdoors and I think if the weather will be fine I will go in the rock for few days.

Ethan Pringle reports on Facebook that Daniel Woods has finally done the 60 meter long upside-down climb, Thor's Hammer 9a+ in Flatanger. Daniel has been working on the route for some weeks in mainly bad conditions and actually already eleven days ago, he did fall on the last move after 45 minutes. (c) Courtney Woods "Well, @dawoods89 ended his epic and sent Thor's Hammer!!! In total garbage conditions! Super impressive.

Dave Graham reports on Facebook that he has done the second ascent of Illusionist in Flatanger, which actually was Dave's first 9a in over two years. In total, he has done 19 routes 9a and harder.

IFSC comes with the great news that sport climbing was shortlisted as one of five new sports for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. More info here. The Olympic medals will be given to the best Combined ranked climbers in three disciplines; Lead, Bouldering and Speed. In total 20 female and 20 male will be allowed to compete. Here are the results form an 8a poll based on some 4 000 unique votes. Which discipline in the Olympics 2020? Combined: Lead, Boulder and Speed 21 % Lead 15 % Bouldering 32 % Deep Water Solo 6 % Climbing should NOT be in the Olympics 25 %