NEWS

Loic Zehani has done Mavericks, which is his second 8c+ in Orgon in last two weeks. Video. His father Christophe (41) did the FA last weekend. - The first part is a burly 8b+ bolted by Pierre Legrand and Thierry Legallรฉe twenty years ago and after the rest you join an route bolted last spring by Olivier Bert.

Brooke Raboutou sets new female Zlagboard record
During the Youth World Champions, several hundred juniors tested their finger strength and the winner were the Harold Peeters and Brooke Raboutou who actually got the best female result ever. What is very interesting is that the Zlagboard actually seems to be a good measurement to see who has the strongest fingers among lighter climbers. Most of the highest ranked are in between 45 - 60 kg.

9 September 2015

Thieves in Ceรผse

Even if leaving gear at the crag is at times not advised and in many cases officially not allowed, it is common practice to do so in many areas. Over the past days, ropes and gear packages have been stolen in Ceรผse. This not only does damage to the community of climbers but of course deals a blow to those who have to buy new gear. Some folks lost gear amounting to 1500 euros and even if one might question if leaving all your gear at the crag instead of carrying it up and down every day is okay, one thingยดs for sure - stealing is not! So if in Ceรผse right now, choose wisely if you want to stash your gear or not - you might get ripped off!

9a by Stuart Littlefair (39)
Stuart Littlefair has done the fifth ascent of Steve McClure's Rainshadow 9a at Malhalm and the fantastic story is that he is 39 years old and jumped two grades. On Facebook he says, "There's been too many congratulations about Rainshadow to say thanks to everyone individually. Thanks everyone for the messages - I was quite touched! I still can't quite believe I did it... Thanks especially to Tom Randall - whose training and advice were totally crucial, to Jules for the long term support, to โ€ช#โ€Žlasportivaโ€ฌ for feeding my shoe habit and last but not least to Alex Barrows. If that clown-footed loon can climb 9a I was sure I could. But also he helped a lot with the training, which was nice of him I suppose." ยฉ Guy Van Greuning/Nectarclimbing.com

Girls interested in Overall in Arco
By looking on the complete overall ranking, we can see that several of the best girls did compete in all three disciplines. However, the only ones who made it into all finals Top-8's were Grace McKeehan (c) Eddie Fowke, who won the Overall title in Girls A and Elena Krasovskaia, who won in Girls B. Among the boys, none of the best climbers participated in all parts and in juniors, the winner, Mattias Erber, was #12, #18 and #35 in the three disciplines. In reality, if the best Lead and Boulder guys would just have climbed slowly in the Speed, the male podium would have been completely changed.

Ondra and Janicot win the #29 Arco Rock Master
Planet Mountain reports that Adam Ondra and Hรฉlรจne Janicot won the Duel competition at the 29th Arco Rock Master. The runner-ups were Sean McColl and Mathilde Becerra. 8 + 8 of the best Lead climbers in the world were invited to see who is the fatest in a Duel starting with a speed qualification. Later on, they competed in quarter final, semi and finals and it was also a great ending of the Youth World Championship. (c) Giulio Malfer Every year in Arco, the Duel is just a success and possibly it could be something that also IFSC could introduce. Surely, it is much funnier to see the best guys in the world speed climbing an 8a for a minute instead of watching some speed climbers climbing for around ten seconds on a 6b? Or maybe, both formats could be used.

Second 8b by Nika Potapowa (12)
Nika Potapowa was too young to compete in the Arco Youth World Championship but she went there anyway, and like last year, she did an 8b, Fuego. The tallented 12-year-old did also onsight her first 7c+, Herrtuna in Nassereith.

James Noble is having his best bouldering days ever in Rocklands and we could all learn from his classical comments. Golden Shadow 8B+: "Total mental war of attrition! Marc le menestral saw me on it and described my climbing as 'dancing on rock'. A little bit pleased." Armed Response 8B: "On the go I did it I pushed that hard I went deaf in one ear for the next few minutes. Poo also nearly came out."

6 September 2015

Youth World Champions

96: Anak Verhoeven BEL - Bernhard Rรถck AUT 98: Janja Garnbret SLO - Sascha Lehmann SUI 00: Ashima Shiraishi USA - Sam Avezou FRA Complete results Both Ashima Shiraishi and Janja Garnbret did top out all four routes. Six countries did get one gold in Lead and USA with two silver was overall #1 ahead of Belgium and Slovenia with one silver. The big negative disappointment once again was Germany who did not get any youngsters in the final in both Lead and Boulder. Overall the Youth World Championship was a great success for IFSC and the organizer including the route setting team. It looks like a great future for competition climbing with the record of participants and this event will increase our possibilities to reach the Olympics.