NEWS

First Round, First Minute 9b by Adam Ondra

Adam Ondra has done Chris Sharma's First Round, First Minute 9b in Margalef which took him 9-10 days. "Next is some unfinished business in Finestra (also Margalef) and than we are moving further...close to Oliana," says photographer (c) Vojtech Vrzba." Henning Wang did film the ascent. Interview at PlanetMountain. Like previous years, Adam took three weeks off from climbing during Christmas break and after that he has been training for three weeks and arrived to Margalef 25/1. They will return to Czech Republic 12/2 so another week to go before picking up his University studies. In 2014, Adam will do some Boulder WC's and the whole Lead circuit.

8A+ by Katharina Saurwein

Katharina Saurwein has done her seventh 8A+, Lethal Design in Red Rocks. "After figuering out the beta and trying it for three days, I managed to climb 'Lethal design', a beautiful, crimpy power endurance problem. First 8a+ of the season." Last year Katharina was #6 in the Boulder WC after having been Top-10 in all the eight WC's. The Austrian has been a successful competition climber since 2002 and in 2006 she won the Youth World Championship and in 2008, she won a Lead WC. In 2014, she will do all Boulder WC's.

8c (+) RP and 8a+ (b) OS by Piotr Schab (17)

Piotr Schab has had two great days in Margalef where he has done Pal Este giving it a personal upgrade to 8c+ as it took him 25 tries over three trips. Later he onsighted El Figurin 8a+ and La Trencatranques giving the latter a personal grade of 8a+, "Too many good holds for an 8b." The 17 year old is #2 in the ranking game. The pic by Piotr Bunsch is from La Cabane au Canada 9a.

The dates for the Youth World Championship in New Caledonia has been changed from 15-18 August to 20-24 September. This means that most kids will need to take 1.5 week vacation from school, but if the event instead of a Saturday starts on a Tuesday, the kids just need five days leave. There is of course a risk that the 1.5 week vacation, 30 h travelling, a cost of at least Euro 2 000 and competing, as well as returning back to school, jet-legged will reduce the number of participants. The best thing would of course be to keep the original dates as this would mean that most would make a longer trip to also have time for some exciting holidays, no vacation needed and no disturbing jet leg while competing or returning back to school. It is strange that no reasons have been given, beside it was a suggestion from the French Federation, why the dates were changed and especially why they did not start on a Tuesday as this would have meant a shorter leave from school.

BMC presents a great 58 min story of various ascent by Chris Webb Parsonsthe last years including two 8C's. Chris has also been doing many Boulder WC's the last year paying everything from his own pocket. Last year he won the Arco Rock Master and in the WC, his best result is #6. He thinks it will cost him around 10 000 USD to do the WC in 2014 so he plans to do only three.

Two 8c+ by Ramonet in Oliana

Ramon Julian has had another good day in Oliana where he did two 8c+, Joe Blau and La Morenita. The 159 cm Ramonet has been #2 in the 8a ranking game after Adam Ondra for several years now and during the last 12 years, he has overall, been the best Lead competition climber. In 2002, he won his first WC and was #2 in the European Champion. Later he has become the world champion twice and the WC results for the last four years are : 3 - 2 - 2 - 1. (c) M. Alba

IFSC reports that they based on a suggestion from the French Federation has changed the date for the Youth World Championship to September 20-24. The event will take place in New Caledonia which means that most youngsters will have to take vacation at least 1.5 week from the school. Reino Horak, Swedish National Coach comments that "There may cause problems for students taking 8-10 days off school and for team officials which work volunteer for their federations to get days off work in September since the common industrial vacations are finished. This may eventually also lead to a severely reduced numbers of participants which in the long run may lead to diminished interest in lead competition climbing. We already today see a severe situation concerning youth comps and all sub-factors that can add to this trend is of concern.

Iker Ortiz (14) sends 'Malsoñando', 8c

We almost can't keep track of all the super young climbing phenomenons in Spain these days... Yesterday we reported about Héctor Bazán and Jerome González and today we come with another astonishing kid crusher, the 14 years-old Iker Ortiz from Valencia, who yesterday bagged his first 8c, Malsoñando in El Bovedón de Gandía (pic© José Ortiz). During his short story in the vertical world -he started climbing in July, 2012- he nailed up to 8a+ during his first year and before reaching his new milestone his best performances were two 8b's. In his scorecard he comments: "My first 8c. Super happy. Also very happy of having stepped up from the 8b to the 8c. Thanks to those who supported and belayed me during these days." How was the process and how was the route for you? "I started trying the route on the 4th of January of this year. It's a route with a bouldery move at the beginning, followed by a sequence of reachy movements combined with some active rests. Then, there's a very hard movement on crimps, which is the route's hardest for me. After that movement you enter an active rest in order to reach the route's last movement -a one finger pocket move which can easily throw you off- 'in good conditions'."

We have received several mails how it can be possible to first do some spell checking etc and add missing routes to the data base before sorting from left-to-right. Adding ascent you can do in your own scorecard but clicking "DB Ascents" meaning it will not show up on your list. When it comes to spell checking you need a specific log in. Just email, [email protected] and everyone having done some few hours work will get a free 8a La Sportiva T-shirt.