Hard Routes, Fast Progress & a Very Productive Week

When the Project Starts to Look Possible

King Kang gets a 9b+ proposal after one of Flatanger's remaining dyno projects finally goes down, while Will Bosi links the crux of Silence all the way to the anchor and is left with a 7B boulder between himself and that sequence.

Babsi Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher both redpoint WoGü 8c on their first redpoint attempts after weeks of work, and Jakob Schubert looks back at how Mount Doom 9A became part of his recovery from the worst injury of his career.

Meanwhile, five different 9c routes now exist from five different climbers, and not one has been repeated.

Australia Was Only Part of the Week

Alexander Megos finishes his trip Down Under with the first ascent of Slice of Heaven 9b, Rapture of the Deep 9a+ and two more first ascents up to 8c+.

Back in Europe, Ana Belén Argudo makes the first female ascent of La Gioconda 9a, Filip Schenk flashes Vivi si Muore 9a, and Giovanni Placci somehow turns four different 9as on four consecutive days into a single trip to La Stazione and Albenga.

Nagoya Takes Over the Competition Calendar

The Asian Games are underway in Aichi-Nagoya, with Sorato Anraku chasing another title on home soil after qualifying behind Lee Dohyun and Deng Lijuan already lowering the women's Speed Games record to 6.23 seconds.

Elsewhere, the Pro Climbing League's Boulderfest qualifiers move toward their final two stops, while Munich's Olympic ambitions could eventually bring competition climbing back to Germany on a much bigger stage.

The Things You Should Know About the Gear You Already Own

EDELRID puts numbers on something that is easy to ignore, with textile equipment ageing even when it spends most of its life in storage and maximum useful life depending heavily on how it is used.

Petzl gets practical about cleaning draws from steep or traversing routes, while Climbing Magazine goes back to the questions worth asking before buying something as fundamental as a rope.

Twenty Years, One Sea Arch and a Winter Cerro Torre

Twenty years after Chris Sharma climbed Es Pontas, the line still looks as improbable as it did in King Lines, while Colin Haley's first winter solo of Cerro Torre gives REEL ROCK 20 a very different kind of climbing story.

Paul Pritchard's return to Tasmania's Totem Pole, eighteen years after the accident that left him paralysed on one side, offers another reminder that the meaning of an ascent can have very little to do with its grade.