Flashes, First 9as & Gold in Nagoya

A Week for Doing Things First Go

Yannick Flohé flashes Flow State 8C, his second flash at the grade and, by his own assessment, the harder of the two. Filip Schenk goes one better in Val Tanaro with Vivi si muore and Prima Classe, two 9a flashes on consecutive days, while Camilla Moroni makes Dreamcatcher her first 9a after roughly ten sessions.

In Nagoya, Sorato Anraku handles the pressure of a home Asian Games to take Boulder gold, while a 55-foot fall in Moab raises uncomfortable questions about webbing that climbers may still be buying from gear shops.

Dreamcatcher Gets Another First 9a

Just after Camilla Moroni's ascent, Jenya Kazbekova also clips the chains of Dreamcatcher for her first 9a, one year after the birth of her daughter.

Jakob Schubert is back in Verdon making links on DNA, Simon Gietl opens three new multi-pitch routes in the Antersasc Valley in a single week, and Alex Honnold manages to fit a 65-metre 5.14b project between a morning event in Las Vegas and getting home before his kids.

Nagoya Gives Us a Glimpse of 2027

Yuetong Zhang takes Boulder gold after flashing the first three problems, with Ai Mori close behind, then Chaehyun Seo becomes the only woman to top the Lead final and beats Mori to gold there.

Tomoa Narasaki leaves what he expects to be his final Asian Games with bronze and the belief that he can still improve. In Arco, Jessica Pilz takes her third Rock Master title, and Filip Schenk follows his two 9a flashes by winning the men's lead duel ahead of Adam Ondra. With the 2027 World Climbing calendar now published and the road to LA28 beginning to take shape, the next season already feels surprisingly close.

Shoes, Kneepads and the Choices Behind Them

UKClimbing puts the current crop of mid-range all-round shoes side by side, a useful category for anyone who wants one pair to cover more than a single style of climbing. Alexander Megos, meanwhile, continues his reluctant conversion to kneepads and admits he is finally developing something resembling a kneebar game.

When the Rock Itself Changes the Conversation

A new crack on the Hochvogel is now showing the strongest movement on a mountain already monitored by more than 30 sensors, with a rockfall of up to 400,000 cubic metres still expected. That sits alongside a wider look at what warming means for alpine climbing, while in Australia the Mount Arapiles bans have been reduced by 58 percent.

And in Squamish, the story of Gabe Lawson and a proposed V16 that eventually became V14 turns into something much larger than another debate about grades.