Colin Duffy from the USA was the only one to Top three boulders in the final, winning his first World Cup victory. The 18-year-old's previous best was a bronze in a Lead WC last year, besides being #7 in the Olympics and winning two Youth World Championships. Overall, the route setting was very good in the semi but in the final, the first two boulders were way too easy and way too hard. Runner up was Dohyun Lee (19) from Korea who was #4 in Brixen two weeks ago. Yoshiyuki Ogata from Japan, who won the semi, got the bronze. Both Korea and Japan had two finalists strengthening the trend of Asia domination. Complete results

IFSC took the picture and got some comments from Duffy. “I was counting the attempts in my head, I thought that if Yoshi had flashed then he would have won, then as he had taken a few attempts on the first move, I started to realise that I had won the competition and I was in shock. I still am in shock!” said Duffy on his victory.

“I wouldn’t be here without the rest of the USA team athletes, the support and camaraderie that I share with the team is a key part of these World Cup experiences. I’m glad that they were here to cheer me on and support me to the gold medal,” he added.

Taylor McNeill, who previously has done four 8C'd and one 8C+, has done Drew Ruana's Variant (8C) in Mt Evans.

"I did the easier start a few days ago, We can build you v14 (8B+). After I worked the moves for the harder start. Sorted it out fairly quick and got pretty lucky. Hurt my knee last summer on this one, so pretty stoked to come back healthy and finish it up. Two days last summer and two days this year to do WCBY, got lucky and did variant my next sesh. Probably the better line and start. Insomniac (8C+) is the hardest link to be made in the cave, and I’m stoked to put some effort into that next"

What are the differences in difficulties for the three lines?
Wcby starts with a 7A, then the crux sequence which is about 8B, followed by a 7C+ exit. Variant adds a 7C+/8A straight into the 8B crux and finishes the same. Insomniac climbs an 8B into the start jug of Wcby. So it’s 8B to 8B+

Japan dominated the qualification in the Innsbruck Boulder World Cup. In total, they got four female and six male competitors into the Top-20 semifinals. Yoshiyuki Ogata and Futaba Ito were the only ones able to flash all five problems. Winners of the other groups were Rei Kawamata also from Japan and Stasa Gejo from Serbia. Japan impressively had eight male contestants in the Top-23. Team USA also had five athletes making it to the semis. The most surprising negative sensation was that Oriane Bertone was #33. Complete results

The male semifinal will take place on Thursday at 1 pm followed by the final at 7.45 pm. Then on Friday, the female semifinal will run following the same schedule. Here is how to watch the Innsbruck World Cup.

Delaney Miller reports on Insta that she has done The Crew (8c+) in Rifle (CO). (c) James Lucas

"The route meant a lot to me. I started working on it last year and thought it would go down easily. Then I had a few minor injuries come up that really hindered my progress. I spent the winter recovering and rebuilding, and I'm damn proud of myself for making this breakthrough. A huge thanks to everyone who supported me in the process, and especially to Chris Knuth for having the vision. I've climbed one other route of the grade, Solid Gold in Utah, but this one was on another level."

The 27-year-old has been an active competition climber for ten years until 2018. In 2015, she had her best year being Top-13 four times in the World Cup. Three months ago, she published an article in Climbing focusing on the competition career. "It's an honest reflection of when you chase a dream and don't quite succeed, but ultimately walk away with a trove of memories". In November 2020, she did her first 8c+, Solid Gold but no media has reported it although she is the Digital Editor of Climbing Magazine.

Why did you think Solid Gold was so much easier?
It was more my style, with more sustained climbing and worse rests. I did that in November 2020. The Crew has a series of hard boulder problems separated by kneebar rests, and I'm really bad at kneebars. I'd also venture to say that The Crew is just harder for the grade, although I don't actually have the experience climbing 14c's (8c+) to say that with any kind of authority.

Joel Kinder has done the FA of Resisting Arrest (9a) in Robbers Roost which Cameron Hörst repeated ten minutes later. Andy Raether bolted it in 2010 and then Joel took it over 2019. One month ago he invited some friends to try it out and in the beginning they thought it might be 9a+ (c) JP Melville

"I started trying it and realized that this was not specifically my story. Normally with the first ascents and routes, I put up I like to see them through on my own and finish the story. But this climb was different as Andy had bolted it. I had prepped it and it was more or less at a very approachable spot which made it a great opportunity to include everybody that was interested in trying the thing. And the word spread fast as the route is such high quality. There were a few of us grouped up sharing beta and sessioning together. It’s like when you go bouldering and you’re all climbing on the same thing together and there’s such high energy. I feel like with sport climbing and especially first ascents you don’t get that vibe much.

Cam and I are both ultra-focused and we feed off of each other. I’ve climbed a lot with Cam in the past year. He is seriously one of my favourite people to climb with. He’s young and strong as f-ck and I learn a ton from him. But he also learns from me because I’m an old guy with all of the experience. Ha ha, it’s so classic.

I’m really grateful to be able to put as much time into my Climbing as I have been able to. I’m older now but what’s weird is I’m climbing better than I ever have in my entire life. And I am sitting here with a giant question mark over my head as to why? All I know dude is that I’m having a good time, I love climbing and I don’t have to answer to anyone (except my wife hehe). That feels f-cking good."

Jules Marchaland, who did his first 9a one month ago, has done his third, Kinematix in Gorges du Loup. "I'm very happy to do this route which is a connection between Total Eclatch a short 8c+ very physical, and Honk a 8b+ very resistant! The whole of the two-section is a very hard resistance effort! I took two sessions to readjust the movements before being able to put good runs and after three falls in the last three movements, I did it! So happy to do it quite quickly!"

Interesting is that he did his first 8c+ at age 16 in 2017 but then his motivation dropped and he did not do any hard routes until 2021. "I have been training very hard for several months and the work has paid off. I knew I had a good level and I am very happy to see the results of the training."

What are your next plan?
Yesterday I went to spot the movements in "Just two fix” a 9a/+ that Pierre Le Cerf did last summer! It's really not easy and really very long. We'll see what happens after a few sessions but it's not for now.

Adam Ondra has during one day in Harmanec Krpcovo onsighted four 8b+, including Tanec s vlkmi which most ascentionists think is 8c. In total, the 29-year-old, who recently became a dad, has onsighted 191 routes 8b+ and harder, using his notorious, personal solid-for-the-grade scale. No other climber has onsighted more than 40 such graded climbs.

Connor Herson, who did an 8c+ 2nd go at age 14 and one year later The Nose 8b+ in Yosemite, reports on Insta that has done Empath 9a (+) in Tahoe on trad gear. The stunning slightly overhung 20 m line on granite tufas and slopers was put up by Carlo Traversi, one of the most accomplished trad climbers in the world, and has been repeated and confirmed several times as a 9a+ bolted route. (c) Christian Adams

Later Ethan Pringle repeated it using jammies, aka sticky rubber gloves, and said that for him, and also due to his height, he thought it was more of a solid 9a. In this case, the grade is rather important as previously in the trad game, 8c+ is the previously hardest climbed beside Jacopo Larchers's Tribe which he did not grade but made comments indicating it should be at least 9a.

Connor sent Empath using the bolts last year on his fifth session. Later he has sent three more 9a's and in his three Youth World Championships, he has always been Top-16.

David Graham reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Euclase 8C+ in Ticino. "With 19 hand movements, 21 foot moves, and 4 kneebars, its a game of connecting body positions. It’s one of the most technical climbs I have ever encountered and challenged my ability to toe-hook, heel-hook, knee-bar, and footwork like, unlike any other boulder that I’ve tried in my life. The top-out adds a crimpy and dangerous no-fall-zone to the equation, completing the line with a real mental factor."

The 40-year-old has previously the last six months done five 8C's and actually he is peaking right now although being one of the leading rock climbers since 1999. Two months ago, we asked him, How can you still progress after 20+ years as a pro climber?
I feel stronger honestly! �?��?��?�, 🤔🤔🤔. Not sure why?? Maybe smarter??? Healthier lifestyle. Ah just eating better, no partying, lots of good rest!! Better attitude about climbing, more patient and also less concerned with conditions. Always finding new solutions, not getting angry. In the past, I would get much more frustrated when I would fail or not do well. These days I think I'm so used to failing that I'm surprised when I succeed. I do boulders that are really my antistyle too. So I assume they should be hard but I think it really helped my mental game, to push longer and harder. Never get pissed, it is not wise!!! I am feeling strong!! But four months of trying hard has been tough, I took the last two weeks kind of easy as the weather was finally bad �?�🤣

Brooke Raboutou, #5 in the Tokyo Olympics, has done Evil Backwards (8B) in Mount Evans. ”Came here 5 years ago and watched Puccio send, thought it was too big for me but really just wasn’t strong enough lol! First go from the bottom :) fun crew, wonderful evening!”

In total, the 21-year-old has now done 15 boulders 8B or harder. In the 2022 World Cup she is currently #3 although having skipped the last event in Brixen. Coming up 22/6 is the Combined World Cup in Innsbruck followed by Lead in Vilars and Chamonix and possibly also Briancon 22/7.