Hello again. It's been a week since I competed in Brixen, but the schedule remained busy, preventing me from having a few fresh hours for myself, to think and eventually write something. But here I am, better late than never.

Let me start with the routesetting. One cannot complain much here, it was a good wall, amazing choice of holds and volumes, with an experienced and psyched crew. It felt like a major refreshment after the Salt Lake City cups. It didn’t feel uncomfortable as in the US. It felt good, tricky and hard. My absolute favourite move was the top of semifinal 2, where I caught the left heel while catching the top on the right. Ahh so satisfying! But the coordination moves are still too easy. Beginner level.

Being out of finals might have given me a taste of bitterness in judgement, but I expected something more spectacular in that round. A few boulders were cheatable in an ugly way – foot jamming and hand matching on a small pocket… ew. But all in all, setting seemed much better than the last two by far. So good job boys.

It was extremely hot during the weekend. It was very easy to suffer a heat stroke. My heart goes to all the coaches who spent hours on the direct sun. Luckily, the roof of the gym is big enough to cover the wall and the mats very well. The venue is amazing, very nice view of the action from the tribunes. Lovely.

I had a really smooth climbing weekend, despite the end result. I flashed the first two semifinal boulders. Got stuck on the third one, due to little fatigue and lack of skills to complete the task at hand, but I knew that the last one holds the ticket to the next round. I was cruising on my flash go, just until the top hold. Had one hand on it, when I realised, I need to drop-knee to be more stable to match. While attempting to change the position I felt that same weird pain in my right index finger from aggressive crimping. I was crimping so hard to keep that flash, that I over-strained my fingers without noticing. When I finally did notice, I tried to release the grip just a little bit, so I prevent any injuries, then I slipped with that and fell. I was furious and kept slipping in the middle sector as I lost my perfect grip and focus, obviously. That is how I lost my finals. Very bitter.

A really good side-thing about this event was that we were allowed to request brushing during the rotation round. Both athletes and coaches were happy and grateful for this change back to normal after some complaints. But will it stay, we can’t know. I certainly hope so.

As you may have noticed in the last two years, well, since the pandemic started, athletes mostly brushed the holds by themselves instead of calling a brusher to do that, while the athlete rests. In order to reduce the number of people in the field of play and to prevent the contact with athletes, the brushers were temporarily unavailable. This year however, the new 15 s rotation period was introduced between climbing rotations, to have the climbers safely return to the iso and this was an open window for brushers to clean the holds. Seems practical? Smart move?

Well. It’s all a tricky topic. There are no covid rules in Europe, but we still aren’t allowed to request brushing (I tried in the US but the judge on the boulder didn’t allow it per instructions from above). It turns out, people in charge, whoever they may be, chose to forget all the normal rules from the glorious pre-pandemic times. An information came in that apparently it doesn’t look good on TV when a brusher is next to a climber on the mats, mentioning “requests”, “servants” and similar associations. I am still shocked by the audacity for such comparison, and I will firmly stand with my point that us athletes should use our time to rest. We can ask for brushing help if we want. If we do not, we can brush ourselves. It is a part of this sport for a long time. TV has no business filming athletes who don’t climb (excluding finals, where there is nobody else to film) who additionally strain themselves further to brush the holds.

To finish this bitter topic with a few remarks, there are so many people keen to volunteer on a big boulder event to brush holds. I did it as a kid too. In ball sports, there are always ball-kids whose task is to get the ball to the player, so that they don’t have to lose their time and to waste energy. Why are we making things complicated?

Anyways, Brixen was refreshing, competing in Europe really felt like home and I finally got a chance to visit Südtirol. The full focus now is on Innsbruck. Last chance for big things in this year's Boulder World Cup circuit.

Pics by Ryu Voelkel (1&2) and Lena Drapella (3&4)

Prior to this trip, the last time I visited any Asian country was back in 2018, before my knee surgery and before the pandemic. I had never visited Korea before (besides a 2h layover on the airport), therefore I was very excited about the whole trip.

We arrived in Seoul on Tuesday before the competition, to have enough time to fulfil the Covid19 requirements (double testing), to adjust to the time zone and climate.

Luckily, I experienced a very mild jet lag, I climbed in two of the many bouldering gyms in Seoul (The Climb and Climbing Park Hanti), but I did get pretty tired on the sightseeing.

The qualification round was pretty physical. I topped all the problems, but I definitely worked hard for them. Sometimes I think to myself, why do I try so hard in qualifications, then I climb at the very back in semifinals and struggle with friction. Exactly that scenario happened in semifinals - it was hot and humid, plus chalked up. I barely fought my way up on number 2, which I managed to top, and number 3, where friction definitely wasn't on my side. The 4th problem - a slab - I flashed, using my height to skip the last move and match the top earlier than intended. Three tops got me through to finals in 6th position, starting first.

In finals, after each boulder, the live results are available for competitors to look at. I was never a fan of this rule, but I always looked at them. Now I decided not to. I am experimenting with different mental tactics, as the final round is for me, mentally the toughest. The final lasts very long, you can hear what is going on for each climber and the rests in-between are so long all kind of thoughts can crawl into your head. This time (and a few successful times ages ago) I managed to completely isolate from the rest. I believe now in Seoul I got a different vibe compared to the finals last year and compared to Meiringen this year.

I found the final boulders pretty exciting to climb. I was very proud to have flashed the mantle move on no. 1, as I have struggled with the technique and power required for it the whole winter - the desperate work on it finally payed off. No. 2 was a slab which could have been more difficult for me due to my height. I felt like I froze in the middle, unable to move my feet higher. On the side note, the zone hold was the most useless handhold on the wall. This happens often recently, that the zone is basically a foothold, then you have critical judging decisions, appeals and a mess. Sometimes I really wonder why routesetters make this so much more complicated, instead of deciding for a more useful hold.

Short definition:

Zone hold is rewarded if the hold controlled: (Control means, for the purposes of judging and scoring, that a competitor has made use of some object/structure to achieve or change a stable body position ).

If you can't hold it or use it, why is that the zone??

Anyways, I topped the dynamic no. 3, which I really enjoyed. The 4th one I unnecessarily complicated at the start, losing all the time, passing the crux at the very last attempt and running out of time 2 moves away from the top. Sad, but educative. The funny trick to doing the first sequence was to push the forehead against the wall to create the upward force. Then it was all on balancing the feet and hands and slowly turn around - that part I found weird. That top would have gotten me on the podium, but I would say 4th place is also fine :)

Currently still 2nd on the World Ranking (12 months, including World Champs) and 3rd in the World Cup overall for 2022.

As the pandemic is still taking lives across the world, we can only hope, once again, to have a normal season ahead of us. Nobody is fully aware of how the restrictions will limit our travels, training and performance across the globe during the upcoming season, but we can all do our best to be ready as if everything was normal.

I have been a part of German team simulations almost every weekend for a month now and each one of them presented a different challenge. However, the path finally has some concrete basis, the hopes are up and the body is adapting to the new approaches, and new bio-mechanical circumstances. What a funny thing a human body is. Every year there are new obstacles to overcome. At least it is never boring.

The short trip in Chironico yielded another solid 8A+ boulder. After a few days of projecting, fighting the fears at the topout and adapting to the length of the boulder, Delusion of Grandeur finally surrendered. Very tiring on the right hamstring and requires good explosive power and contact strength at the beginning, as well as some power endurance and a strong head at the top. Fun boulder.

Back from Moscow with another medal this year and another bronze on a World Championship. The finals presented a great emotional and mental challenge. I started in a pretty nervous manner but managed to pull back the focus and secure a medal with the top of the last boulder.

Three weeks in South Africa felt like being on another planet. It was my first time in this bouldering heaven. The first week was smooth and successful, having climbed The Arch 8A+/B and Shosholoza 8A+ (FFA). After these, I sent Pendragon 8A in a day, but struggled with dabbing. Some days later, I stuck the dyno and ticked the Oral Office 8A+. The last and the toughest climb was Mooiste Meisie 8B. It took me 5 heavy projecting days, with emotional failures. On the second to last day of the trip, the freshness returned and I gave it a first female ascent on a wonderful sunset. The last day I gave Black Shadow some tries, but that is left for my next visit. Check out the video of the ascents, by Matthias Woidneck.