The news

Interview with Slovenian alpinist Aleš Česen after the ascent, carried out with Luka Stražar and Tom Livingstone, of Latok I via the north and south face. The three were only the second team to reach the summit of the 7,145m high mountain in Pakistan’s Karakorum after the 1979 first ascent.

On Monday 27 August 2018 the 29-year-old Swiss mountain guide Andreas Steindl ascended and descended the Matterhorn via the Hornli ridge at breakneck speed, requiring 3 hours, 59 minutes and 52 seconds for the round-trip from Zermatt.

Alan Carne, Calum Cunningham and Robbie Phillips have made the first ascent of Blood Moon (8a+, 700m) up Tsaranoro Atsimo in Madagascar.

Marco Kostner, pilot of the Aiut Alpin Dolomites, warns of the dangers rescue helicopters face due to reckless use of drones in the mountains.

German rock climber Robert Jasper has returned from his solo expedition to Greenland after having made the first ascent of Stonecircle (7c, 450m) up Molar Spire above the Angmassalik-Tasilaq Fjord.

Good weather has resulted in a series of hard trad repeats in Wales by the likes of James McHaffie, Angus Kille, Emma Twyford, Gérome Pouvreau and Florence Pinet.

The alpinists Brette Harrington and Caro North, together with Chris Kalman, have made the first ascent of Crouching Tiger, a 500 m big wall with difficulties up to 5.12b+ on the Chinese Puzzle Wall in Canada.

New details have emerged in English about the ill-fated Russian expedition to Latok I that resulted in the death of Sergey Glazunov and the dramatic rescue of his climbing partner Alexander Gukov. In this report Gukov believes they reached the end of the North Ridge.

After the closure in June, the second section of the Aiguille du Midi cable car has been closed for an indefinite period due to maintenance works.

Rockfall took place on 22 August 2018 on the famous Arête des Cosmiques in the Mont Blanc massif. La Chamoniarde is currently strongly advising against climbing the popular Cosmiques Arête ridgeline.

On 24 August 2018 Jeff Lowe, one of the world’s most influential mountaineers, passed away aged 67. The American climber was widely recognised as one for the strongest alpinists of his generation.

Climbing ground-up and in a single push, Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher have repeated Odyssee, the difficult alpine outing up the Eiger completed in 2015 by Roger Schaeli, Robert Jasper and Simon Gietl.

Climbing in alpine style from 25 to 28 May 2018, the Czech mountaineers Marek Holeček and Zdeněk Hák made the first ascent of Lapse of Reason, a new route up Kyajo Ri (6186 m) in Nepal.

The video of Ines Papert, Joseph Pfnür, Luka Lindič and Paul McSorley documenting the first ascent of Ruby Supernova up Slanghoek Peak in South Africa first ascended in June 2017.

Simon Richardson reports about the first ascent of Perfect Storm, a new 700m climb established together with Michael Rinn over 8 days up Pointe Louis Amédé on the Miage Face on the Italian side of Mont Blanc (4807 m).

The trailer of the film Dawn Wall retracing the first free ascent of the world’s most difficult big wall, Dawn Wall on El Capitan in Yosemite freed by Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson.