The news

Encouraging news about Zaila Rakhmetov, the daughter of Salavat and Guzel Rakhmetov.

Austrians Albert Leichtfried and Reinhard Ranner have carried out the first ascent of Il volo di Pegasus (260m, 7a) on Monte Monaco, San Vito lo Capo, Sicily.

Vento d’estate (290m, 6c), new route on Monte Gallo above Palermo first ascended by Max Flaccavento and Giorgio Iurato.

David Lama from Austria and Jorg Verhoeven from the Netherlands have carried out the first free ascent of their "Brento Centro" 8b on Monte Brento, Valle del Sarca (Arco), Italy.

Following a serious accident to his daughter Zaila, the Russian climber Salavat Rakhmetov has launched an appeal to the entire climbing community.

Polish climber Mateusz Haladaj has repeated his third 9a, Martin Krpan at Misja Pec, Slovenia.

Dave Birkett has carried out the third ascent of The Walk of Life at Dyer's Lookout, North Devon, England.

Two excellent Melloblockers share their impressions about Melloblocco 2010: Nico Favresse who visited the Val di Mello for the first time and Adam Ondra who won the special "Mello" boulders for the third year running.

At the end of April Riccardo Scarian freed two new routes in Val Noana (Dolomites), Shantaram 8c and Hatù per tu 8b+.

Melloblocco 2010 turned out to be a success once again. Despite the bad weather 1900 registered climbers took part in the world's largest bouldering meeting in Val di Mello, Italy from 6 - 9 May 2010. The valley was visited by a circa 3500 boulderers, as can be read in...

Escala'Buoux and the meeting at Buoux to celebrate the lifting of the climbing ban on Face Ouest.

Silvio Reffo from Italy redpoints Nagay 8c and Super Ale 8c+ at the Covolo.

On 16 April Maurizio Oviglia and Rolando Larcher carried out the first free ascent of De rerum natura (230m, 7c max, 7a obbl, /RS2+/II) on Punta u Corbu at Col de la Bavella, Corsica.

Young Adam Ondra is visiting Britain, in particular the climbs at Malham Cove and Kilnsey where he has climbed and attempted some of the hardest routes in the country established by Steve McClure.

In March an international group of climbers including Leopoldo Faria from Portugal forged a 400m line up poor rock on El Gigante in Mexico.

The official website of the IFSC Climbing World Championship 2011 in Arco is now online. The portal also hosts all the information about the next edition of the classic Rock Master competition which has been brought forward to July 2010 as a World Championship pre-event.