The news

Ben Moon adds sit start to Voyager 8b+ at Burbage North, Tyler Landman repeats Dreamtime at Cresciano, Switzerland and Andrew Earl repeats Cypher 8b at the Slipstones and The Ace 8b at Stanage, UK.

Patxi Usobiaga on-sights "Andujar power" at Fataga, Canaries, "Proyect de ricar" at El Rio, Tenerife and "Teken" at Etxauri, Navarra all 8b+ and repeats "Begi puntuan" 9a at Etxauri. Edu Marín Garcia and Chris Sharma make the 2nd and...

On 28 November Jorg Verhoeven from Holland completed his first 8c flash - Korrida at Misja Pec, Slovenia.

At the end of September Florian Scheimpflug, Tomáš Sobotka, Ondra Benés and Harald Berger travelled to the Andringitra National Park in Madagascar where they made the first ascent of 'Short Cut' 7c+ 750m and a repeat of ...

13 year old Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic has redpointed Martin Krpan 9a at Misja Pec, Slovenia.

On October 26, Andreas Bindhammer carried out the first repeat of Abysse, the 9a first ascended by Alexandre Chabot in Déversé (Gorges du Loup, France).

On 17 October Mario Prinoth carried out the first repeat of "Solo per vecchi guerrieri", the route first ascended by Manolo on the "El Colaz" rock face above Aune in the Feltre Dolomites.

Todd Skinner, one of America's pioneering free climbers, died on October 23 when abseiling from the Leaning Tower in Yosemite.

At the start of October Markus Bock made the first ascent of what he believes to be the hardest route in Germany's Frankenjura, "Corona" 11+ (French 9a+).

On 2 October Rolando Larcher made the first free ascent of "Via Bepi Mazzotti" on the Piccolo Dain (Sarca valley, Italy).

On 10 October Fabrizio Droetto repeated Noia, the legendary 8c+ at Andonno, first ascended by Severino Scassa in 1993.

Patxi Usobiaga has onsighted "Pata Negra" 8c at Rodellar, Spain.

Barbara Raudner from Austria climbs "Keitos Palast" at Austria's Höllental (Atlantis) and in doing so joins the fast-growing international list of female climbers capable of climbing 8c

In August the Italians Marco Vago and Simone Pedeferri completed their new route up M.te Donneittu (Codula de Luna, Sardinia) called Amico Fragile and graded 7c+/8a .

Massimo da Pozza makes the first ascents "Sognando l'aurora" (7b+ max, 7a obligatory), "Aspettando la vetta" (6c max, 6b obligatory) and "Il vecchio leone e la giovane fifona" (6c max 6b obligatory) on the Tofane di Rozes, Dolomites.

On 25 September Kilian Fischhuber made the 9th ascent of Action Directe 9a at the Waldkopf, Frankenjura, Germany.