The news

A team of Mountain Guides and Sherpa have placed some bolts on Everest to make the South Face route safer.

A fortnight ago Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic on-sighted Italy's first 8c, Nagay at Covolo. The 16-year-old then doubled his takings with Una Vida Nomada the same day.

Americans Joseph Puryear and David Gottlieb have made the first ascent of Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters) via the direct South Face. This mountain is a satellite summit in the Lunag massif, Khumbu Region of Nepal.

In February a small American team of climbers carried out a first ascent of Voces en la Noche, (V 5.11 A0) on Pirita Right in the remote Argentian Piritas Valley, Rio Turbio, while a Canadian team produced Todos los Caballos Lindos (5.11-) on Pirita Central.

Last Saturday the Piolets d'Or 2009 were assigned in Chamonix and a total of three awards were given in this 17th edition: Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi from Japan for their ascent of Kamet (India); Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Kazuki Amano from Japan for their new route on Kalanka...

The videos from the WebTV section of the Trento Filmfestival 2009 are online, from Chris Sharma to Patrick Edlinger, Manolo, Kurt Diemberger, Marco Confortola, Fabio Leoni, Rolando Larcher and many, many more.

At Easter Florian and Martin Riegler carried out two noteworthy ascents in the Dolomites. On 7 April the South Tyrolean brothers made the first on-sight of "Karies" on Sassolungo while on 11 April they repeated Zauberlehrling on Cima Scotoni, all free and in a single day

On 25 April Maurizio Manolo Zanolla repeated Thin Ice at Terlago.

On 23 April Ricardo Scarian carried out the first ascent of Adidas 8b+ at Ranzo and the first repeat of Thin Ice 8c at Terlago, Italy

On Saturday 25 April the second stage of the Speed Climbing World Cup was won by the Russians Sergey Abdrakhmanov and Anna Stenkovaya. Qixin Zhong from China set a new world record of 7"22. 

On Saturday 25 April the second stage of the Speed World Cup will take place in Trent, Italy. The event is part of the 25th edition of the Trento FilmFestival.

40 year old Yuji Hirayama has amde the first ascent of The Fifth Element 9a at Chichibu, Japan.

40 year old Yuji Hirayama has made the first ascent of The Fifth Element 9a at Chichibu, Japan.

Adam Ondra has returned to Italy and carried out the first ascent of "Vento nei Capelli" 8c+/9a at Cornalba and "La grande linea dei sogni"8c+/9a at Erto.

The 57th Trento FilmFestival, the oldest film festival dedicated to mountains, exploration and adventure takes place in Trento from 21 April to 3 May. The films, evenings, main players and meetings and some thoughts about the pre-Festival...

Registration is now open for the Rock Junior, which will be held Saturday 06 and Sunday 07 June 2009 in Arco, Lake Garda, Italy.