The news

B.A.T. Basic Absurd Technology, repeated by Anna Torretta and Erika Morandi on the Caporal, Valle dell'Orco, Italy

On 17 June Thomas and Alexander Huber climbed the Zodiac, Yosemite, in 1 hour 51 minutes and 34 seconds

On Wednesday 30 June sixteen-year-old Simone Rive sent Francesca 8a+ at Mandello, N. Italy.

At the end of June Mauro Bubu Bole, together with Simone Sarti, made the first free ascent of Isolitudine, first climbed in 1998 by Icaro Demonte, Mirko Giorgi and Lorenzo Nadali at the Gole di Gorropu, Sardinia.

Ramon Julien Puigblanque from Spain and Bettina Schopf from Austria are the new European Champions. The two held off strong competition, in the form of Alexandre Chabot and Francois Auclair, and Natalija Gross and Katharina Saurvein, second and third respectively

At Lecco the Frenchman wins the European Bouldering Championship 2004, ahead of Andrew Earl from Great Britain and Gabriele Moroni from Italy.

Olga Bibik beats Anna Stöhr and Corinne Theroux to win the European Bouldering Championship 2004

Kilian Fischhuber and Sandrine Levet won the third stage of the Bouldering World Cup 2004in Fiera di Primiero last weekend

New routes in Sardina. Rolando Larcher frees "Il vecchio e il mare" 8b Millennium cave.

The second stage of the Italian Bouldering Cup 2004 took place at Gandino last weekend, as was won by Stefania De Grandi and Michele Caminati.

On 7 February 2004 the Italians Elio Orlandi and Luca Fava, and the Argentine Horacio Codò reached the summit of Chalten - Fitz Roy (Patagonia) via the new "Linea di Eleganza" , graded ED+ 6c/A3 90°/M7,

At the end of May Tommy Caldwell freed the Dihedral Wall, on El Capaitan, America. It is is now considered the hardest big wall free climb in Yosemite

In April Steve House and Marko Prezelj made the coveted third ascent of the 5000 foot North face of North Twin, Canadian Rockies, via a new line.

The Trephor, one of the Cinque Torri's (Dolomites) splendid minor towers, has collapsed.

At 09.15am on 30/05/2004 three Russian climbers, Pasha Shabalin, Ilyas Tuhvatullin and Andrey Mariev reached the summit of Mt. Everest via a demanding new line up the Central Pillar of Everest's North Face.

Alexander Chabot and Angela Eiter won the second stage of the World Cup Difficulty 2004 held in Imst, last weekend.