The news

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

Up the Sa Costa ‘e Aidu rock face at Baunei in Sardinia, Maurizio Oviglia and Fabio Erriu have made the first ascent of Atlantide, 400 meters of plaisir climbing with difficulties up to 6a+.

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.

On 24 August 2018 American climber Tom Frost died aged 81. Frost was one of the pioneering climbers and photographers during the Golden Age of Yosemite climbing.

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.

Swiss climber Nina Caprez talks about her recent trip to Lebanon where she joined up with the non-profit organisation ClimbAID to bring climbing to Syrian refugees and Lebanese youth affected by the war.

On Castello di Vallesinella in the Brenta Dolomites Giorgio Pirovano, Nicola Castagna and Sara Ongari established Agrodolce, a new 6-pitch rock climb first ascended ground-up, onsight, with bolts only at the belays and difficulties up to grade VII.

The video of Caro North and her discovery of Minialaska, a new rock climbing area in Patagonia.

German climber Daniel Jung has made the first repeat of Recovery drink, the difficult trad climb on the Profilveggen wall at Jøssingfjord in Norway. First ascended in 2013 by Nicolas Favresse, the route had foiled some of the best crack climbers in the world.

The trailer of the film Free Solo that documents Alex Honnold and his historic free solo ascent of Freerider on El Capitan, Yosemite, carried out by American on 3 June 2017.

Russian climbers Dmitrii Panov, Andrey Panov and Anar Demirov have completed their Arctic Odyssey, probably the first new climb up the East Face of Breiflogtinden on the Lofoten Islands in Norway.

The video Limits are just Illusion with Adam Ondra who, due to a knee injury, climbs in what is a rather unusual way for him.

During a climbing trip to Canada Barbara Zangerl and Jacopo Larcher repeated a string of difficult routes, including the trad climb The Path at Lake Louise.

On the island of São Tomé in Africa the Spanish brothers Iker and Eneko Pou teamed up with Manu Ponce and Jordi Canyi to establish 'Leve Leve’, a 450 m multi-pitch graded 8b+.

25-year-old Czech sports climber Adam Ondra has freed a 9b slab, Disbelief at the sports crag Acephale in Canada.