The news

American rock climber Alex Honnold has successfully completed his free solo ascent of the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan. The 40-year-old required 1 hour and 31 minutes to climb one of the tallest buildings in the world.

Watch Scottish climber William Bosi making the first ascent of 'Pôr Do Sol' (8C+) at Sintra in Portugal.

On 20/01/2026 Austrian alpinists Martin Sieberer and Lukas Waldner completed the first winter ascent of 'Schutzengelweg' on the North Face of Sagwandspitze in the Valsertal valley in Tyrol, Austria. First ascended in summer 1982 by Andreas Orgler and Reinhard Schiestl, this is the first known repeat in 34 years.

Watch Benjamin Védrines and Léo Billon climb the Grandes Jorasses via the Colton-McIntyre route, as part of their April 2025 Alpine Trilogy which resulted in them enchaining in 6 days and without motorised transport the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses.

German climber Yannick Flohé has repeated 'Excalibur', the 9b+ in Arco, Italy, first ascended by Stefano Ghisolfi in 2023 and, until now, only repeated by Will Bosi and Brooke Raboutou.

The two mountain guides Christoph Hainz and Roger Schäli have opened 'Chi non lavora non fa l'amore' (7b, 6b+ obligatory) on the east face of Monte Monaco at San Vito lo Capo in Sicily.

The documentary of the award-winning first ascent of Yashkuk Sar in Pakistan, carried out by the American alpinists August Franzen, Dane Steadman and Cody Winckler from 19 - 23 September 2024.

Scottish climber William Bosi has made the first ascent of 'Pôr Do Sol' at Sintra close to Lisbon. Graded 8C+/V16, it is currently the hardest boulder problem in Portugal.

Between 11 and 26 December 2025, Italian Mountain Guide Niccolò Bruni opened three new mixed routes on Rognon Vaudano (Mont Blanc): 'Le Piolet Perdu' with Alberto Boschiazzo, and 'Facile Facile 2.0' and 'Veloce Veloce 2.0' with Federica Furia.

Footage of French climber Laura Pineau repeating 'Butterfly Circus', the 8a+ crack in Ticinio, Switzerland described as 'one of Europe’s best splitter cracks.'

Watch American climber Chris Sharma establish 'Vision Quest', a 9a/+ deep water solo on the island of Mallorca first ascended in December 2024.

On 31/12/2025 Filip Babicz and Olivier Gajewski climbed the historic 'Allain-Leininger' route (TD+, M7, 900m) on the north face of the Petit Dru (3,733m) in the Mont Blanc massif. This is a rare single-day free ascent in winter of this classic, established in 1935 by Pierre Allain and Raymond Leininger.

Watch Benjamin Védrines and Léo Billon climb the Matterhorn via the classic Schmid route, as part of their April 2025 Alpine Trilogy which resulted in them enchaining in 6 days and without motorised transport the Eiger, Matterhorn and Grandes Jorasses.

We are reproducing, courtesy of the Gorizia section of the Italian Mountaineering Club, the account of the historic first winter ascent of 'Diedro Nord' of Piccolo Mangart di Coritenza in the Julian Alps. Also referred to as 'Diedro Cozzolino', this dihedral was climbed solo by the Italian alpinist Renato Casarotto...

From 28 to 31 December 2025, French alpinists Antoine Bouqueret and Charles Dubouloz repeated the 'Directe Gamma' route on the southeast face of the Barre des Écrins (4,102m). This might well be the first winter ascent of this legendary route, first climbed in 1992 by the Italians Michele Frigerio, Eugenio...

From 27- 30 December 2025 French mountaineers Léo Billon, Amaury Fouillade, Nicolas Jean and Enzo Oddo made the first ascent of 'Basique' (1100m, V+ A2+ M5) up Point Whymper (4184m) on the north face of Grandes Jorasses in the Mont Blanc massif.