This week's Friday Nighter is a double bill from Cedar Wright.
"After a whirlwind three day travel sequence Lucho and I found ourselves on Tioman Island staring up at the mythical "Dragon's Horns." It was hard to believe that only one of the huge jungle spires had been climbed...until we started the approach..." ]]>
Following on from their first winter ascent of Gasherbrum II in 2011, Simone Moro and Denis Urubko are currently on expedition attempting the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat (8125m).
The pair have been releasing regular video updates of their expedition, and we have the fourth video here, as well as a selection of stunning images from the trip so far. ]]>
Andrea Cossu, a videographer based in Torino, Italy, has in the last month or so had the chance to shoot some footage with Stefano Ghisolfi, a young talented climber.
He's 18 and he basically travels to take part in the international competitions, but during his christmas holidays he tried some outdoor boulders. The result was great!
In just 10 days he managed to send a lot of hard problems like:
· second ascent of 'Scheletri nell'Armadio', 8B - Rosta, Torino.
· Gandalf il Grigio', 8B+...]]>
Matty Hong and Carlo Traversi have made the 3rd and 4th ascent of the very popular Memory is parallax, 8B+, at Nicky's boulders/Elkland close to Estes park, Colorado.
Those who check in here regularly will know the problem was opened by Dave Graham on New year's eve and repeated by Daniel Woods a few weeks later.
Meanwhile(ish) further south, at Red Rocks, Nevada, Alex Johnson made a quick repeat of the long and crimpy Lethal Design, 8A+, for her 7th of the grade. Not bad!
Carlo Traversi...]]>
Securing access...Supporting British climbing talent...Promoting good practice...it's all in a day's work for the BMC.
Watch the new star-studded video to get just a flavour of what they do... ]]>
On the 15th of January 2012, 15 year-old James Squire climbed his first Font 8A boulder problem with an ascent of Boy Racer at Dinas Rock, South Wales. ]]>
Chris Webb Parsons is in Hueco Tanks, Texas, with a strong crew, including both Alex Puccio and Shauna Coxsey. Now he has made the 2nd ascent of Daniel Woods' Desperanza, 8C.
Desperanza, which is the sit down start to Fred Nicole's Esperanza in the Dirty Martini Cave, is what Chris calls his "training boulder" while in Hueco, as it's "good power endurance training".
Well... if he runs a couple of laps on it every day, who knows, maybe he will climb something hard one of this days,...]]>
Back in October of last year we reported that New Zealand climber Mayan Smith-Gobat had made a free ascent of the famous Salathe on El Capitan, California.
Here's the video from Five-Ten... ]]>
Reported on Scottish Winter is the news that Greg Boswell has repeated Dave MacLeod's winter test-piece of Don't Die of Ignorance (XI,11).
Greg commented on Scottish Winter:
"...Some of the thinnest climbing I have ever done. A sterling effort for Mr MacLeod to free such an awesome line!”]]>
Daniel Woods has made the first scent of a Mind to Motion, 8B+, line found and cleaned by Dave Graham at Nicky's boulders/Elkland, just outside of Estes Park north of Boulder, Colorado.
On Daniel's fb athlete page he says that The line goes out a 35 degree overhanging bulge. There are two near parallel rails leading to a flat hold at the 3/4 point. The style is wide compression moves between the two rails with involved heel hooking and edging. Once you arrive to the flat edge, you then set up...]]>
Colder and drier conditions have reached Fontainebleau, and the send train is once again rolling.
Guillaume Glairon-Mondet, or Guigui, has repeated Satan i helvete bas, 8B+, at Coquibus Longs Vaux.
According to Guigui, as well as other repeaters, the "bas"-version is far better and more logical than the "assis"-version.
He really has to make the best of the conditions at hand as he has only got 3 days to climb before the next French cup competition, and the projects he has got in mind...]]>
Earlier in the year we reported that Simone Moro and Denis Urubko are now attempting the first winter ascent of Nanga Parbat (8125m).
The pair are 'webcasting' live from the base camp today at 11:00 until 12:00 (UK Time).
You can ask them questions and listen and see what they have to say about their attempt so far on Nanga Parbat in winter.
Check it out here: FACEBOOK LIVE WEBCAST
The expedition is sponsored by
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Here is the long awaited third part of Alvi Pakarinen's/Black Diamond's "Adam Ondra goes to Fontainebleau"-trilogy.
In this part Adam makes an insanely impressive flash ascent of Olivier Lebreton's notoriously technical Gecko assis, 8B+, Fontainebleau.
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Sean McColl a native of Vancouver, Canada, who's now residing on our side of the Atlantic (Toulouse to be more precise) just came back from a short trip to Fontainebleau.
Though the weather was pretty far from ideal and Sean only got to do some actual climbing on the last day of the trip. That day on the other hand, turned out quite successfully.
At Cuvier Rempart, Sean did a couple of the "Big four", Fourmis rouges and Big boss, as well as the classic Noir désir.
What's even more...]]>
Following on from our UKC News report last week, now we have a short video from Jon Griffith about his ascent of the Lesueur (with variation exit).
Jon has commented on his blog about this route and the reports following his and Ueli Steck's ascent... ]]>