UKC

Jakob Schubert repeated El Bon Combat in December 2018 and he also suggested a downgrade to 9a+.

Felipe Camargo has also repeated it giving 9b. 

No comment recognising the loss of two of the UKs most notable winter climbers and  mountaineers - Andy Nisbet and Martin Moran?

Whilst I don't personally have any leaning one way or the other on the Brexit ref I didn't think this comment was necessary:

"Despite the dark cloud of Brexit tainting the UK's political and cultural image"

I come here for climbing news and media, not politics.

Sad to observe the frequency of alpinists who have done amazing things and then died. Kyle Dempster should be added to the list, and his and Hayden's ascent of the Ogre.

Surprised to see no mention of Boswell/Robertson's onsight of big Scottish grade X routes. To many these routes are more significant than Banana Wall.

They are mentioned in the Banana Wall section. It was impossible to include a lot of significant ascents and it's by no means a be-all and end-all list. We worked out that Nick and I trawled through ~3,600 reports to compile this! 

Also, some obituaries and news would have been covered in an article (in a bigger interview,for example) rather than a news report, which makes them harder to track down if it's not off the top of our heads.

Meltdown is in twice.

Please stop complaining about the lack of your favourite climbing news stories making the list. The original article states....

 'Here are some global news highlights (and some lows) from 2015-2019."

The key word being 'some'.

Ah OK fair enough!

Two different routes

The same route in two different years, one has now been removed.

Just read the 2012 letter 'Sharp End - Letter to my son' from Michael Kennedy to Haydn Kennedy. 

Which leads to reflection on risk - such a void between the athletic achievement on a 9b+ and the objective dangers on remote supra-alpine peaks. And we take an interest in , and support all such exploits, being part and parcel of the client-sponsor web. Would the risk takers risk less without sponsorship ?

Interesting that Haydn's exit was not directly related to sponsored activity - many skiers are lost in off-piste avalanche scenarios.