The news

At the start of July Josune Bereziartu and her partner Rikar Otegui repeated Zaratrusta (8a/a+, 400m) Ordesa National Park, Pyrenees, Spain.

Dmitry Sharafutdinov from Russia and Akiyo Noguchi from Japan won the penultimate stage of the Boudlering World Cup held in Montauban, France, last weekend, while the Austrians Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stöhr have now won the overall World Cup 2008.

At the start of June 31 year old Perttu Ollila made the first ascent of "Trad Master" at Pärkänvuori, describing it as "the best and hardest dihedral in Finland."

The Tibetan Environmental Protection Bureau has announced the closure of the northern side of Mount Everest in an effort to clean up the rubbish abandoned on the mountain.

Sacred mountains of the world, the film by Božic Stipe produced by Croatian Television and presented at the 54th Trentofilmfestival is now online in full on the TrentoFilmfestival WebTv

Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama have set a new speed record on the Nose, El Capitan, Yosemite, climbing the route in 2:43:33.

On 28/06 Johanna Ernst from Austria and Tomás Mrázek from the Czech Republic won the first stage of the World Cup Lead 2008 in Qinghai, China.

Climbers are invited to take part in the Clean-up Day at Ceuse, France scheduled for 05-06/07/2008.

A German expedition including Robert Japser and Stefan Glowacz has carried out the first ascent of "Take the long way home" (700m, 21 pitches, A4 10-) on Baffin Island, Canada.

On 13/06/2008 Roberto delle Fratte freed Shangai 8c, an old project at Pietrasecca (Italy) which waited for 20 years prior to the first free ascent.

On 21/06 Daniele Nardi and Mario Panzeri summited Nanga Parbat (8125m), the ninth highest mountain in the world.

On 11 June Iganzio Piuzzi died in Gemona aged 73. He was one of the greatest mountaineers in the period 1950 – 1970. His climbing companion Roberto Sorgato remembers him in the following interview.

Francesco Fazzi from Italy and Santiago Padros have ascended Free Tibet 2065 1500m/V+/80°/M5 on Ama Dablam, Nepal.

The 5th stage of the Bouldering World Cup 2008 took place in Fiera di Primiero (Italy) last weekend and was won by the Austrians David Lama and Anna Stöhr. Kilian Fischhuber (AUT) and Sean Mccoll (CAN) placed second and third respectively in the men's event, while the women's podium was...

Nicolas Favresse and Sean Villanueva have just spent three weeks climbing in Wales, repeating a series of routes on Gogarth, Dinas Cromlech and Cloggy including John Redhead's masterpiece "Authentic desire" E7 6b.

On 07/05/2008 François Damilano carried out the first ascent of Peak Hawley and the traverse to Aiguille Josephine in the Dhaulagiri Group, Nepal.