The news

Luca Maspes & Co climb 11 new routes in Valtellina during summer 2006.

Massimo da Pozza makes the first ascents "Sognando l'aurora" (7b+ max, 7a obligatory), "Aspettando la vetta" (6c max, 6b obligatory) and "Il vecchio leone e la giovane fifona" (6c max 6b obligatory) on the Tofane di Rozes, Dolomites.

On 25 September Kilian Fischhuber made the 9th ascent of Action Directe 9a at the Waldkopf, Frankenjura, Germany.

On 10 September Mauro "Bubu" Bole made the first all-lead ascent of the "Larcher-Vigiani" together with Jenny Lavarda on the Marmolada, Dolomites, Italy.

Chris Sharma has freed his Deep Water Soloing project in Mallorca, calling it Es Pontas and comparing it to his Realization at Ceuse.

Adam Ondra has made the first ascent of Vymena Manzelek 11- (F8c) at Moravsky Kras in the Czech Republic.

Angela Eiter on-sigh's Skyline 8b at Bürs, Austria and redpoints Pietramurata (8b+), Halebob (8b+), Supermaratona (8b/8b+), Maratona (8b), Tropo Schwar (8b) and Fuego (8a+) at Massone, Arco.

On 30 August Nicolas Favresse made the first ascent of "Lost in translation" a 400m, 10-pitch free climb (5.12b/c) on the East Face of El Capitan together with 30-year-old Ivo Ninov from Bulgaria.

During the first half of August 2006 the Italians Mauro Florit, Marco Sterni, Rolando Larcher and Maurizio Oviglia traveled to Turkey's Guvercinlik Valley in the Ala Daglar massif where they established four new routes.

Martina Cufar repeats Midlife crisis 8b at Warmbad, Austria.

Maurizio Giordani and Massimo Faletti have made the first ascent of the 28-pitch "Colpo di Coda" 6c+/A2 up the south face of the Marmolada.

On July 7th 2006 Ondra Benes from the Czech Republic made a swift repeat of Beat Kammerlander's legendary Silbergeier 8b+ in Rätikon, Switzerland.

Jenny Lavarda has become the first Italian woman to climb 8c with her 08/09/2006 ascent of "Claudio Caffè" at Terra Promessa, Arco

Matthias Trottmann from Switzerland reports about the first free ascent of "6.4 Sekunden", his 7 pitch 8b/b+ (7c+ obligatory ) located on the Fürenwand, Engelberg, Switzerland.

Sandrine Levet from France and Ramón Julián Puigblanque from Spain win the XX Rock Master in Arco (Trentino, Lago di Garda). Flavio Crespi, the best of the Italians, placed 4th.

The first edition of the Arco Rock Legends held in Arco (Trentino, N. Italy) went to Josune Bereziartu from Spain (Salewa Rock Award) and Angela Eiter from Austria (La Sportiva Competition Award).