On February 3, 2025, Will Bosi succeeded in repeating one of the most difficult sport climbing routes in the world: Excalibur (9b+). Exactly two years to the day after the first ascent by Stefano Ghisolfi.
Between February 27th and March 1st, the Italian alpinists Franz Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre and Francesco Ratti managed the first repetition and the first winter ascent of Padre Pio Prega Per Noi + Echelle Ver le Ciel (1.870m, 7b) in the south face of the Matterhorn.
At the end of January, Line van den Berg from the Netherlands and Fay Manners from the UK climbed Phantom Direct in a single push in 31 hours. With this venture, they not only secure the first women-only ascent of the route, also known as 'Via in memoria di Gianni Comino'. They are probably only the fourth rope team to have successfully repeated this route from 1985.
Simon Lorenzi and Camille Coudert are in top form. The Frenchman Coudert pulls the Fontainebleau test piece Soudain Seul (8c +), which was first climbed by Lorenzi. The Belgian Simon Lorenzi, on the other hand, succeeds in the 8c + Boulder La Révolutionnaire of the barefoot climber Charles Albert.
News from Las Vegas suggests that Jakob Schubert won't live up to his nickname Mr. Downgrad at Sleepwalker. The Austrian reports that the destination of his US trip is more challenging than he had hoped.
On Wednesday, November 24, 2021, Jacopo Larcher succeeded in repeating the Trad route Into the Sun in the Murg Valley for the first time. The route was first walked by Bernd Zangerl four years ago.