Keyword: South wall

The French mountain guides Benjamin Védrines, Nicolas Jean and Julien Cruvellier de Luze are opening a new route through the previously untouched "La Gorge" on the south face of the Barre des Écrins, the southernmost 4000m peak in the Alps: De l'Or en Barre (1000m, M7 , A1, 5+, ED+).

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.

Sean Villanueva and Jon Griffin climb El Chaltenense, arguably the longest and most sustained off-width route in the world.