Diego Lopez Montull is one of the leading latino-american climber for more than a decade. In the last 13 years, he's been adding dozens of hard king line to his "garden", Peñoles, in the mexican state of Chihuahua. This season has seen the visit of Boulder CO residents Daniel Woods, Jimmy Webb, Dave Graham, Paul Robinson and Shawn Raboutou. A web serie documenting the rampage is in preparaation for Epic TV(realised by Chuck Fryberger Films, in collaboration with PRAK media, Sandstones Media and the Island). For a teaser, check out Diego's blog !

La Sportiva presents bouldering guide for Gallura in the northern part of Sardinia. " The purpose of the project was to discover a new boulder area for the climbing community and to let know this area, composed of more then 49 boulders, to all the climbing people all around the world." In total, the topo includes almost 200 boulder problems evenly spread out from 5A to 8A+. Video teaser

James Webb continues his Ticino slaughter by doing his third 8C in a week, The Kingdom in Brione, but all were done so quickly, they were all done a personal grade. "2nd ascent. Definitely one of the bunchiest problems I have ever done! Felt really close to climbing it on the 1st day but the shoulder moves are so intense I got wrecked quite quickly. Came back and climbed it 1st go! Since it's basically my anti style I think it may sit more in the 8B+ range. Either way, a rad problem!! Props to Carlo on the FA. Classic." Jimmy has also done his fifth 8A+ flash during the last wee, Ganymede takeover. In total, he has flashed 20 boulders 8A+ and 8B, including several personal grades. The picture from Stefan Kuerzi is from yesterday when he flashed I Portici 8A+ in Osogno.

Alex Puccio has done her 41st 8A and the good news was that it was her first flash, Pamplemousse in Brione. To make it even more impressive, it was 20 degrees. Previously only a couple female have flashed 8A including Ashima Shiraishi (12). "I gave her all the beta (though its still subtle and tricky) and she climbed it perfectly. Was really cool to see. It was super impressive to watch. She is really adapting to the style here. If she only had longer she could really push her limits", says James Webb and when we ask for a grade, "Alex is capable of 8B or even 8B+.

Climbing Technology is an Italian brand with a full range of sport climbing to mountainering products with a focus on Technology. We have tested two of their seven quick draws; Aerial Pro (81 grams) and Passion Pro (89 grams). They also have their extreme 56 grammer, Fly-weight. Grabbing light-weight quick draws is normally rather painful but the good thing with the Climbing Technology quick draws is that lower carabiner has a rather oval shape. Beside the weight, the ywo quick draws are very similar in performance. Further more, the upper carabiner has a catch free nose making it easier to unclick them cleaning a steep route. When it comes to clipping in the rope, for some reason it feels better than most on the market but why it is like this, I can not explain. I guess it is just a personal preference. Price was, Climbing Technologys quick draws are in the mid range and for a pack of five you can buy them for around Euro 14 per piece.

Mark Andersson has done his first 9a, Mission Impossible in Clear Creek Canyon after ten days of work. "The route is about 25m tall, and not very steep. Its near-vertical for the first 10 meters or so, and then it starts to get steadily steeper, overhanging about 3m in total." The "weekend warrior" who previously has done five 8c's has a family and a full time job. ""I’ve developed a training program with my brother Mike Anderson, and we have a book coming out in April called The Rock Climber’s Training Manual that explains our approach in detail." Mark thinks that the reasons for many older climbers achieving personal best are mainly; Many started late and it takes years to develop finger strength and to avoid injuries and many did not train so serious when they were younger. "Climbing is also very skill-dependent, and these skills continue to improve over time." Full story and more pics at his Trainingblog.

Caroline Ciavaldini reports from her trip together with James Pearson to the Philippines where they found a new DWS eldorado, Check their map with pictures. On the picture, James is doing a E8 trad ascent above shallow water. "Everything began with a simple Google search for “Sea Cliffs, Asia”. I stumbled onto several beautiful photos around the island of Palawan, and after many emails and a lot of research, I was sure that nobody had been deep water soloing there before. The amount of rock around El Nido is impressive. There are more islands than you can count, and each one is surrounded by cliffs that fall directly into a turquoise sea. A lot of the rock is black and sharp and no good for climbing; sculpted into daggers over millions of years by the sea and the rain. However the more you tour around the islands, the more you discover perfect walls for DWS – Steep and solid rock, covered in pockets and tufas, and most importantly, directly above deep crystal clear water.

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Silvio Reffo who previously has done three 9a's has done the FA of The ring of life 9a (+) in Covolo. " I took me maybe 12 days, 7 last year not being even close. This year after some months of hard training I was be able to do the route after 4 days of tries. The first part of the route is very bouldery 8c+/9a and I needed lot of body power to do that... This was the key for the success." The next plan is to open some more hard projects on nearby crags and also to do some multi-pitches. "Near Arco there is a beautiful wall with lot of MPs. I'd like to do 3 hard routes in the same day, 25 pitches with more or less 15 of them more of 8a or harder. One of them is an open project; Viaggio su Plutone, I think 8b+/c max.