Tom Ballard has just become the first person to solo the six great north faces of the Alps in one winter season. Mountains - this very project even - seem to be in his DNA... Tom talks dealing with doubts, death, his famous mother, the selfishness of soloing, and why the mainstream media doesn't understand climbing. Read more »
When Jonathan Conville’s remains were discovered below the Matterhorn last summer, 34 years after he fell to his death, his family were finally able to lay him to rest. The experience also prompted an extraordinary new portrait from artist Luis Morris. Read more »
Spanish mountain runner Kilian Jornet has just set a new record time for the ascent, and descent, of 6,186m Denali. Read more »
The current trend towards, and increased media coverage of, speed ascents has seen Italian guide, Hervé Barmasse, complete an impressive one-day, solo, winter link-up on the Matterhorn. Read more »
Accompanied by his usual Swiss climbing partner Roger Schaeli, German alpinist Robert Jasper has recently made the second overall and first free ascent of Voie Sébastien Gay on the North Face of the Matterhorn. Read more »
With a new route on the Italian side of Monte Rosa, Hervé Barmasse has completed the third and final leg in his 2011 project, Exploring the Alps. Read more »
Towards the end of September Patrick Aufdenblatten and Michael Lerjen made an astonishingly rapid ascent of the legendary Bonatti Direct on the North Face of the Matterhorn, completing the 1,200m ED3 route in just seven hours and 14 minutes. Read more »
The first man to climb the Matterhorn has been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque. Read more »
The late Gian Carlo Grassi, one of the greatest and most prolific Italian alpinists of modern times, once referred to it with that clichéd statement, 'one of the last great problems in the Alps'. Finally, last month, Hervé and Marco Barmasse climbed the Couloir dell Enjambée on the Matterhorn. Read more »
There has been wide coverage of a 'new route' put up on the North Face of the Matterhorn (4,478m) by the legendary Swiss mountaineer Jean Troillet and the two accomplished French alpinists Martial Dumas and Jean-Yves Fredricksen. However, although it provided hard technical climbing, it seems questionable whether their line breaks any new ground. Read more »
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