News

The Colorado high country still shakes in the wake of Toru Nakajima’s summer visit. In just three weeks, the 19-year-old phenom from Japan ticked four V13s and one V14 while staying in Boulder, Colorado.

Longtime climbing pioneer and inventor Bill Forrest died on December 21 while snowshoeing near Monarch Pass in Colorado. He was 73.

In Memoriam—Jack Roberts, Paul Borne, Tony Scott, Michael Ybarra, Patrick Edlinger, Lincoln Hall, Maurice Herzog, John Rosendahl, Gil Weiss, Ben Horne, Jim Jack, Chris Rudolph and Johnny Brenan—2012.

Nacho Sanchez goes against the grain. Hailing from Spain, best known for its sport climbing, Sanchez prefers his country’s boulders to its in-vogue sport crags. He is not only leading the charge to explore the overlooked blocks of Spain, but he is also pioneering his country’s first and only V15s.

Sarah Hueniken becomes first North American woman to send M11.

The legendary French mountaineer Maurice Herzog has died at the age of 93.

10-year

American climber Jimmy Webb just flashed Roses and Blue Jays, a V13 boulder problem in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, according to his 8a.nu scorecard.

Rock and Ice's mission is to deliver the very best in climbing writing and photography. Every year we receive thousands of photos from climbers all over the world. To sort through the images is to journey, if only vicariously, to the coolest and wildest places imaginable.

John Long, who was seriously injured in a fall in a climbing gym two weeks ago, reports that he is on the mend, and has given details about the accident. (Read original report here.) Long says that he will go in for a third surgery on Saturday to have plates installed in his leg, then will have a final operation to graft the wound that resulted from the break.

Earlier this year David Lama, 22, freed the infamous Compressor Route on Patagonia's Cerro Torre. Almost a year later, Lama is showing no signs of slowing down. A recent trip to Trango Tower in Pakistan saw the driven climber testing his reserves at altitude, and he is keen to return to Pakistan next year to take his high standard of free climbing to the Himalayan arena.

They had good luck and bad luck. Dave Mason tore off two fingertips, one when a rope slipped as he brushed a route on rappel, but both he and Mina Leslie-Wujastyk, who are just wrapping up their three-month U.S. road trip to Ibex, Joe’s Valley, Bishop, Yosemite and Moab, logged tons of mileage.