March International Climbing News
March 2026
March has been a busy month for climbing around the globe, with some significant ascents and also the now-common delayed reporting of significant ascents, because you have to have the video content ready to go at the same time.
Sport Climbing & Bouldering
Erwan Legrand (17) made the barefoot first ascent of Le Bombé Bleu (9b/5.15b) at Buoux, France, on 11 February. The line was bolted by Marc Le Menestrel in 1991 and sat unclimbed for 35 years — it's likely the hardest route ever climbed without shoes! Legrand is the son of climbing legend François Legrand. — Climbing, PlanetMountain
Jorge Díaz-Rullo made the first ascent of Café Colombia (proposed 9c/5.15c) at Margalef's Racó de la Finestra sector on 13 March after 240+ days of effort on the 40-move line. Only the fifth 9c in the world, and Díaz-Rullo admitted he considered proposing something harder, but he'd not repeated one of the four existing 9cs. — PlanetMountain, Gripped
Adam Ondra flashed Emotional Landscapes (8C/V15) at Maltatal, Austria on 11 March — his fourth 8C boulder flash. — PlanetMountain, 8a.nu
Nicolai Užnik made the first ascent of Full Gem (8C+/V16) at Chironico, Switzerland. — PlanetMountain
Alberto Ginés López climbed El Bon Combat (9a+/5.15a) at La Cova de l'Ocell, Spain — his hardest route to date — in six sessions (three in December, three in February). The route was established by Chris Sharma in 2015 and was considered a potential 9b; Ginés López graded it 9a+, noting it didn't feel two grades above 9a. — PlanetMountain, 8a.nu
Stefano Ghisolfi repeated Dreamtime (8C/V15) at Cresciano, Switzerland, in four sessions. — 8a.nu
Michaela Kiersch visited Arco and quickly sent Pungitopo (8c+/5.14c). At 31, she has now climbed over 20 routes between 8c+ and 9a+ in the past five years. — 8a.nu
Ainhize Belar Barrutia climbed Estado crítico (9a/5.14d) at Siurana, Spain. — 8a.nu
Trad Climbing
The headline trad story of the month is Connor Herson, who at 22 has produced arguably the most significant cluster of trad news in years, with two major announcements landing within weeks of each other.
Herson made the first ascent of Drifter's Escape (9a+/5.15a trad) on the Stawamus Chief, Squamish, BC—the proposed world's hardest trad route. He sent it in July 2025 after two seasons of effort and around 20 sessions, but held off announcing publicly until February 2026. The route features two V11/8C cruxes and is the first trad route ever proposed at 5.15a. Context worth noting: Herson sent The Nose on El Cap at 15, and has an extensive trad résumé including Meltdown (5.14c), Magic Line (5.14c), Cobra Crack (5.14b), and an onsight of Prayer for a Friend (5.14). — UKClimbing, Climbing, Gripped
Herson also made the third ascent of Crown Royale (9a/5.14d, Herson suggests 8c+/5.14c) at Jøssingfjord, Norway—announced March 2026, with the send having taken place in August 2025. The route is Pete Whittaker's 100-metre crack on the full height of Profilveggen, overhanging around 25 degrees at its steepest. Herson needed just four attempts and, like Whittaker and Jernej Kruder (second ascent, May 2025) before him, chose to untie and free solo the upper section because rope drag created more hazard than it was worth. Herson's grade suggestion of 5.14c is a slight downgrade from Whittaker's original 5.14d. — UKClimbing, Gripped, 8a.nu
Alpinism & Big Walls
Tasio Martín and Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll made the first free ascent of the Pilar Este (7c/5.12d, 1,200m) on Cerro Chaltén (Fitz Roy), March 6–8. The original route dates to a 1976 Ragni di Lecco expedition. They onsighted pitch after pitch, dealing with iced cracks requiring ice-axe work, and completed the line on a second attempt. — PlanetMountain, Gripped
Stefano Ragazzo completed the first rope solo of Riders on the Storm (7c/5.12d on the hardest free pitches, originally rated VI A3) on the Central Tower of Paine, spending 15 days alone on the wall from 21 February to 7 March. During the climb a storm flipped his portaledge upside down at night; he endured hours on an exposed ledge with a soaked sleeping bag and arrived at the summit with frostbitten toes. — PlanetMountain, Gripped
Jesse Huey, Matt Segal, and Quentin Roberts completed a mixed-style winter free ascent of D7 (5.11+) on the Diamond of Longs Peak (Neniisoteyou'u, 14,255ft), March 11–13, sleeping two nights on Broadway Ledge at ~13,000ft. They used ice axes to drytool the thin cracks but wore rock shoes rather than crampons to avoid scratching the rock — a distinction that has not stopped significant debate in the community. Huey has attempted D7 every calendar winter since 2018. — Climbing, UKClimbing, Gripped
Matteo Della Bordella, Mirco Grasso, and Giacomo Mauri established Mutante (M8, 520m) on Petites Jorasses on 23 March. Earlier in the month (7–8 March), Della Bordella and Mauri also climbed the Gogna-Cerutti route on the Matterhorn's Zmutt Nose, first put up by Leo Cerruti and Alessandro Gogna in July 1969. — PlanetMountain
Silvan Schüpbach, Olivier Kolly, and Filippo Sala put up Zébu (M8+, 70°, 1,100m) on the Northwest Face of Klein Fiescherhorn in the Bernese Alps, 8–10 March. — PlanetMountain
Philipp Brugger and Lukas Waldner made the first single-day winter ascent of all three North Pillars of Piz Palü (3,899m) on 8 March. — PlanetMountain
Yannick Glatthard rope-soloed the first ascent of Get the Vibe (WI5, M8, 125m) on Chlynen Tällistock, Switzerland, on 3 March. — PlanetMountain
Radoslav Groh (Czech Republic) and Juraj Koreň (Slovakia) made the first ascent of Kaiser Direct (M7, 500m) on the south face of the Grossglockner (3,798m, Austria's highest) on 7 March. — PlanetMountain