1/28/09 - During a six-week trip to Queen Maud Land in Antarctica, Bavarian brothers Alex and Thomas Huber, along with Stephan Siegrist from Switzerland, climbed new routes on two enormous, otherworldy rock towers thrusting from the ice cap.

1/26/09 - In a two-day comp near Salt Lake City, Coloradans Carlo Traversi and Emily Harrington won the 2009 SCS Adult National Championships, sponsored by the North Face and Sterling Ropes.

1/23/09 - Ade Miller and John Plotz took advantage of a rare spell of good weather in Washington's North-Central Cascades to complete the first winter ascent of the Backbone Ridge with Fin Direct on Dragontail Peak.

1/23/09 - Rob Pizem and Mike Brumbaugh have free-climbed Gentleman's Agreement on Zion National Park's Three Marys formation at 5.13b.

1/21/09 - Matt Wilder climbed a number of hard problems during a three-week trip to Bishop, California over his winter holiday in December 2008 through early January 2009.

1/20/09 - Josh Wharton has completed a self-described "arbitrary" goal of redpointing an M10 mixed route, V10 boulder problem, and 5.13 rock route in a single week of climbing.

1/19/09 - The Swiss climber Ueli Steck has climbed the north face of the Matterhorn by the Schmid Route in 1 hour 56 minutes.

1/19/09 - Ines Papert and Cory Richards have climbed a new route on the historic, 1,200-meter north face of Kwangde in Nepal.

1/14/09 - The Piolet d’Or will return this spring after a one-year hiatus and a search for a new format that aims to make such prizes acceptable to those who believe alpinism has no winners and losers.

1/13/09 - The applications received for 2009 included many strong teams with objectives in far-flung corners of the mountaineering world, from Patagonia, to Pakistan, to the Canadian Rockies, to Alaska.

1/12/09 - Ryan Pasquill has succeeded in climbing a desperate new route at the Ilkley Crag in Yorkshire, England.

1/12/09 - Josh Wharton and Dawn Glanc won the mixed-climbing competition at the 14th annual Ouray Ice Festival in southwestern Colorado.

1/09/09 - Fueled by the drink of the gods, Kevin Jorgeson, has made the first ascent of a bold 45-foot tall face on the Grandpa Peabody boulder at the Buttermilk Boulders, near Bishop, California.

1/09/08 - Colin Haley has done a rare solo ascent of Fitz Roy in Patagonia, via the Supercanaleta (a.k.a. Super Couloir), the amazing ice and mixed line that splits the mountain's west face.

1/07/09 - Ice climber Keith Spencer died January 2 when a rare and powerful avalanche swept the Main Vein ice climb in the South Fork Valley, near Cody, Wyoming.

1/07/09 - Scotland's Dave MacLeod has made the second ascent of The Walk of Life, a 50-meter steep slab on England's North Devon coast that was given the unprecedented grade of E12 7a when James Pearson made the first ascent last year.

1/07/09 - Ueli Steck has soloed the Colton-MacIntyre Route on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses in 2 hours 21 minutes, the fastest time for any route on the premier north wall of the Mont Blanc massif.

1/05/09 - At the end of 2008, a French expedition climbed a new route on the granite tower Holstind in Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, and made the first ascent of several other peaks.

1/02/09 - Attempted winter ascents of three 8,000-meter peaks are under way in Pakistan and Nepal.

12/31/08 - After sussing the moves with a top rope, Shawn Diamond bouldered the first ascent of a "super-highball" problem called Luminance (tentatively graded V11) near the Buttermilks in California.