Following the European Youth Cup leading event earlier in May, interest this week (May 14th-16th) swings round to Innsbruck, Austria for the first leg of the European Competion series, the Bouldering Championship. Also this weekend (May 17th) is the first leg of the World Cup which kicks-off in Canada with a speed climbing leg.

News is breaking that a second major earthquake has hit Nepal just over two weeks since the shattering quake on April 25th which caused wide-spread destruction and killed over 8,000 people.

News is emerging that Dai Koyamada has just completed yet another amazingly hard bouldering project. Details are limited but it seems that Dai has been trying this project – a monster roof - for three years and considering how hard he climbs it’s clear that this is very hard. At the moment however, he has yet to offer either a name or a grade.

Berghaus has announced that it is the first British clothing brand to join the bluesign® system. 

The world renown bouldering fest that is Melloblocco has just wrapped up the 2015 competition. The organisers report that over 2,500 registered participants from 25 countries - plus a further 2,500 other climbers - flocked to take part in the biggest outdoor bouldering comp based in Val Masino and Val di Mello, Italy.

Midlands-based GB Bouldering team member, Orrin Coley, has had a terrific run of late including the second ascent of In Search of Tyler (Font 8a+) at Forest Rock, Leicester. Keen for the low down CLIMBER got in touch with Orrin... plus watch the video.

Mammut Pro athlete, Dani Arnold, added a second alpine north face speed climbing record to his name completing the Schmid route on the Matterhorn in 1 hour 46 minutes on April 22nd.

Five days after the earthquake in Nepal the country is locked in an ongoing battle to bring the situation under control as soon as possible. One of the crucial aspects is how to get the rescue effort and aid to where it is needed. And whilst the Nepalese Government and the aid agencies wrestle with this logistical nightmare the number of casualties and killed continues to rise. The latest reports are that the death toll has now risen to over 5,500 with double that number injured. In a rare moment of hope amongst the never-ending bad news, a teenage boy has just been rescued from the rubble in Kathmandu after being trapped beneath a collapsed building.

Seventy two hours since the devastating earthquake in Nepal and the death toll is now understood to be greater than 4000 and still rising. Whilst the evacuation of stranded climbers from Everest has now been completed, specialists search and rescue teams continue to arrive in Nepal to work alongside the Nepalese military in rescue efforts across the country. We understand also that a massive food aid programme is due to commence today.

Forty eight hours after the devastating Nepal earthquake the latest reports suggest that more than 3,300 people have died and many more have been injured. The majority of the deaths have been in Nepal but fatalities have also occurred in India and Tibet.

It is now c.24hours since the massive earthquake hit Nepal creating shocks and causing deaths in India, Tibet, Bangladesh and on the Nepal-China border. Following the initial shock – reported at 7.9 by the US Geological Survey – further shocks including ones up to 6.6 – have been felt across the region. The international community are now mobilising resources to help with the rescue efforts and experts in search and rescue started to travel to the area overnight. The latest news on-line in the Guardian’s news feed contain the latest from a Nepal police spokesman who has reported that the number of people injured has risen to 4629 whilst the death toll has risen to 1953.

At around 10:00 am this morning news started to appear on-line that a huge earthquake had hit Nepal and that the shocks had triggered avalanches in the Everest region killing people in the Everest South Col Base Camp.