It’s been a busy couple of weeks, with Ashima Shiraishi cranking hard in Bishop, where she sent her second V14, ‘The Swarm’ and made a flash ascent of the tough V11 ‘Swordfish Trombone.’ Not a bad way to start 2015. Just up the road in Yosemite, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson have been making ground-breaking progress on ‘The Dawn Wall.’ Having finally freed all of the pitches in November last year, Tommy and Kevin returned for a push attempt on the 27th of December. They’ve been making solid progress since then with both climbers sending pitches 1 to 14. Tommy has also climbed pitches 15 and 16 meaning that all of the route’s hardest pitches are now complete. Unfortunately, numerous split tips seem to have held Kevin back on pitch 15, but hopefully, some rest and renewed skin growth will also see him redpoint the pitch. We’ll keep you updated as we hear more from the wall. A Winter round up wouldn’t be complete without some news from the Grit and it seems that prime conditions have seen the wads out in force. A number of Junior GB team members have made ascents of some classic gritstone problems with Hamish Potokar climbing ‘Voyager’ (V13) at Burbage North while both Billy Ridal and Alex Waterhouse have made separate ascents of the 8A arête ‘Careless Torque.’ Check out this video of Alex on the problem. It took Alex, roughly 20 attempts to top out the line, with big falls from the top on no fewer than 8 occasions! This was Alex’s first 8A, but it might be a while before we hear from him again as he has a busy year of training planned with the rest of the GB bouldering team. Thanks to Alex and sponsor High Sports for the use of the footage. Alex Waterhouse Smashes (Himself) On Highball 'Careless Torque' 8A | EpicTV Climbing Daily, Ep. 414