Over three days in mid-August, Italian climbers Davide Pontiggia, Mattia Sandionigi, and Marco Zanchetta climbed a new route on the Wall of Dykes (a.k.a. Ulukbek), located on the south buttress of Slesova Peak. The Game of Forty (7b+) shares a start with Vivere la Vita (Bartoli-Mingolla, 2022), then moves right and eventually crosses The Philosopher’s Stone (Arran-Arran, 1999) before continuing up to the right of the 1999 route. (The climbers found two pitons and saw an old bolt about 20 meters to the left at one point.)

The Italian trio established their route ground-up, with sparse protection bolts and mostly traditional protection. The route has 650 meters of climbing (14 pitches, mostly long) leading to the ridgetop. [Editor’s Note: A full report on this climb is at ragnilecco.com.]

—Dougald MacDonald, AAJ, with information from ragnilecco.com