The reason a climber fell 120ft from a cliff to his death remains a mystery.

Ivan Lissin, a popular climber from Marston, Oxford, died after the fall into the sea at Anvil Point, Swanage, Dorset, in January, but yesterday, a coroner was told no-one had seen what caused the 22-year-old to lose his grip.

Other climbers only saw him in free-fall and said he had been "climbing well" and did not appear to be in any sort of difficulty.

The inquest in Bournemouth heard that the 22-year-old climber - who was out with three friends - had been trying to conquer a route called Peacemaker on January 27.

It was when he attempted to move horizontally that he fell from the sheer rock face at the coastal beauty spot.

Rescuers were scrambled to assist and onlookers gathered to see a coastguard helicopter winch Mr Lissin, of Hugh Allen Crescent, from the ground.

A member of the Oxford University mountaineering club, he was then airlifted to hospital, but died the next day from severe head injuries.

His climbing partner, Gareth Uglow, told the hearing: "Ivan did not have a helmet. He chose to climb Peacemaker, which is described as hard, very severe. I was happy with his choice.

"I've climbed for about three years and I know he had been climbing for less, perhaps one year. He fell at the part where you move horizontally. I saw him fall face down in the water."

As Mr Uglow and another climber, Michael Kennedy, who was not in his party, reached him, they tried to revive him before coastguards arrived and airlifted him to hospital.

One witness to his fall, Helen Kirby, said: "I saw Ivan falling freely through the air. He hit a rock projection. I looked away - it was an automatic reaction."

After being told no-one saw why he lost his grip on the rocks, Bournemouth, Poole and East Dorset coroner Sheriff Payne said it was impossible to say exactly why he had fallen.

The downward force of his fall had ripped Mr Lissin's holding pins from crevices on the cliff face.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, Mr Payne said: "What is clear is that Ivan came away from this cliff at this crucial point and sadly the thick pins that he had put in came away from the cliff edge. He was doing something he wanted to do which sadly went wrong through no fault of his own which resulted in his death."