At the end of January Christian Picco Piccolruaz and Albert Leichtfried carried out the first ascent of Felsige Gärten, a mixed variation to the classic ice climb Hängende Gärten in the Tyrol, Austria.
January has been an impressive month for top-end bouldering. Here are some of the latest climbs including the first ascent of Mind to Motion 8B+ at Elkland by Daniel Woods and repeats by Chris Webb Parsons, Matty Hong and Sean McColl.
On 27/01/2012 Ines Papert and Lisi Steurer carried out the first female ascent of Illuminati, the incredible mixed route established by Albert Leichtfried in 2006 up in Val Lunga, Selva Gardena (Italy).
On 29 January 2012 the Ice climbing World Champion Hee Yong Park (Korea) and Anna Gallyamova from Russia won the Marmot Icefight, the ice climbing competition at Corvara in Val Passiria, Dolomites.
Will Gadd reports about recent activity at the Helmcken Falls which hosts, amongst others, the magnificent route Spray On. which he established with Tim Emmett.
On 21 January 2012 the Italians Francesco Salvaterra, Marco Fedrizzi and Luca Tamburini established Alice in Wonderland (550m,TD M5+/A0), up the East Face of Presanella (3558m), Italy.
Natalija Gros has officially retired from climbing competitions. During her career the Slovenian climber stepped onto the World Cup podium 23 times and one of the highlights includes winning the European Bouldering and Combined Championship in Paris in 2008.
The ED Micro Evo is the perfect warmth-to-weight ratio thanks to the "micro channel" constructions and the fabrics used (Araneum and white goose down).