The news

On 28 December 2016 the President of the United States Barack Obama established the Bears Ears National Monument. This proclamation permanently protects a region which includes Indian Creek, Lockhart Basin, Arch Canyon, Texas Canyon, and many other sandstone climbing areas and is the first bill that specifically acknowledges rock climbing...

At the Spanish crag Oliana Jakob Schubert has repeated Joe Mama, a 9a+ sports climb freed by Klemen Bečan.

Climbing video: Alexander Luger making the first ascent of The Gift (8c, 350m) on the Drusenfluh the Rätikon massif in Austria in 2015.

The video of British rock climber Ned Feehally climbing Ned Zepplin at the Roaches, one of the UK's hardest mantels.

Big wall climbing: interview with South Tyrol’s Jacopo Larcher who last autumn, together with Barbara Zangerl made the third free ascent of Free Zodiac up the SE Face of El Capitan, Yosemite.

Italian rock climber Gabriele Moroni has repeated the famous highball boulder problem Ambrosia at Buttermilks, Bishop, USA.

Swiss skier Samuel Anthamatten unstoppable as he rides through a labyrinth of crevasses and seracs.

The video of Tom Ballard and Marcin Tomaszewski making the first ascent of ‘Titanic' (A3/M5/6b, 2000m), a new climb up the North Face of the Eiger (Switzerland).

On 16/12/2016 the two Swiss mountain guides David Hefti and Marcel Schenk climbed the ice and mixed combination 'Nordest supercombo' (800m, M7, R) a demanding line that joins Via Cassin with via Memento Mori up the NE Face of Pizzo Badile.

The film documenting the ski mountaineering and speed riding expedition to the Chauki Dolomites in Georgia, undertaken in earlier this year by Wolfgang Hell, Aaron Durogati, Daniel Ladurner and Alessandro d’Emilia.

On 15 December 2016 Vivian Bruchez, Tristan Knoertzer and Ben Tibbetts skied what is believed to be a new line down the West Face of Pointe de la Fouly (3611m) in the Mt. Blanc massif.

The film Directissima directed by Louis Rousseau the shows the areas Saguenay (Cap Trinité) and Charlevoix (Mont du Gros Bras) and the beauty of winter mountaineering in Quebec, Canada.

Italian climber Stefano Ghisolfi has made the first ascent of Ultimatum, a 9a+ sports climb at Massone, Arco.

The report about the first Leonidio Climbing Festival that took place from 10 - 13 November and attracted 300 participants to this area in the Greece's Peloponnese.

The film Orbayu featuring Swiss climbers Nina Caprez and Cédric Lachat and their attempts to repeat Orbayu (8c, 500m) up Naranjo de Bulnes, Picos de Europa, Spain.

Ice climbing: in February 2016 the Austrian alpinists Albert Leichtfried and Benedikt Purner established a flurry of new ice climbs in Iceland, including Tröll leikhus at Austurárdalur, currently the hardest on the island.