The news

Two years after the first expedition to Oman, the La Venta Geographic Explorations Association has returned to the mountains of Dhofar to explore Qanaf Cave in the depths of the Jabal Samḥān desert plateau. The report by Luca Imperio and Tullio Bernabei.

After having disappeared for nearly ten years, Balthazar — the oldest bearded vulture in the wild — has been found. On 27 October 2025, a report came in about a bird in distress, and this call for help turned into an exciting discovery.

Italian photographer Elio Della Ferrera has discovered thousands of dinosaur footprints in the Fraele Valley in the Stelvio National Park, Italy. According to experts, the 'valley of the dinosaurs' constitutes the largest site in the Alps and one of the most important in the world.

A new provision by the U.S. Department of the Interior imposes a $100 surcharge on top of the entrance fee for foreign tourists to enter 11 of the most popular National Parks in the USA. The additional fee will take effect on January 1st, 2026.

Giuseppe Spitaleri reports on the new exploratory project by the La Venta Geographical Explorations Association in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically the remote cave system in the Mbanza Ngungu karst area, as part of the interdisciplinary GeoRes4Dev project.

On Tuesday 27 May 2025, eleven rangers from Gran Paradiso National Park and an ARPA Valle d'Aosta technician ascended the Grand Etrèt Glacier in Valsavarenche to conduct their annual spring snowpack survey.

• Thanks to heavy mid-April snowfalls, the glacial basin remains deeply snow-covered above 2,200 meters elevation.
• The final assessment will...

One year after launching the Conserva Puchegüín campaign to acquire and protect 133,000 hectares (329,000 acres) in Patagonia's Cochamo valley, support for from donors around the world has surpassed US$45 million. Also referred to as the 'Yosemite of South America', in 2023 a petition quickly garnered over 99,000 signatures...

The Tre Cime di Lavaredo toll road that leads from Misurina to Rifugio Auronzo and the car park reopens on Sunday 25 May 2025. As of this season, online booking is necessary in advance, via the municipality of Auronzo website.

United Kingdom's Supreme Court has ruled that wild camping is legal on Dartmoor in Devon, England.

The Provincial Council of Bolzano in the South Tyrol, Italy, has unanimously approved a bill to modify the management of inalienable heritage in mountainous areas of historical, cultural, or landscape value above an altitude of 1,600 meters. The opinion of an expert committee composed of provincial offices, the AVS (Alpine...

A boulder at the foot of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo (Dolomites) was vandalised with the graffiti "Tourists go home".

For three decades, the La Venta Geographical Exploration Association has been exploring glaciers and glacier cave. After monitoring the Gorner glacier in 2020 and 2022, Alessio Romeo returned this year to check the health of the wonderful caves that formed within the ice, immediately above the rocky valley floor.

The Italian La Venta association reports about its first expedition to explore the Qanaf Cave and depths of the desert plateau of Jabal Samḥān in southern Oman.

Luca Gandolfo reports about the new exploration project of the La Venta Geographical Exploration Association on the karstic plateau of El Penòn in Colombia.

The ACTS For Our Summits association has written an Open Letter to the IFSC expressing its concerns about the NEOM Masters 2023 climbing competition, and urging the IFSC to take stronger actions regarding environmental and social issues. Over 110 IFSC athletes, professional climbers, and associations have already co-signed the letter....

An online petition has been launched to 'save' the Sassolungo Group in the Dolomites from privatisation. Over 45 thousand signatures have been collected so far.