The news

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.

Climbing from 8 - 10 November 2016, the Austrian alpinists Hansjörg Auer and Alex Blümel completed the first ascent of the North Face of Gimmigela East (7005m), Nepal.

On 13 December 2016 Daniel Ladurner and Johannes Lemayer made the first ascent of Pleishornwasserfall (260m, WI6, M7+, A1), the obvious drip that plunges down the Northeast Face of Ortler, at 3905m the highest mountain in Italy’s South Tyrol.

Interview with British alpinist Tom Ballard after the first ascent of ‘Titanic' (A3/M5/6b, 2000m), a new climb up the North Face of the Eiger (Switzerland), first ascended together with Marcin Tomaszewski from 29 November to 6 December 2016.

The trailer of South Tyrol’s Angelika Rainer repeating the ice and mixed climb The Mustang at Vail in Colorado, USA.

The short film 'My Playground' about talented freeride skier Markus Eder skiing the slopes above Fadner Alm in the Ahrntal, South Tyrol

Ice Climbing video: Tim Emmett and Klemen Premrl making the first ascent of Interstellar Spice (80m, WI 12) at Helmcken Falls, Canada.

Interview with British rock climber Pete Whittaker who at the start of November 2016 made a rope solo and all free ascent of Freerider on El Capitan, Yosemite, USA, in just over 20 hours. In doing so he has become the first person to climb Yosemite’s monolith in this style...

On 16 December 2016 the Ice Climbing World Cup 2017 gets underway with the first stage at Durango, Colorado, USA.

At Fontainebleau in France Melissa Le Nevé has sent her first 8B boulder problem while Charles Albert, climbing barefoot, has made the first ascent of the 8C problem La révolutionnaire.

Mountaineering: from 29 November to 6 December 2016 Tom Ballard and Marcin Tomaszewski made the first ascent of 'Titanic' (A3/M5/6b, 1800m), a new climb up the North Face of the Eiger (Switzerland).

Interview with Italian climber Silvio Reffo who recently repeated two of Sardinia’s most difficult multi-pitch sport climbs: Hotel Supramonte at Gola di Gorropu and Mezzogiorno di Fuoco at Punta Giradili. Climbing onsight, on both routes Reffo fell just once and freed the pitches on his second attempt.

The first footage of Adam Ondra making the second free ascent of Dawn Wall, the hardest big wall rock climb in the world repeated by the Czech climber from 14 to 21 November 2016.

At the start of September 2016 Slovakian climber Jozef Kristoffy made the first free ascent of Corona 11- on Jastrabia veza, the hardest multi-pitch rock climb in the High Tatras.

The trailer for Blocheads, the award-winning documentary produced by Alastair Lee tracing the history and development of bouldering in Great Britain.

The video portrait of 24-year-old Italian ski mountaineer Nadir 'Mago' Maguet.