The news

On 25/01/09 Francesco Vaudo, Mauro Piccione and Massimo Coccalatto carried out the first ascent of Alta tensione (60m, II/5+) a new icefalls in the Gole di Gondo (Switzerland). On 01/02 Francesco Vaudo and Silvia Preti made the first ascent of nearby La stangata (60m, III/5+).

In January Kurt Astner and Emanuele Ciulli made the first ascent of Leben ist jetzt (200m, IV/M7+/ice 80/90°), a modern 5 pitch mixed route in Val di Tures (Riva di Tures, Dolomites).

Interview with Nicolas Favresse, Sean Villanueva and Ben Ditto after their first free ascent of the South African Route on the East Face of the Central Tower of Paine, Patagonia.

After 11 days on the wall Nicolas Favresse, Sean Villanueva amd Ben Ditto have carried out the first free ascent of the South African route on the East Face of the Central Tower of Paine, Patagonia.

Last Wednesday the ISPO Winter 2009, the largest outdoor trade show in the world, drew to a successful end for both exhibitors and visitors. In the following article we attempt to analyse the current state of new products and the "anti-crisis" trend.

Last weekend Markus Bendler from Austria and Maria Tolokonina from Russia won the third and final stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup 2009 Lead and in doing so they also won the overall Trophy 2009. Maria Tolokonina won the Speed event, together with teammate Pavel Gulyaev.

The news is just in: at 14.00 (local time) Simone Moro and Denis Urubko reached the 8462m high summit of Makalu, carrying out the historic first winter ascent of the 5th highest mountain in the world.

Hervé Barmasse, Giovanni Ongaro and Daniele Bernasconi have completed the traverse of the Hielo Continetal Sud and safely reached the Falcon Ford. Their idea of climbing the North Pillar of Cerro Riso Patron faltered as the mountain proved inaccessible, so much so that reaching the Fjord proved an undertaking in...

The Piemonte Mountain Guides inform that the Piemonte region has approved a new regional safety law for those practising winter sports.

Thirteen year old David Firnenburg from Germany has climbed his first 8c, L'espiedimonis at Margalef, Spain.

Interview with Alexander Huber who together with his brother Thomas, Stephan Siegrist and Max Riechl carried out three first ascents on Holtanna and Ulvetanna, two relatively unknown, remote and beautiful mountains in the Antarctic.

On 31/01/09 Russians Maria Tolokonina and Pavel Batushev won the third stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup Speed 2009 held in Mojstrana (Slovenia)

On 17/01/2009 Luca Vuerich and Marco Milanese carried out the first ascent of 'Per Leila' (120m, III/6+) in Val Riofreddo (Cima delle Cenge, Julian Alps). 0n 9/01, Luca Vuerich, Eros Busetto and Michele Martina made the first ascents of Eros and The Prophet (Fusine, Mangart, Julian Alps).

On 16/01/2009 Fabio Salini and Manuel Panizza carried out the first ascent of Mello's Moon (180m, III-5+), a rare ice formation in Val di Mello, Val Masino.

Markus Bendler from Austria and Angelika Rainer from Italy won the Ice Climbng World Championship and the second stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup, held in Switzerland's Saas Fee last weekend. Russian athletes Maria Tolokonina and Pavel Gulyaev doubled their Daone success and won the Speed event.

Interview with Ueli Steck from Switzerland after his 13 January speed climb of the Matterhorn in a record 1 hour 56 minutes via the Schmidt route.