The news

It's summit time in the Himalaya, summits with a truly important specific weight. On 20/05/2009 Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner from Austria reached the summit of Lhotse, her 12th 8000m peak, together Ralf Dujmovits and David Gottlie from Germany and Hiro Takeuchi from Japan.

On 22, 23, 24 May the second edition of the OutdoorDays, the festival for outdoor sports and activities, will take place in the Garda Trentino. This is an appointment for all sports men and women, beginners, companies and clubs which have the passion for nature as their Leitmotif.

On 18/05 at 2.30 pm Ferran Latorre from Spain reached the summit of Kangchenjunga. His companions Edurne Pasaban, Juanito Oiarzabal, Asier Izguirre and Alex Chicon summited circa two hours later, at 4:45pm. The Italians Nives Meroi and Romano Benet have abandoned their attempt and returned to Base Camp.

Denis Urubko, with his recent new route up the SE Face of Cho Oyu, has climbed all fourteen 8000m summits.

In June 2008 Diego Cociancich, Stefano Zaleri and Marco Zebochin made the first ascents of two new routes in Turkey's Ala Daglar mountain range, Obelix 6b, 340m and L’armata Brancaleone 7a, 360m.

In January the Slovenian climbers Urban Azman and Boris Lorencic made a rare ascent of Cia del Tehuelche up the North Face of Fitz Roy, Patagonia.

Achille Compagnoni, the Italian mountaineer who together with Lino Lacedelli first set foot on the summit of K2 at 18.00 on 31 July 1954, died in Aosta two days ago.

Video of the first ascent of Magic Bus Fb 8a+ by Adam Ondra in Val Masino, during the Melloblocco 2009.

The sixth Melloblocco starts today in the splendid Val di Mello, Val Masino, Italy. Thousands of climbers gather every year at this international bouldering meeting, which will come to an end on Sunday 10 May.

A team of Mountain Guides and Sherpa have placed some bolts on Everest to make the South Face route safer.

A fortnight ago Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic on-sighted Italy's first 8c, Nagay at Covolo. The 16-year-old then doubled his takings with Una Vida Nomada the same day.

Americans Joseph Puryear and David Gottlieb have made the first ascent of Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters) via the direct South Face. This mountain is a satellite summit in the Lunag massif, Khumbu Region of Nepal.

In February a small American team of climbers carried out a first ascent of Voces en la Noche, (V 5.11 A0) on Pirita Right in the remote Argentian Piritas Valley, Rio Turbio, while a Canadian team produced Todos los Caballos Lindos (5.11-) on Pirita Central.

Last Saturday the Piolets d'Or 2009 were assigned in Chamonix and a total of three awards were given in this 17th edition: Kazuya Hiraide and Kei Taniguchi from Japan for their ascent of Kamet (India); Fumitaka Ichimura, Yusuke Sato and Kazuki Amano from Japan for their new route on Kalanka...

The videos from the WebTV section of the Trento Filmfestival 2009 are online, from Chris Sharma to Patrick Edlinger, Manolo, Kurt Diemberger, Marco Confortola, Fabio Leoni, Rolando Larcher and many, many more.

At Easter Florian and Martin Riegler carried out two noteworthy ascents in the Dolomites. On 7 April the South Tyrolean brothers made the first on-sight of "Karies" on Sassolungo while on 11 April they repeated Zauberlehrling on Cima Scotoni, all free and in a single day