The news

Two massive first ascents in Canada: The Jimmy Skid Rig (WI5 M12, 300m, Will Gadd, Will Meinen and Brandon Pullan) and Hunlen Falls (5.9 A2, 370m, Will Gadd & EJ Plimley).

Chris Sharma has made the first ascent of Demencia Senil 9a+ at Margalef while 13 year old Geoffray De Flaugergues from France has repeated El templo del cafe 8c+/9a at Alquezar.

On 16 February Massimo Laurencig and Gianni Dorigo carried out the first repeat of "Per Leila" (120m, III/6+), the elegant and daring icefall first ascended by Luca Vuerich in January at Cima Cenge (Val Riofreddo, Julian Alps).

James Pearson has made a fast first repeat of the gritstone testpiece Gerty Berwick at Ilkley Quarry, England.

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 and 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)