The news

Wilco van Rooijen, Cas Van de Gevel and Pemba Sherpa have reached Base Camp, Marco Confortola is in Camp 2.

12 mountaineers including Marco Confortola have been forced to bivvy above the Bottleneck due to a serac fall which swept away the fixed ropes. They are currently attempting to descend.

On 31/07 the Italian mountaineers Mario Panzeri and Daniele Nardi and Viekka Gustaffson from Finnland reached the summit of Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world.

On 28/07/2008 Dave Macleod made the first ascent of his project on Echo Wall, Scotland, his hardest lead to date.

On 28/08/2008 David Lama from Austria made a second go ascent of "Il guerriero del futuro" 8c+/9a at Covolo, Italy

Gino Pavoni has repeated Dead man walking 8b/c at Warmbad (Austria)

Kilian Fischhuber and Corny Obleitner repeat Memento Fb 8c+ while Berni Schwaiger repeats Anam Cara Fb 8c, all freed by Bernd Zangerl in the Silvretta, Austria.

On 18/07/2008 Nicolas Favresse made the second ascent of Cobra Crack, first climbed by Sonnie Trotter at Squamish, Canada in 2006.

Interview with Japanese climber Yuji Hirayama after his recent record speed ascent of The Nose on El Capitan, Yosemite, together with Hans Florine.

On 17/07/2008 the Russians Valery Babanov and Victor Afanasiev reached the summit of Broad Peak (8047m) after having climbed a new route up the northwest face of the 12th highest mountain in the world.

On 23 July 2008 Elisabetta Caserini and Ezio Marlier carried out the first ascent of Alpstation d’Isera (270m 7a, 6b+ obl) on Rocca La Meya (Southern Alpi Cozie, Piemonte).

Five weeks climbing in Yosemite resulted in, amongst others, a repeat of El Nino (5.13d) on El Capitan.

On 05/07/08 Andreas Bindhammer made the first ascent of Hades 9a at the Götterwand, Tyrol, Austria. His brother Christian repeated the route four days later.

21/07/08 Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer are blocked by bad weather at 7000m on the Bazin glacier on Nanga Parbat. The two Italian mountaineers are in their tent and have phoned saying that they are well. They are waiting for a good weather spell tomorrow to start the long descent...

Dedicated to his friend Karl Unterkircher, by Ivo Rabanser his companion on climbs and dreams in the Dolomites.

Walter Nones and Simon Kehrer have climbed the Rakhiot Face on Nanga Parbat and have finally managed to contact Base Camp. Tomorrow they will descend via the Buhl route. After 6 days on the wall the hopes that the two will survive are increasing. Their climbing partner Karl Unterkircher died...