The news

An extremely strong and experienced Polish team led by none other than Krzysztof Wielicki is currently engaged in a taxing and dangerous winter attemtp of Nanga Parbat, at 8125m the 9th highest mountain in the world.

According to Dr. Masaru Emoto from Japan, the formation of ice crystals and snow flakes is influenced by different environmental conditions, pollution, human thought and even music.

On 26 December Luca Vuerich and Michele Martina made the first ascent of "Kiss or Kill" 800m, M6 up the NF of Cima Castrein (2502m) in the Jof Fuart mountain range.

The future of one of Austria's oldest and most important crags, the Dschungelbuch just outside of Innsbruck, is currently on the line as 150,000 cubic meters of rock may be given free for quarrying by the local town council.

Polar bears, icebergs, a sailing boat, whales and a plethora of unclimbed rock and thousands of new routes to be climbed...In mid August 2006 the Italian Mountain Guides Michele Maggioni and Marco Zaninetti set off with Cristina, Giovanni and the Arctic Guide Kim to the remote Baffin Island in search...

At 14.15 on 20 December Harald Berger, the three times Ice Climbing World Champion, winner of numerous competitions and extremely talented rock climber, died beneath an immense quantity of ice which collapsed while he was climbing on the overhanging Eiskapelle cave close to Hintersee (Flachgau), Salzburg, Austria.

Martina Cufar from Slovenia has just repeated Bitka s stalaktiti (Battle with Stalactites) 8b+ in the massive cave at Ospo, Slovenia.

Simple, functional, lightweight and robust Gore-tex Paclite jacket.

Andrej Magajne from Slovenia reports of his August 2006 and 2005 expeditions to Kyrgyzstan, which resulted in four new routes in the Karakol valley in the Terskey Ala Too range.

Ben Moon adds sit start to Voyager 8b+ at Burbage North, Tyler Landman repeats Dreamtime at Cresciano, Switzerland and Andrew Earl repeats Cypher 8b at the Slipstones and The Ace 8b at Stanage, UK.

Patxi Usobiaga on-sights "Andujar power" at Fataga, Canaries, "Proyect de ricar" at El Rio, Tenerife and "Teken" at Etxauri, Navarra all 8b+ and repeats "Begi puntuan" 9a at Etxauri. Edu Marín Garcia and Chris Sharma make the 2nd and 3rd ascent of La Rambla original 9a+

On 7 November Robert Jasper from Germany and Roger Schäli from Switzerland carried out the first repeat of "Bocconi amari". This difficult mixed route was first ascended by Rossano Libera and Ezio Marlier on 26 October up the north face of the Triangolo nero on Monte Emilius, the prime mountain...

On 28 November Jorg Verhoeven from Holland completed his first 8c flash - Korrida at Misja Pec, Slovenia.

At the end of October the small Polish town Zakopan celebrated its second Mountain Film Festival. The winner of the Sportkania z Filmen Gorskim was L'Abisso by Alessandro Anderloni, whilst the spectators award went to Premeny Tatier by Pavel Barabasz.

At the end of September Florian Scheimpflug, Tomáš Sobotka, Ondra Benés and Harald Berger travelled to the Andringitra National Park in Madagascar where they made the first ascent of 'Short Cut' 7c+ 750m and a repeat of 'Bravo les Filles' 8b on the immense Tsaranoro wall.

13 year old Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic has redpointed Martin Krpan 9a at Misja Pec, Slovenia.