The news

The first stage of the Ice World Cup Difficulty and Speed takes place in Valle di Daone from 18 - 20 January 2008.

Siurana in Spain: high in Catalonia close to Barcellona lies one of the most famous crags in the entire country, ideal as a winter climbing destination.

Andrea Arici and Raffaele Mercuriali have developed a new drytooling crag in Valsavarenche, above the famous Haston cave.

On 05/01/2008 Pete Whittaker made the first ascent of "Grandad's Slab" E7 6c on the gritstone Burbage South, England.

Over three days at the start of January Robert Jasper from Germany and Bernd Rathmayr from Switzerland ascended three immense icefalls in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland climbing over a kilometer of vertical ice in the Lauterbrunnental and Kandersteg.

The team comprised of the Italians Nives Meroi, Romano Benet, Luca Vuerich and the Kazakh mountaineers Denis Urubko, Serguey Samoilov, Eugeny Shutov and Gennady Durov has now reached Hillary Base Camp and all is set for their winter attempt of Makalu.

Sir Edmund Hillary died in Auckland (NZ) on 11/01/2008 aged 88. Together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay he was the first to reach the summit of Everest, the highest mountain in the world.

The 8th Kandersteg Ice Climbing Festival (Bernese Alps, Switzerland) as seen by Marcello Sanguineti.

At 14.00 on 5/01/2008 alle 14.00 ora Ettore Taufer, Giovanni Amort, Elio Sganga and Marco Farina reached the summit of Mount Vinson (4897m), the highest peak in the Antarctic.

In December 2007 Kilian Fischhuber and Jon Cardwell repeated Dreamtime, Cresciano, Switzerland.

On 01/01/2008 the 4 Italian mountaineers belonging to the Centro Addestramento Alpino di Aosta reached Mount Vinson Base Camp after having crossed the Antarctic Patriot Hills.

Ice meetings in Argentière la Bessée (Fournel), France, Kandersteg, Switzerland and Valle di Daone (Italy),plus the Ice Climbing World Cup 2008 calendar.

Interview with Fred Rouhling after the first ascent of Salamandre at Saint-Pierre en Faucigny, which the French climber has graded 9?

The International Federation of Sport Climbing has been granted provisional recognition status by the International Olympic Committee. This is the first step towards the Olympics for sports climbing. An interview with Marco Scolaris the president of the IFSC.

In October and November 2007 Albert Leichtfried traveled to Madagscar and discovered the island climbing paradise. In addition he added a further five routes in his new sector Honeymoon.

Andy Turner, Steve Ashworth and Viv Scott have made an on-sight first ascent of "The Secret" X 10 on Ben Nevis.