The news

Yesterday 22/01/2012 David Lama made the first free ascent of the Compressor Route on Cerro Torre, Patagonia. The news has been confirmed by David Lama's team. There are no further details but this update will certainly add fuel to the controversy which has followed the bolt chopping carried out recently...

On 30 September Hervé and Marco Barmasse established a new 800m line up the SE Face of Monte Rosa. This third stage marks the end of Hervé Barmasse's project entitled Exploring The Alps.

Last night Walter Bonatti passed away. He was 81 years old and one of the greatest legends of alpinism of all times.

Interview with Hervé Barmasse, Iker and Eneko Pou after La Classica Moderna' the new route the trio esablished up the Left Pillar of Brouillard on Mont Blanc.

No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley has now been published in Italy by Mondadori. The book retraces the 2008 tragedy on K2 which cost the lives of 11 alpinists and only Italian mountaineer Marco Confortola survived.

Melloblocco, Val di Mello, the bouldering tribe and the biggest bouldering meeting in the world

On Thursday 28 April Swiss alpinist and mountain guide Erhard Loretan died in a climbing accident while ascending Grünhorn in the Bernse Alps. Loretan was one of the greatest alpinists of the modern era, the third person to have climbed all fourteen 8000m peaks and the second to do so...

Two Piolets d'Or were awarded on 15 April in Chamonix, France, during the IXX Piolet d'Or 2011: to the Greenland Big Walls by Sean Villanueva, Nicolas and Olivier Favresse, Ben Ditto and Bob Shepton and to the ascent up Mount Logan in Canada by Yasushi Okada and Katsutaka Yokoyama from...

Fabio Valseschini talks about his recent great winter solo ascent of the Via dei 5 di Valmadrera up the NW Face of Civetta (Dolomites), as well as his alpinism and his love for the mountains.

At 11:28 local time Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards reached the summit of Gasherbrum II. This is the first winter ascent of the 13th highest mountain in the world, a historic climb which is also the first winter ascent of one of the five 8000ers located in Pakistan.

On 25 Janaury 2011 Simone Moro, Denis Urubko and Cory Richards installed Camp 2 at 6500m on Gasherbrum II. In doing so they carried out another important step in their attempt to carry out the first winter ascent of the 13th highest mountain in the world.

Yesterday morning Carletto Alverà Lete passed away at the age of 92. The Italian was the flag bearer of the Gruppo Scoiattoli di Cortina, a mountain guide and ski instructor. He takes with him another piece of the history of alpinism in Cortina and the Valle d'Ampezzo, Dolomites.

The famous section climbed by Reinhold Messner on the Pilastro di Mezzo on Sass dla Crusc (also referred to as Sasso della Croce or Heiligkreuzkofel), analysed by Heinz Mariacher. Plus the history, a video and an on-site report by Nicola Tondini.

The sport climbing European Championships were held in Austria's Imst-Innsbruck last weekend. Ramón Julian Puigblanque and Angela Eiter won the Lead competition, Cedric Lachat and Anna Stöhr the Bouldering event, while Sergey Abdrakhmanov and Edyta Ropek won Speed.

Christian Stangl, the Austrian alpinist who had claimed the only K2 ascent in this pre-monsoon season, admitted yesterday to not having reached the summit, as had been contested by a part of the mountaineering community.

A commission called upon by the Korean Alpine Federation has declared Miss Oh Eun-Sun's Kangchenjunga ascent as improbable, thus raising doubts as to whether the Korean was the first woman to have climbed all fourteen 8000m peaks.