Ice Master Daone 2008, the Ice Climbing World Cup 2008 gets underway

Ice Master Daone number seven. The classic competition in "Daone valley" kicks off today with the Open, and this qualification round is obviously only paves the way for Saturday's Semi and, above all, for the Final on Sunday. For the last three years the Daone competition has marked the official start to Ice Climbing World Cup which, after the Italian leg, moves to Busteni in Romania before heading west to Switzerland's Saas Fee. Once again the large Daone stadium will test two disciplines: difficulty and speed. And once again the competition will be flanked by the classic Ice Meeting and the Educational aimed at schoolchildren.

But let's start at the beginning; with the athletes taking part. 100 from 15 different nations have registered for the event and these naturally include some of the world's best. Those to look out for and beat are last year's winners, Jenny Lavarda from Italy and Markus Bendler from Austria.

No doubt Jenny Lavarda, the defending Ice Boulder and Ice Difficulty champion (and also Combined sports climbing champion) will compete more motivated than ever before in an attempt to repeat last season, during which she won practically all there was to win. Triumphing in both Daone and Saas Fee will be a hard task, but this is exactly what she did in 2007 to secure her two world titles and the Ice World Cup.

Lavarda will have to battle it out against experienced athletes such as Natalya Kulikova from Russia, Stephanie Maureau from France, Anna Torretta from Italy (one of Italy's premiere female alpinists) and also against the extremely strong Petra Müller from Switzerland. Lavarda will also have to look out for the young and talented local Angelika Rainer (4th in Daone last year) and the determined Barbara Zwerger. Chloe Graftiaux from Belgium appears new on the ice scene this season but her experience in sports climbing comps will no doubt be of great importance. The competition is stiff and winning will be no mean undertaking. No doubt it will be difficult even without Ines Papert, the athlete who more than any other left a mark in female comps. But Jenny Lavarda has demonstrated that she enjoys ice climbing so much that an impressive repeat of last year's performance could well be on the cards.

If the female competition cannot be taken for granted, then the men's is even harder to predict. Above mentioned Markus Bendler will have to defend last year's victory in Daone, and the pretenders to the thrown are many. Top of the list is Ukrainian Evgeny Krivosheitsev, the winner of the Ice World Cup 2007, while Swissman Simon Wandler (2nd last year) will display his undisputed class against fellow countryman Simon Anthamatten, who will astound all with his ability and "madness". But the competition is wide open, and others such as the Russians Maxim and Alexey Tomilov, Igor Fayzullin, and Swissman Urs Odermatt all stand equal chances. As do the strong Italians Herbert Klammer (3rd in 2007), Florian Riegler, Mauro Bubu Bole (a true ice climbing institution!), and the "climbing master" Mario Prinoth. But this is not all: Christoph Hainz, one of the world's foremost mountaineers, has registered for the event! We'll soon see!

The Open kicked off at 11.00am this morning and is followed by the Semifinal on Saturday and the Final on Sunday. As always the competition takes place on the ice structure designed by Mauri Gallo who, for 2008, has created something even more impressive, beautiful and difficult than ever before.