The news

Polish alpinists Tomek Mackiewicz and Pawel Dunaj have set off from Nanga Parbat base camp for their summit attempt. They should be followed tomorrow by Italy's Simone Moro and Germany's David Göttler.

On 28/01/2014 Austrian alpinists Albert Leichtfried and Bendikt Purner made the first ascent of Zweite Geige (WI7/M7, 140m) in Vallunga, Dolomites, Italy.

Photographer Diego Gaspari Bandion has documented a herd of deer, exhausted after the recent exceptional snowfall, that has found shelter in a barn in Cortina, Dolomites, Italy.

A video showing how to shovel snow off a roof. Or rather, how not to, regardless of the excellent results...

Austrian climber Jakob Schubert has made a swift repeat of Meadowlark Lemon 8B+, while Katharina Saurwein has repeated Lethal Design 8A+.

Last weekend at Champagny en Vanoise in France Nikolay Kuzovlev and Maria Tolokonina won the fourth stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup 2014. The next stage, scheduled to take place at Rabenstein in Val Passiria (Italy) has been cancelled due to the high risk of avalanches following unprecedented snowfall.

The speech by well known French mountaineer and writer Bernard Amy, on the occasion of his appointment as an honorary member of the Italian Academic Alpine Club, Turin, 26 October 2013.

In this video Swiss alpinist Ueli Steck talks about his 2013, marked by his Everest traverse attempt and the ascent of the South Face of Annapurna.

Interview with Adam Ondra after his repeat of First Round First Minute, the 9b sport climb freed by Chris Sharma at Margalef, Spain.

The video of Vanessa François and her ascent of The Zodiac up El Capitan in Yosemite, USA.

Marco Nardi talks about the redevelopment and expansion of the historic bouldering area Ussel in Italy's Valle d'Aosta.

Rock climbing in winter on the Scogliera di Salinella in Sicily, Italy: the beautiful crag Calamancina at San Vito lo Capo. Part 4 of the series "Crags for each season" published together with Vertical-Life.info.

Watch the fourth stage Ice Climbing World Cup 2014 unfold live at Champagny en Vanoise in France.

Some thoughts by Maurizio 'Manolo' Zanolla about climbing and the need to be conscious of the choices you make.

Using the Courmayeur stage of the Swatch Freeride World Tour by The North Face as a pretext, Giulio Caresio explores the freeride world by interviewing Nicolas Hale-Woods.

Angelika Rainer from Italy and Park HeeYong from Korea won the third stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup 2014 in Saas Fee, Switzerland, last weekend.