The news

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.

The next edition of the world's most important mountaineering award will take place in Valle d’Aosta, Italy, and is organised by the Italian Region in collaboration with "Montagnes Magazine” and “Groupe Haute Montagne”.

Patxi Usobiaga, on tour and on firing form, proposes the world's first 8c+ on-sight, Bizi euskara at Etxauri, Spain.

Aleksandra Taistra redpoints Geminis 8b+ at Rodellar, Spain.

On December 5 the warehouse in which Alpinist housed its inventory burnt to the ground. The magazine has now launched an appeal to its readers.