by Mick Ryan Ines Papert of Germany took first place at the Ouray Ice Festival (Colorado, USA) in both women´s speed and difficulty. Will Gadd also took double honours in both difficulty and speed. Then last weekend at the first stage of the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup 2006 in Valle di Daone, Italy, Papert outclimbed strong competition on the frozen spider (the competition wall) up a long pumpy route with a big roof and technical dry-tooling to take first place. Anna Torretta took second, Stèphanie Maureau placed third, while Kirsten Buchmann finished fourth. In the mens, Harald Berger and Samuel Anthamatten were announced the joint winners after many gripping rounds that saw many atheletes tying for first place. You can read a full illustrated report at www.daoneicemaster.it. The remaining World Cups are in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Romania and Norway.