When Erhard Loretan and his fellow Swiss climber Jean Triollet reached their advance base camp at 5,850m on the Rongbuk glacier, Tibet, late on 30 August 1986 they had set a new standard in extreme alpinism – to the summit of Everest (8,850m) and back in less than two days, no sherpas, no rope, no bottled oxygen; for the last 1000m they did not even take a rucksack. The pair climbed mainly at night, so as not to overheat in their down suits, and rested during the day. Meticulous in its planning and stylish in its execution, their ascent of the mountain's North Face via the Japanese and Hornbein couloirs was described by the Polish mountaineer Voytek Kurtyka as "night-naked climbing".

His knee is swollen and he is four minutes back in the race for the yellow jersey, but Alberto Contador is far from ready to give up. The three-time Tour de France winner is also riding with the cloud of doping allegations hanging over his head but he insists he is focused on the task in hand and will revert to his usual attacking style in the Alps as the race reaches its decisive moments.

There was once this woman," the title story opens. "She was quite famous, in a way." Social smiling masks the private world. The smiling woman lives above an unspeakable abyss. Its looming presence in the round of Jenny Jamieson's day is signalled in the numb, glazed tone that characterises the fable.

Two british climbers have fallen 900 metres to their deaths in the French Alps. Mountain rescue services found the pair roped together, suggesting that one climber lost his footing, taking his partner with him.

A teenager has died in the French Alps after he fell 1,300ft in a storm. Robbie Cammack, 19, an Edinburgh medical student from Craigellachie, Moray, had called for rescue when he and a friend got stuck 10,000ft up the Frendo Spur on the Aiguille du Midi.

1. Alpine activity:

Hike, fish and horse ride in Kitzbühel, Austria from £230 per person, with flights, transfers and half-board accommodation. Contact inghams.co.uk

Pictures were released yesterday of the Swiss thrill-seeker known as the JetMan showing his nickname is well deserved by flying across the Grand Canyon.

The famed Swiss mountaineer, Erhard Loretan – one of the few people to reach the summits of all 14 of the world's peaks above 8,000m – has died during a climb on his 52nd birthday.

Underworld's music for Danny Boyle's Frankenstein sounds like Throbbing Gristle doing the soundtrack to The Wicker Man – a fog of industrial noise punctuated by flamenco guitar flourishes and bursts of communal folk-singing.

Feisty 19 year old Kim Matthews (Felicity Jones) takes on the challenge of her life when she lands a job as a chalet girl in a glitzy ski resort in the Alps.

A British teenager is in a critical condition tonight after he was left hanging from a chairlift during a school ski trip to the Alps, police said.