A professional free-lance photographer, Mr. Ventura, who specializes in high-altitude landscape photography, is deeply interested in environmental issues. Official photographer of the alpinist-scientific expedition “K2 2004 – 50 years later”, he has been collaborating with the Italian Geographical Society since 2002. He partecipated in numerous photographic expeditions to isolated mountain regions, including Nepal, Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia, Namibia, Utah, Colorado, the Ladakh region of India and Iceland.

website: http://www.fabianoventura.it

Professor Emeritus of Geography and Environmental Studies, and Research Associate in the Cold Regions Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. He has led more than fifteen research expeditions in the Karakorum Himalaya, and published extensively on glacial processes and hydrology in the region. Recently he has been repeating the journeys of early Himalayan explorers to establish glacier and environmental changes in the past two centuries. He sits on the editorial boards of Erdkunde, Environmental Hazards: Human and Policy Dimensions, and Advances in Asian Human-Environmental Research (Springer). He has four children, lives in Toronto, Ontario, and divides his time between research, publishing and consulting in the above fields, and studying classical music.

website: http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwgeog/facstaff/hewitt.htm

A international-level glaciologist, Mr. Smiraglia is a Professor in Earth Sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. His field of research is focused on the effects of climate on glaciers, rock glaciers and recent glacial changes. He is the President of the Italian Glaciological Committe, a member of the Ev-K2-CNR Society and the President of the Central Scientific Committee of the Italian Alpine Club. He has published more than 150 scientific essays and numerous articles on glaciology. He partecipated in scientific expeditions to investigate on glaciers all over the world, including the Karakorum, Iceland, the Himalayas, the Andes, Alaska, Antarctica and Africa.

website: http://users.unimi.it/glaciol

Born 1979 in Italy, freelance geologist and alpinist, he’s specialized in geomorphology, climate change, remote sensing and GIS, with special interest in snow and avalanches. He has been working on mountains and glaciers to make measurements and take snow probes to investigate about climate changes, using also GIS techniques to store and analyze snow and ice data. He collaborates with the Italian Mountain Institute (EIM, Ente Italiano Montagna) and with the “G. D’Annunzio” University of Chieti, Italy.

A free-lance director of documentary, began his work in the field of action sport, he has been collaborating with National Geographic Adventure as director of photography, specialized in water shooting and mountain shooting. Since 2004 he work for Mediaset, Sky Sport, Fox Channel, and he is the official cameraman for Columbia Sportswear in Italy.

Last from 20 years Mr. Hassan is working as mountain/trekking Guide, he climbed successfully Broad peak 8047m, GB-II 8035m, Muztagh- Ata 7545m and he scaled 8300m on Mount Everest with first Pakistani expedition. Number of times he crossed G- La Pass successfully with huge groups, he speaks English and he is reliable and decent guide. He mange very well the staff and professionally conduct the groups.

Environmental and Land Engineer graduated professional, and major in Lan Safeguarding, Giulia Di Fiore has a remarkable skill in the field of environmental redevelopment and hydraulic-environmental systems design, with relevant works across the Italian country for the main related national enterprises. With great skills for land surveying/GIS, she participates in the project as a counselor for logistics planning and for relations with Italian and Pakistan institutions.

Graduate in Communication Sciences at the “Università degli Studi Roma Tre”, she’s currently committed with graduate studies for Enterprise Communications at “La Sapienza” in Rome. Keen about nature photography, she is responsible for the Press Office and the official web site within the “On the Trails of the Glaciers” project.

Alessandro Vannini operates in the field of Information Technology and software consulting since 1994, especially for production of management applications and web services for scientific medical research (University of Tor Vergata, Medical Genetics and Clinical Oncology Departments). As a web designer, he developes communication and advertising tools for such companies as Toyota MotorCity and Honda Freeway, and is a partner for IT of the Cotec Foundation for Technological Innovation.