All you need to know about the Everest fist fight

April 29, 2013 Humour everest, media sensationalism, old post, sherpas, stephen venables, the guardian, ueli steck

Some of you have been asking for an insightful analysis of the punch up on the Lhotse Face over the weekend. As usual people have been falling over themselves to report the story without waiting for the facts to emerge, and in the Footsteps on the Mountain team we’re not averse to joining the stampede.

Following the Everesters

April 24, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, alan arnette, altitude junkies, blogging, commercial mountaineering, digi comms, edita, everest, explorersweb, grant rawlinson, margaret watroba, phil crampton, sherpas, the chomolungma diaries 15 Comments

This time last year I was lying in a tent on the north side of Everest, listening to a deafening wind pound against the nylon beside my head. Every spring a few hundred people seek to share my experience by trying to climb Everest, and thanks to the miracle of modern communications, it’s possible to watch from the sidelines.

Top rock climber accuses sunbathers of cheating

April 17, 2013 Humour bottled oxygen, interviews, mountaineering ethics, rock climbing 8 Comments

This week the Footsteps on the Mountain team caught up with champion rock climber Bill Scheidt, who has completed many first ascents on bold new routes. Bill is known for a very pure style of climbing, and over the years has become an outspoken critic of climbers who employ artificial aids to enable them to complete an ascent. But it’s not just use of pitons and supplementary oxygen that make his blood boil.

Why Tenzing is the greatest Everest climber

April 10, 2013 Opinion and advice apa sherpa, chongba sherpa, earl denman, edmund hillary, eric shipton, everest, first ascents, george mallory, himalayas, history of mountaineering, nepal, reinhold messner, sherpas, tenzing norgay 9 Comments

While George Mallory, Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and Eric Shipton all deserve their place in the Everest pantheon, if there’s to be an award for the greatest of all Everest climbers, then IMHO it should go to Tenzing Norgay, because he had to work so much harder to achieve his ambition than any of the other climbers.

A winter wonderland above the Bridge of Orchy

April 3, 2013 Trip reports beinn a chreachain, beinn achaladair, beinn an dothaidh, beinn dorain, beinn mhanach, ben lui, black mount, bridge of orchy, britain, duncan ban macintyre, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, rannoch moor, scotland 5 Comments

It might be April and the beginning of spring, but the conditions on Scotland’s hills are still distinctly wintry. I checked the avalanche forecast before spending Easter in the hills above Bridge of Orchy, home of the poet Duncan Ban MacIntyre, famous for composing an Ode to Trousers.