The first man ever to have got on top

December 25, 2013 Humour camping, first ascents 2 Comments

Here’s some Christmas cheer for those of you who have been enjoying a plump turkey and a really good stuffing today. I tore the following page from the comic Viz when I was much younger than I am now, and it has been sitting quietly in a picture frame on my hallway wall for many years. I feel it’s time it received wider audience.

Why would anyone spend Christmas in Patagonia?

December 18, 2013 Expedition dispatches alberto maria de agostini, andes, argentina, cerro san lorenzo, chile, patagonia, south america, southern patagonian ice field, tierra del fuego, torres del paine, weather 0 Comment

There’s not really a good time of year to visit Chilean Patagonia. Quite a lot of wind circulates the globe at that latitude and slams into its mountains with full force, producing severe and prolonged storms and freezing temperatures. So why will I be returning there this Christmas for the first time in ten years?

The Eighth Summit: the highest mountain in Central America

December 11, 2013 My books and writing central america, doug mantle, guatemala, peak bagging, seven summits, trekking, volcan tajumulco, volcanoes 1 Comment

I thought my ascent of the highest mountain in Central America, an extinct 4220m volcano in Guatemala called Volcán Tajumulco, was going to be little more than a tick in the box, but that was far from being the case. Its summit was a real surprise, with a view as fine as any mountain I’ve climbed.

Frank Smythe is more interesting than George Mallory

December 4, 2013 History chris bonington, darjeeling, eric shipton, everest, frank smythe, garhwal, george mallory, gunther dyhrenfurth, himalayas, history of mountaineering, kamet, kangchenjunga, malaria, mountain literature, sandy irvine, tenzing norgay 14 Comments

The headline ‘Mallory’s body discovered on Everest in 1936’ appeared widely on social media sites last week. Had new revelations emerged about whether Mallory reached the summit of Everest? No, the real subject of the story wasn’t George Mallory at all, but arguably a much more interesting character.