When climbing documentaries were as popular as cookery shows

April 27, 2016 Humour britain, chris bonington, dougal haston, joe brown, mountain films, rock climbing, tom patey 2 Comments

Last year fifteen million people, a quarter of the population of Britain, watched the final of a cake-baking competition. In 1967 the same number watched a live broadcast of the second ascent of an obscure sea stack off the coast of Orkney.

Feeling at home in the Apennines

April 20, 2016 Trip reports abruzzo, apennines, book reviews, corno grande, edita, eric newby, gran sasso, italy, monte corvo, mountain literature, travel writing 7 Comments

Any search for books about the Apennines which aren’t travel guides, leads inexorably to one book: Eric Newby’s ‘Love and War in the Apennines’. It’s a book I can relate to in two very important respects.

Sherpa: They Live, We Come Back

April 13, 2016 Opinion and advice commercial mountaineering, everest, media sensationalism, nepal, outside magazine, sherpas 4 Comments

I believe the Everest debate has progressed in the last couple of years, but then a badly-informed article appears in a mass-market publication which takes it back a few years, and reignites hatred against those who dream of climbing high mountains.

Everest is not piled high with dead bodies

April 6, 2016 Opinion and advice art gilkey, buddhism, charles houston, david sharp, everest, george mallory, media sensationalism, mountaineering ethics, sandy irvine

One of the things that shocks people when I tell them about Everest is that I had to walk past dead bodies on my summit day. In this post I debunk a popular media myth, and discuss how we need a more mature attitude towards death.