The Cuillin Traverse – to do or not to do?

October 21, 2020 Trip reports andy hogarth, britain, cicerone guides, cuillin ridge, dave fowler, edita, hill walking, inaccessible pinnacle, isle of skye, mamores, munros, scotland 7 Comments

We’d hired a mountain guide to do the Cuillin traverse, a 12km ridge on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, which takes in 11 Munros and many subsidiary peaks. But with injuries in both legs and a knee that couldn’t bend more than 90 degrees it seemed inconceivable for me.

How does climbing Everest compare with winning a Nobel prize?

October 17, 2020 Good causes emergency response, everest, humanitarianism, hunger, nepal earthquake, united nations, world food programme 4 Comments

I’ve not won many things in my life. I don’t write the sort of books that will ever be considered for an award and I’ve never been good enough to win a prize for being clever. As for winning something really prestigious? Don’t be silly. But then this happened.

Ascent Into Hell by Fergus White: An authentic account of climbing Everest

October 14, 2020 Reviews and tributes altitude junkies, anne-mari hyrylÃ¤inen, book reviews, commercial mountaineering, everest, fergus white, jon krakauer, mountain literature, peak freaks, the chomolungma diaries, tim rippel 13 Comments

When I published The Chomolungma Diaries in 2012, there were very few books about climbing Everest written from the perspective of a commercial client. Now there are several and one runaway success has been Ascent into Hell by Fergus White.

Beyond the Nevis watershed, part 2: the Grey Corries

October 7, 2020 Trip reports backpacking, grey corries, hill walking, mamores, munro bagging, munros, scotland, scottish highlands, weather, wild camping 0 Comment

Our plan for the second day of our backpacking trip beyond Glen Nevis was to climb the Grey Corries on the north side of the valley. We had a long day ahead of us, and an ambitious plan to complete a full traverse of the ridge across four Munros and eight summits.

Beyond the Nevis watershed, part 1: the eastern Mamores

September 30, 2020 Trip reports backpacking, grey corries, hill walking, mamores, munro bagging, munros, ring of steall, scotland, scottish highlands, wild camping 5 Comments

When I hiked the Ring of Steall last year, I saw an emerald valley to the east, accessible only by foot and surrounded by Munros. I imagined wild camping in that idyllic location, and picking off the mountains one by one. Barely a year later, my dream came to fruition.

The world’s most stupid navigational error

September 23, 2020 Humour britain, edita, grey corries, hill walking, munros, navigation, scotland, stob choire claurigh, weather 3 Comments

After a promising start to the day, the clouds moved in and the rain started pounding against them as they ascended the south ridge of Stob Choire Claurigh, the highest point in the Grey Corries, a ridge of quartz-laden peaks

5 surprising, educational facts about Everest, all for a good cause

September 9, 2020 Good causes acclimatisation, community action nepal, death zone, everest, melanie windridge, mountain films 5 Comments

While I was busy publishing last week’s blog post, physicist Dr Melanie Windridge, who climbed Everest in 2018, published this short educational video that describes five surprising facts about Everest in a way that’s fun, educational and accessible all in one.

10 facts about Everest success and death rates, based on scientific data

September 2, 2020 Opinion and advice alan arnette, climbing fatalities, commercial mountaineering, everest, himalayan database, media sensationalism, seven steps from snowdon to everest 14 Comments

How much does overcrowding, experience, age and sex affect how likely a climber is to reach the summit of Everest or die trying? A scientific paper was published last week that addressed these very questions. So what did it conclude?

When Joe Brown went hunting for Inca treasure in Ecuador’s Llanganates Mountains

August 26, 2020 History andes, cerro hermoso, ecuador, hamish macinnes, joe brown, llanganates mountains, martin boysen, mo anthoine, ruminahui, yvon chouinard 4 Comments

Much has been written about Joe Brown, the great alpinist and rock climber who made the first ascent of Kangchenjunga and died earlier this year. But we don’t often hear about the time he followed an ancient treasure map into the Andes in search of Inca gold.

If you climb a peak that collapses in an earthquake, did you still climb it?

August 19, 2020 Humour earthquakes, edmund hillary, first ascents, fred beckey, mountain films, pete schoening, rocky mountains, sawtooth mountains, united states 2 Comments

On 7 August, an earthquake in the Sawtooth Mountains, Idaho, caused a famous rock feature known as Baron Spire, affectionately known as Old Smoothie, to collapse. It also caused a man to shoot a video with the most entertaining commentary ever recorded.