A traverse of Hergest Ridge: Mike Oldfield’s favourite hill walk

April 9, 2025 History britain, cicerone guides, county tops, great rhos, hergest ridge, prog rock, walking, walking guides 8 Comments

A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post about climbing tiny Little Solsbury Hill above the city of Bath, the setting for Peter Gabriel’s 70s progressive rock classic. Two years on, here I am writing a blog post about another small English hill that was once the subject of a classic 70s prog rock album.

Why xenon and the noble gases have a noble mountaineering pedigree

February 12, 2025 History acclimatisation, albert mummery, alexander kellas, cuillin ridge, everest, furtenbach adventures, himalayas, inaccessible pinnacle, isle of skye, john mackenzie, nanga parbat, norman collie, scotland, sgurr alasdair, sgurr nan gillean 0 Comment

There’s been some controversy in mountaineering circles about the noble gas xenon after mountaineering operator Furtenbach Adventures announced that they’ll be offering it to their Everest clients. It’s entirely appropriate that somebody has got around to using a noble gas to aid in mountaineering, for reasons I will explain.

Murder on Aconcagua? The mystery of John Cooper and Janet Johnson

August 21, 2024 History aconcagua, andes, argentina, climbing fatalities, history of mountaineering, polish glacier, south america 0 Comment

In February 2020, a camera was found on a glacier in Argentina that revived a long-forgotten story of intrigue high on the slopes of Aconcagua. In 1973, two American climbers failed to return from an expedition to climb the Polish Glacier, and many people suspected that it was no ordinary climbing accident.

The first 7 British people to climb Mount Everest

April 5, 2023 History bronco lane, brummie stokes, chris bonington, dick bass, doug scott, dougal haston, everest, mick burke, pertemba sherpa, pete boardman 5 Comments

I’ve recently been reading The Everest Years by Chris Bonington, during which he states that he was the 7th Brit to climb Everest. So who were the 7 and what were their stories?

Climbing up on Solsbury Hill, but is it a real place?

February 22, 2023 History britain, cicerone guides, cotswolds, damian hall, prog rock, solsbury hill, walking, walking guides 9 Comments

As we drove back to the Cotswolds earlier this month, Peter Gabriel’s 1977 hit Solsbury Hill popped up on the car stereo, which prompted Edita to remark: “Is Solsbury Hill a real place? If it is then we should climb it.” So we did.

Did Rudyard Kipling’s explorer see Hamish MacInnes looking behind the ranges?

February 8, 2023 History eiger, everest, exploration, hamish macinnes, himalayas, mountain films, mountain literature, new zealand, rudyard kipling 2 Comments

The title of Hamish MacInnes’s book Look Behind the Ranges is taken from Rudyard Kipling’s poem The Explorer about a man who is urged to cross the mountains behind his home by an inner voice. But what would Kipling’s explorer have made of Hamish MacInnes?

When Prince Philip went tiger shooting in Nepal

April 14, 2021 History chitwan national park, history of nepal, nepal, tourism, wildlife 9 Comments

Today’s post comes with apologies to the 110,994 people who wrote to the BBC last week (a national record, apparently), complaining about the dawn to dusk coverage of Prince Philip across all their TV channels, after the Queen’s consort and

Is the first winter ascent of K2 a turning point for Sherpa mountaineers?

January 27, 2021 History 8000m peaks, ali sadpara, angtharkay, bottled oxygen, denis urubko, first ascents, gyalzen norbu sherpa, k2, nepal, nirmal purja, pakistan, pasang dawa lama, seven summits treks, sherpas 19 Comments

It’s not very often that the ascent of an 8,000m peak makes international news headlines, but earlier this month something rather special happened when a team of 10 Nepali climbers stood on the summit of K2.

Doug Scott’s expedition to the Tibesti Mountains in Chad

December 16, 2020 History africa, chad, doug scott, emi koussi, sahara desert, tarso tieroko, tibesti mountains, wilfred thesiger 2 Comments

Inspired by a trip to the Atlas Mountains in 1962, Doug Scott obtained £400 of sponsorship from the Mount Everest Foundation for a trip to the Tibesti Mountains in 1964. He bought three army lorries and set off across the Sahara Desert to Chad.

What was Jan Morris’s secret code to say that Everest had been climbed?

December 2, 2020 History everest, first ascents, history of mountaineering, jan morris, mountain literature, travel writing 5 Comments

In 1953, Jan Morris was the Times correspondent entrusted with sending the exclusive news that Everest had been climbed for the very first time. With rival journalists snooping around the Everest region, she decided to invent a secret code.

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