author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
A few months ago someone recommended to me a lesser known volume in the Everest canon, written by Sherry B Ortner, an American anthropologist who spent over 30 years studying Sherpa culture, including fieldwork in the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal.
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Thanks to Vertebrate and their Norwegian translator Bibbi Lee, the meagre pot of mountaineering mirth has become a little merrier with the unearthing of a little known gem of Norwegian literature.
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In these difficult times it feels uncaring to post about frivolous things like mountain climbing. While considering this, I realised that I didn’t know much about the mountains of Ukraine. I decided to find out all I could, and remembered something on my bookshelf.
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Most of us have used Google Street View at some point, but not so many of us know about Street View’s kinder, mellower, more refined, engaging and adventurous younger brother, a website that specialises in mountain panoramas.
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With Nirmal Purja’s book and film riding high, the profile of Nepali mountaineers is at an all-time high. But where do you go if you want to find out more? Here are seven insightful and entertaining books that have Sherpas at their heart.
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Back in September my editor Alex Roddie was launching his own book The Farthest Shore, about his winter hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in north-west Scotland, at the Highland Bookshop in Fort William. I attended the launch and then read the book.
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There is currently an unmissable 1 hr 45 min documentary film, The Last Mountain, available on BBC iPlayer for the next year. The film follows the last climb of elite mountaineer Tom Ballard, who died on Nanga Parbat in 2019.
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I don’t often accept books for review — not because I’m not interested, but because life is short and there are too many books I want to read. Sometimes, however, I make an exception, like when Robert Anderson offered me a copy of his latest book Nine Lives.
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Here is some essential reading, not only for those of you interested in Everest history, but as a salutary lesson in human psychology. It will also be of interest to potential Everest climbers wondering which operators to avoid when the pandemic is over.
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In 2019, the mountaineering film maker Renan Ozturk and climbing writer Mark Synnott led an expedition to the north side of Everest to look for the body of Sandy Irvine. They didn’t find him, but they brought back a sumptuous feast of photography.
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