acclimatisation

Photographs of members of the Russian 7 Summits Club playing pool at base camp on Everest’s north side will have raised the blood pressure of a few purists who believe such luxuries have no place in mountaineering, but a bit of pampering at base camp has long been a part of expeditions to the 8000m peaks.

If you’ve read a few things about Everest or other 8000m peaks then you’ve probably come across the term death zone. If you have then it’s likely you reacted in one of two ways. Either your respect for the writer grew enormously or you imagined the sound of evil laughter accompanied by a dramatic organ chord.

The story of the 2012 Altitude Junkies expedition to climb Everest by the North Ridge Sometimes you get lucky in life, and everything just seems to fall into place like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle. These times are rare and

Climbers on the south side of Everest have plenty of options if they want to descend for a few days to a place where the air is thicker. As snow falls in the Western Cwm many have decided to descend

The route up from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) to the North Col of Everest, up the North Col Wall, differs from year to year. It’s been scene of some famous accidents. The end of George Mallory’s 1922 expedition came abruptly

Yesterday afternoon Everest wore the biggest plume of cloud I’ve ever seen, extending the entire length of the Northeast Ridge and beyond. I don’t know what the mountain gods were doing up there, but it was obvious they didn’t want

Apart from the occasional brief hour of silence, I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have to listen to the roar of the wind. Here at Base Camp it manifests itself in the form tent canvas bashing against our

After a week of rest and acclimatisation at Base Camp (5160m) tomorrow we leave for our first foray higher up the mountain, and will be gone for nearly two weeks. The plan is spend two days trekking up to Advanced

There are two routes to the north side of Everest from Kathmandu. The more interesting one, and the one I took on my two previous visits to Tibet when I climbed to the North Col of Everest and made an

The importance of keeping a good pace and rhythm when walking up a mountain During his expedition to Kamet in the Garhwal Himalaya, Northern India in 1931 – at the time the highest mountain that had ever been climbed –

How civilised does an expedition base camp have to be?

Is the death zone a myth?

Everest 2012: Climbing and alcohol

The Tibetan Village

The North Col and the Ladder of Death

The mountain gods are mellowing

Roar of a thousand tigers; the North Col Wall

First Everest rotation; puja to end all pujas

Nyalam and Tingri

The high-altitude slow plod