How civilised does an expedition base camp have to be?

May 1, 2013 Opinion and advice 7 summits club, 8000m peaks, acclimatisation, alex abramov, altitude junkies, bill tilman, charles bruce, cho oyu, commercial mountaineering, digi comms, elbrus, eric shipton, everest, everest base camp, expedition food, expedition logistics, gasherbrum, jagged globe, kenton cool, noel odell, seven summits 3 Comments

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.

Climbing Elbrus by any means

August 15, 2012 Trip reports 7 summits club, alex abramov, caucasus mountains, elbrus, mountaineering ethics, russia, seven summits 3 Comments

I suspect I’m going to shock a few people with this post. During my ascent of Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, last month I took not only performance enhancing drugs (aspirin, diamox and — I’m told — Russian vodka) but a cable car, a chairlift and, most shocking of all, a snow cat (that’s a tracked vehicle, not a clawed feline).

What’s next? Elbrus, I suppose

July 25, 2012 Expedition dispatches 7 summits club, alex abramov, british mountaineering council, caucasus mountains, elbrus, everest, everest base camp, pilgrim tours, russia, seven summits, snow leopard award 4 Comments

When I crept into Everest Base Camp on 22 May and posted some messages to say I’d reached the summit and was safely back down again, I was overwhelmed at the response I received, from close friends, to people I’ve