alps

This is the second of four posts describing our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc in September, a classic 170km circuit of Western Europe’s highest mountain. After starting out from Chamonix and walking the western section through France, we arrived on the Italian border at Col de la Seigne and looked down into a valley rich in history.

Last year Edita and I hiked the famous GR20 long-distance trail along the spine of mountainous Corsica. It was our first experience of so-called ‘self-guided’ trips, where an operator books your accommodation and luggage transfers, but you make your own way from point to point. We were keen to do another, and there was an obvious one to try next.

It’s been a while since I updated you on where I am with the book I’ve been promising to write about my journey from simple hill walker to Everest summiteer, so here’s some more news along with a teaser from the book.

Britain’s greatest living mountaineer is currently touring the country with a series of lectures about his life, and I was lucky enough to see one of them. An important World Cup qualifier was taking place that evening, but if Chris Bonington’s life were a football match it would be a 22 goal thriller which ended 11 goals all and went into extra time.

If you read the title of this post and think I’m about to slag off the Swiss climbing superstar, famous for his speed ascents in the Alps and Himalayas, then you should know upfront that I’ll be doing precisely the

“I was desperately anxious to see at close quarters the great Alpine summits which look so majestic from the top of our mountains.” Horace-Benedict de Saussure Modern mountaineering is said to have begun on 8 August 1786, when Michel Paccard,

When the Victorian mountaineer Edward Whymper visited Ecuador in 1879 – ostensibly to study the effects of high altitude, but in reality to polish off a few first ascents in the High Andes – he was far from impressed. In

Walter Bonatti’s ferret: the Tour du Mont Blanc from Italy to Switzerland

Valleys of mountain joy: the Tour du Mont Blanc from France to Italy

Learning the alpine skills: another update about my book

Sir Chris Bonington’s life in 90 minutes

Ueli Steck’s ridiculous mountaineering career

The great great grandfather of mountaineering

5 reasons Ecuador’s mountains are great for beginners