author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
The problems which occurred on Everest this year are nothing new, but they have now reached such a degree that it’s time for operators who value their reputation and for those who dream of climbing Everest to take a principled stand.
Read more
Last month I examined the practice of climbing Everest in a shorter period of time by acclimatising at home and using larger quantities of oxygen during the climb. In this week’s follow up post, I take a look at the cost of these expeditions.
Read more
Many teams climbed the north side of Everest this season, but two seemed to get the lion’s share of the attention. These two teams were using new techniques to shorten their expeditions. But was their approach sensible or effective? Let’s have a look.
Read more
It was a slow news week over the Christmas period, and the mainstream media fell for the Everest silly announcement hoax for the umpteenth time. This particular stunt happens roughly once a year, and the process is described here.
Read more
Earlier this week a fundraising appeal for Sange, a 19-year-old Sherpa who suffered severe frostbite on Everest this year, reached its ambitious target of $42,000.
Read more
Every year people show up at Everest Base Camp, believing they can climb the mountain with very little experience. Every year they get reported in the media, and more people believe that climbing Everest must be easy. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Read more
It’s been a while since we did our last interview on the Footsteps on the Mountain blog, but I can promise you this one has been worth waiting for. Earlier this week we caught up with a man who raised a few eyebrows by announcing the shortest ever 8000m peak expedition.
Read more
In this era of fake news, the BBC has launched a Reality Check series to analyse popular news stories that sound plausible and assess whether or not they’re bollocks. I thought it might be fun to run one the BBC’s own stories through a reality check.
Read more
There was another big controversy on Manaslu this year. It was widely reported that record numbers reached the summit, but it now appears that a problem with the rope fixing meant that the majority didn’t reach the main summit at all, but one of the two foresummits.
Read more
The American operator Alpenglow is pioneering a new approach to Himalayan mountaineering with its Rapid Ascent trips. These expeditions are unaffordable to most ordinary people, but I believe it won’t be long before cheaper operators follow suit.
Read more