author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Last week the world’s mainstream media were awash with stories about the world’s first dog to climb Mount Everest. It was a heart-warming tale about a cute little doggie who had been rescued from a garbage dump in India and went on to become a pioneering canine mountaineer. But how on earth could it be true?
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The government of Nepal is to set up an integrated service centre at Everest Base Camp to regulate mountaineering activities, the BBC reported last week. But is this necessary, practical or even true? Let’s delve into the story in more detail.
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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.
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So the government of Nepal has u-turned on a decision made earlier this year to ban solo trekking in the country. It’s a victory for common sense. Nepal is currently the best place in the world for solo trekking, and
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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
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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
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Very soon we’ll be starting out on our Everest summit push. All our preparations have been done, and from now on it’s just one foot in front of the other; the rest is in the hands of the mountain gods.
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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
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We have a very comfortable setup here at Everest Base Camp, with all sorts of luxuries people camping for a couple of months beside a glacier have no right to expect. Take our hot shower, for example. The blue barrel
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Distinctive and colourful, you’ll find them swinging from any high point or windy place across the Himalayas, but why? Tibetan Buddhist in origin, the 5 colours represent nature’s elements: earth (green), fire (red), water (blue), sky (white) and space (yellow).
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