Summit day on Manaslu: what’s it really like?

September 25, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, alan arnette, altitude junkies, commercial mountaineering, first ascents, gyalzen norbu sherpa, himalayas, jagged globe, manaslu, nepal, reinhold messner, toshio imanishi

Variable snow conditions mean summits of mountains can differ from year to year. One mountain whose summit is unrecognisable from when it was first climbed in 1956 is Manaslu in Nepal. Its summit has changed so much that modern mountaineers could almost be climbing a different mountain.

4 ways to climb Denali

July 31, 2013 Opinion and advice alaska, bradford washburn, denali, first ascents, history of mountaineering, hudson stuck, mountain flights, ricardo cassin, route descriptions, seven summits, united states 6 Comments

One advantage of failing to climb a mountain like Denali is that you have an excuse to go back there. Mountains have many facets, and by choosing an alternative route you can feel like you’re climbing a different mountain. There are some great options on Denali, depending on your talent and fortitude. Here are four of them.

When the mountain is trying to tell you something

July 9, 2013 Opinion and advice aconcagua, alaska, american alpine institute, belmore browne, commercial mountaineering, denali, first ascents, history of mountaineering, hudson stuck, seven summits, united states, weather 16 Comments

When Belmore Browne and Herschel Parker had to turn around just 50m short of the summit of Denali during a storm in 1912, it would have been hard for them to imagine there could be any consolation in such bad luck. But sometimes the mountain is trying to tell you something, and when that happens it’s always worth listening.

The High One: my attempt on Denali

June 19, 2013 Expedition dispatches alaska, bradford washburn, denali, false summit claims, first ascents, frederick cook, history of mountaineering, hudson stuck, seven summits, training, united states, weather 10 Comments

If everything goes to plan then by the time you read this I’ll be freezing my nuts off on a glacier in Alaska. In January my friend Dan and I decided we would book to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America, also known as Mount McKinley.

Everest comes to London: celebrating the 1953 Everest expedition

June 5, 2013 Reviews and tributes alfred gregory, bottled oxygen, charles evans, climbing equipment, edmund hillary, everest, first ascents, george lowe, history of mountaineering, mountain talks, royal geographical society, tenzing norgay, thierry levenq, tom bourdillon, tyrolean traverse 1 Comment

Although I’ve lived here for 17 years, I’ve never been a big one for taking advantage of London’s art galleries and exhibitions. Last weekend was an exception because it had a mountaineering theme. I spent the afternoon at two exhibitions celebrating the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest.

Is it a bad thing the world is becoming more accessible?

May 29, 2013 Opinion and advice annapurna circuit, apa sherpa, climbing equipment, commercial mountaineering, edmund hillary, everest, exploration, first ascents, grant rawlinson, maurice herzog, media sensationalism, mont blanc, mountaineering ethics, phurba tashi sherpa, sherpas, snowdon, stephen venables, teahouse trekking, tenzing norgay 10 Comments

Today is the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. I expect there will be quite a few editorial pieces published today reflecting on how the mountain has changed in the intervening years. I expect most of them will lament the changes as a bad thing, but I’m going to adopt a slightly different stance in this post.

Everest is not for climbers – you’re joking aren’t you!

May 6, 2013 Opinion and advice cathy o'dowd, commercial mountaineering, ed webster, everest, first ascents, george mallory, guided climbing, history of mountaineering, mountaineering ethics, stephen venables, tibet 5 Comments

There’s nothing like a negative Everest story to trigger a flurry of publishing absurdity. For example, some people say Everest has now become so crowded with commercial expeditions there is no longer any room for real climbers, an argument that can be easily refuted with a single photograph.

Why Tenzing is the greatest Everest climber

April 10, 2013 Opinion and advice apa sherpa, chongba sherpa, earl denman, edmund hillary, eric shipton, everest, first ascents, george mallory, himalayas, history of mountaineering, nepal, reinhold messner, sherpas, tenzing norgay 9 Comments

While George Mallory, Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and Eric Shipton all deserve their place in the Everest pantheon, if there’s to be an award for the greatest of all Everest climbers, then IMHO it should go to Tenzing Norgay, because he had to work so much harder to achieve his ambition than any of the other climbers.

Everest by the Venables Direct Route

March 20, 2013 Reviews and tributes 8000m peaks, altitude sickness, ed webster, everest, first ascents, frostbite, history of mountaineering, mountain talks, paul teare, robert anderson, stephen venables 4 Comments

In 1988 a ragtag quartet of mountaineers from the USA, Canada and the UK made one of Everest’s most intrepid ascents, and last Thursday I had the good fortune of attending a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society in London celebrating the 25th anniversary of their climb.

Did Chinese climbers reach the summit of Everest in 1960?

March 6, 2013 History bottled oxygen, china, chris bonington, chu yin-hua, dougal haston, everest, false summit claims, first ascents, history of mountaineering, jim whittaker, pete boardman, tibet, tom hornbein, wang fu-chou, willi unsoeld

There has been a lot of gushing editorial written recently to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of Everest in 1963. I could write a bit more about the expedition here, but I wouldn’t be adding anything to what’s already out there. Instead I’m going to talk about another expedition which took place on Everest’s north side three years earlier.