author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Monti della Laga is one of the forgotten mountain ranges of Italy’s Central Apennines. It was our third visit there, so we knew what to expect from the mountains, but another factor gave us cause for uncertainty. Last August, it was the site of a tragic earthquake.
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I believe that as long as you don’t turn away from life’s problems, there is nothing wrong with escaping them from time to time. I have two main ways of doing this: with mountains and comedy. My parting gift for 2016 is this video, where both come together.
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The summit of Monte Corvo is my favourite view in the whole of Gran Sasso. There is a real sense of space, and to the east is a multitude of rocky summits, emerald green basins and horseshoe ridges, with many summits to explore.
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In another setting Pizzo d’Intermesoli would be a jewel among mountains, but standing alongside Corno Grande it gets forgotten about. It was time we paid a visit to this hidden gem nestling among Gran Sasso’s rock towers.
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Last month Britain’s top mountaineering organisation, the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), puzzled its 80,000 members by announcing out of the blue that it would be changing its name to Climb Britain.
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The highest point in Abruzzo was one of our earliest objectives when we started exploring the Apennines. But although we’d done quite a bit of hiking in Lazio we were yet to reach its highest point, so a couple of weekends ago we set out to rectify that
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A couple of weekends ago I visited Monti Ernici, a group of hills little more than an hour’s drive from Rome, that reminded me so much of the Scottish Highlands that I just had to write a blog post about them.
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Our visit to Ecuador over Christmas gave us a taste for volcanoes, so a visit to Europe’s best known one, Vesuvius, was a must. It gave us the opportunity to explore the nearby Amalfi Coast, a place that’s been described to me as mountainous.
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There are signs of civilisation all over Monte Terminillo, but its accessibility is one of its attractions. An hour and a half’s drive from Rome and visible from the outer ring road, it’s a popular place for alpine climbing, and gave us a fantastic winter walk.
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Over the last two weekends we visited Abruzzo National Park and climbed the big four peaks. Abruzzo has provided a feast of mountains for us throughout 2015, and although it’s a close call, I think these have been my favourite of all of them.
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