kamet

There are a lot of adjectives in the title of this post. What does it mean, precisely? There was a time in history when neither Everest nor the other 10 highest mountains in the world had been climbed. What was the highest mountain ever climbed back in those days? And what was the one before that? If you’re intrigued to find out then read on

It’s been a while since I wrote at length about Frank Smythe, the legendary British mountain explorer who was something of a celebrity in the 1930s when he became one of the first people to make a career of climbing,

The headline ‘Mallory’s body discovered on Everest in 1936’ appeared widely on social media sites last week. Had new revelations emerged about whether Mallory reached the summit of Everest? No, the real subject of the story wasn’t George Mallory at all, but arguably a much more interesting character.

The importance of keeping a good pace and rhythm when walking up a mountain During his expedition to Kamet in the Garhwal Himalaya, Northern India in 1931 – at the time the highest mountain that had ever been climbed –

A chronological list of the 10 highest confirmed mountain summits ever climbed

His father, Frank Smythe — biography of a Himalayan legend

Frank Smythe is more interesting than George Mallory

The high-altitude slow plod