Learning about the Manang Valley in the early days of the Annapurna Circuit

May 6, 2020 Reviews and tributes annapurna, annapurna circuit, great himalaya trail, himalayas, mountain environment, mountain films, nepal, responsible tourism, trekking 5 Comments

Now that the pubs are all closed, I’ve been spending Saturday nights searching for mountain gems on YouTube. Here’s one. In the Shadow of Annapurna offers a glimpse into an earlier age in Nepal, when things were rapidly changing but many of the old ways remained.

Kangchenjunga Base Camps Trek: the videos

March 18, 2020 Trip reports 8000m peaks, drohmo ri, forest fires, himalayas, jannu, kangchenjunga, mountain environment, mountain films, nepal, trekking 3 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a great series on the Great Himalaya Trail. This inspired me to return to my old footage of the last time I was in Nepal. It’s now two years since Edita and I trekked the Kangchenjunga Base Camps circuit, and I still hadn’t completed editing my video footage from that trek. Well, now I have, and it’s been great fun going back and reliving it.

The cause of Himalayan forest fires

November 28, 2018 Opinion and advice forest fires, himalayas, kangchenjunga, mountain environment, mountain films, natural, nepal 1 Comment

Forest fires have been in the news recently. Some are natural, but many people believe that climate change is causing them to occur more frequently. Earlier this year, we witnessed a Himalayan forest fire that we believe was entirely man-made.

Why I’m supporting the BMC’s Mend Our Mountains appeal

March 28, 2018 Good causes britain, british mountaineering council, club alpino italiano, crowdfunding, hill walking, mend our mountains, mountain environment, munros, public access 2 Comments

The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) has just launched a new appeal, Mend Our Mountains, with the ambitious target of raising £1 million to repair footpaths in UK mountain areas. Here’s why I’m happy to dip my hand in my pocket for this worthwhile cause.

Reality Check: Will there be a huge clear up of garbage on Everest this year?

April 5, 2017 Opinion and advice asian trekking, commercial mountaineering, everest, media sensationalism, mountain environment, nepal, nepal earthquake, waste management 5 Comments

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.

The climate zones of Kilimanjaro from space

March 22, 2017 Opinion and advice africa, kilimanjaro, mountain environment, mountain photography, mountains from space, nasa earth observatory, tanzania 2 Comments

I’ve talked a bit about the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, and how they are shrinking at an alarming rate, but what about the climate on the rest of the mountain? This aerial photo by the NASA Earth Observatory illustrates them as clearly as any map.

What does the Nepal Mountaineering Association do?

November 25, 2015 Good causes ang tshering sherpa, dawa steven sherpa, emergency response, himalayas, history of mountaineering, mountain environment, nepal, nepal earthquake, nepal mountaineering association, tourism, trekking peaks, uiaa, world food programme 3 Comments

The Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has recently lost a significant part of its annual income. In this week’s post I look at the NMA’s work to see what programmes will be affected and what this change is likely to mean for mountain tourism in Nepal.

Poo in the Everest region: is it such a big problem?

March 18, 2015 Opinion and advice aconcagua, alan arnette, ama dablam, denali, everest, himalayas, media sensationalism, mera peak, mountain environment, mountaineering ethics, nepal, tibet, tim mosedale, waste management

Recently I wrote a satirical piece about a fictional washroom at Everest Base Camp as a reaction to more sensationalised media reporting about Everest. But the reports contained a grain of truth that I intend to fertilise in this post.

A mountain of deceit: introducing Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism

May 28, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing fatalities, climbing permits, commercial mountaineering, everest, everest base camp, media sensationalism, mountain environment, mountain flights, nepal, sherpas, waste management 6 Comments

The government of Nepal made a number of announcements about mountaineering on Everest before and during the Spring 2014 season, which received widespread media attention. Here I examine some of the announcements and assess how successfully the government met their intentions.

A briefing at the Ministry

April 2, 2014 Expedition dispatches lhotse, media sensationalism, mountain environment, nepal, phil crampton 2 Comments

A new joke is doing the rounds in Kathmandu. How many Nepalese Ministry of Tourism officials does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to change the bulb and the other to issue a press release to the

← Previous