Getting married is the peak of hubris

June 18, 2014 Humour everest, media sensationalism, mountaineering ethics, the guardian 0 Comment

With vicars treated like lapdogs by cretinous narcissists, a crisis in church matrimony was inevitable. This week on the Footsteps of the Mountain blog we welcome Tony Gould as our special guest blogger, who will be talking knowledgeably about one of his favourite topics, marriage and road traffic accidents.

Everest: The Return of the Mavericks

February 19, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing permits, commercial mountaineering, everest, jagged globe, mountaineering ethics, nepal, tibet 6 Comments

The government of Nepal has slashed permit fees for individuals climbing Everest from $25,000 to $10,000. But the group permit system that provided discounts for larger teams has been abolished, and the fee for a team member has increased to $11,000. What does this mean for the spring climbing season on the south side of Everest?

What’s the world’s best mountain for cheating?

August 21, 2013 Humour aconcagua, bottled oxygen, denali, douglas freshfield, elbrus, everest, kilimanjaro, machapuchare, mont blanc, mountaineering ethics, pico de orizaba, snowdon, vinson massif, wilfrid noyce 17 Comments

Climbing purists should look away now. This post is for those with a more laid back approach to getting up mountains. I thought it might be interesting to compare some of the world’s high mountains to see how far you can get up them using mechanical transport, and so I give you the Mountains for Cheating infographic.

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.

Top rock climber accuses sunbathers of cheating

April 17, 2013 Humour bottled oxygen, interviews, mountaineering ethics, rock climbing 8 Comments

This week the Footsteps on the Mountain team caught up with champion rock climber Bill Scheidt, who has completed many first ascents on bold new routes. Bill is known for a very pure style of climbing, and over the years has become an outspoken critic of climbers who employ artificial aids to enable them to complete an ascent. But it’s not just use of pitons and supplementary oxygen that make his blood boil.

Is it OK for mountaineers to miss a puja?

February 6, 2013 Opinion and advice buddhism, everest, gasherbrum, himalayas, karakoram, mountaineering ethics, pakistan, puja, sherpas, tibet 6 Comments

An obscure subject for a blog post if ever there was one, but one of the perks of writing a mountaineering blog is every so often I get asked some very obscure and intriguing questions by email out of the

Hi Kickstarters, but this is wrong in so many ways

October 24, 2012 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, climbing fatalities, crowdfunding, everest, himalayas, kickstarter, mountain films, mountaineering ethics, sponsorship 0 Comment

I don’t know too much about the organisation Kickstarter, so I hesitate to be too critical about them, but this morning an item appeared in my Twitter feed about a campaign of theirs which appeared to be taking bad taste

The Manaslu avalanche: a short analysis

September 26, 2012 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, altitude junkies, himalayas, himex, manaslu, media sensationalism, mountaineering disasters, mountaineering ethics, nepal, russell brice 6 Comments

Four months after an unusually deadly Everest season, another tragedy in the Himalayas has focused the attention of the world’s media on the sport of high altitude mountaineering. Because mainstream media only seems interested in mountaineering in the event of

The people who give Everest a bad name

September 19, 2012 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, commercial mountaineering, everest, himalayas, michael kodas, mountaineering ethics, nils antezana, outside magazine, sherpas 5 Comments

As Martin Luther King once said, “I have a dream”. Mine perhaps isn’t quite as worthy as his, but in its own way it’s just as heartfelt. I dream that one day everyone who climbs Everest will enjoy it, not just for the climb itself, but the whole experience of being in the mountains.