author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
In the last three weeks I’ve cycled 830km across 1273 hills, hiked up 8 Munros and 4 Corbetts, and scratched 253,953 midge bites 37 times per day. I camped for 20 consecutive nights and have lost count of the number
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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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Chimborazo in Ecuador is definitely the highest mountain in the world when measured from the centre of the Earth. I found a mathematical formula to prove it. I just needed to climb the mountain to be sure of its correct altitude.
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You can’t go far wrong with Ecuador if you’re into peak bagging: 28 volcanoes of various shapes and sizes, some lovely views and nice haciendas to relax at in between. I went there six years ago and this year I went back and climbed a few more.
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Last year was an unusual one for me. There were few real plans, and my travels ended up evolving out of necessity and opportunity, but I kind of liked it that way and I believe a combination of loose planning and going with the flow is the way forward in travel.
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Not only does the Mulanje Massif in southern Malawi contain some of the loveliest trekking you will find anywhere, but to climb its highest point, 3002m Sapitwa Peak, involves a very unusual scramble indeed. Here’s my account of our ascent.
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A couple of weeks ago I reported from Africa on my mission to find, measure, ascend and name the highest point in Zambia, and how identifying which peak to climb wasn’t as straightforward as you might think. This is the story of our quest.
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I promised to provide an update on where I’m at with the book I’ve been threatening to publish about my journey from lowly hill walker to Everest summiteer. Here it is, along with a short teaser from the book in the hope that you might be tempted to buy it when it comes out.
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You would think in this age of satellite mapping and websites like Google Earth the highest point in every country has been calculated by a machine, and you can just look it up somewhere. This isn’t the case, as I discovered when I tried to find the highest peak in Zambia.
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I thought my ascent of the highest mountain in Central America, an extinct 4220m volcano in Guatemala called Volcán Tajumulco, was going to be little more than a tick in the box, but that was far from being the case. Its summit was a real surprise, with a view as fine as any mountain I’ve climbed.
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