author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
There was forecast to be one day of glorious weather over the Easter weekend. I nabbed it to take a day trip to the Brecon Beacons in South Wales, now known as Bannau Brycheiniog, and climb its highest peak via an extended route through a quieter part of the range.
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There is a moment in your life when you start reminding yourself of your dad. For me that happened earlier this month while I was editing Edita’s videos of myself trekking the GR20. It wasn’t a pleasant realisation.
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A couple of years ago, I wrote a blog post about climbing tiny Little Solsbury Hill above the city of Bath, the setting for Peter Gabriel’s 70s progressive rock classic. Two years on, here I am writing a blog post about another small English hill that was once the subject of a classic 70s prog rock album.
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It’s that special time of year when you get to see more of my amazing videos. A full eighteen months ago, Edita and I had the great pleasure of trekking the GR20, the infamous long-distance trail along the spine of the mountainous island of Corsica.
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I’m delighted to say that Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers, the thrilling diary of my very first 8,000m peak expedition to the Gasherbrums in Pakistan, is now available as an audiobook. It’s the fifth one that I’ve narrated and produced myself and I’m happy to say that they just get better and better.
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A few years ago on this blog, I posed the question Where are the humorous mountaineering books?. Towards the end of last year, I discovered a hidden gem of witty mountaineering literature quite by chance: a collection of whimsical short stories that I believe would have had P.G. Wodehouse chuckling appreciatively.
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There’s been some controversy in mountaineering circles about the noble gas xenon after mountaineering operator Furtenbach Adventures announced that they’ll be offering it to their Everest clients. It’s entirely appropriate that somebody has got around to using a noble gas to aid in mountaineering, for reasons I will explain.
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Which of us hasn’t spent at least one night of our lives at a party sucking helium from a balloon in the hope of talking like Mickey Mouse? We marvelled how those balloons, containing a gas lighter than air, rose to the ceiling. What we didn’t realise was that what works for a balloon also works for people.
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It was the third year in a row that we’d chosen to spend Christmas in Glencoe in the hope of bagging some winter hills. But, as we’ve discovered, hoping for good weather in Glencoe over Christmas is a forlorn hope. Still, you’ve got to put your chin up and get on with it. With an unpromising weather forecast, would we manage get up any Munros?
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I was sad to learn of the death of legendary photographer John Cleare in October this year. He was one of the best known and most respected climbing and mountaineering photographers of the last 50 years. Much to my surprise, he was a reader of this blog for over 10 years.
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