author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
I love the open geography of Ecuador’s central highlands, a high-altitude landscape of free-standing volcanoes. Six years ago I went there and climbed five of them. This Christmas I will be making a long overdue return visit.
Read more
Tourism in Nepal has been hit hard by the earthquakes and border blockade, and tourist numbers have declined significantly. Against this backdrop, Nepal’s government continues to make announcements which damage its reputation as a tourist destination.
Read more
There are signs of civilisation all over Monte Terminillo, but its accessibility is one of its attractions. An hour and a half’s drive from Rome and visible from the outer ring road, it’s a popular place for alpine climbing, and gave us a fantastic winter walk.
Read more
Today’s Everest climbers are often compared unfavourably with the heroic expeditions of the past. But are we so very different from our predecessors? In today’s post I profile an infamous expedition from 1972 that was dogged by controversy.
Read more
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.
Read more
With earthquakes, fuel strikes and vacuous announcements about Everest dominating the news agenda, an obscure but significant rule change affecting Nepal’s trekking peaks has largely gone unnoticed.
Read more
The fourteen peaks over 8000 metres have enjoyed a special status throughout the 20th century and were subject to many races to climb them. In the first of a short series of posts about their early history I introduce three memorable characters.
Read more
A quick note to let you know that those of you who pre-ordered my book from Amazon should receive it on your Kindle on Monday (9th). If you’ve bought it on Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo or Smashwords, then you should receive it the following Monday, 16th.
Read more
Over the last two weekends we visited Abruzzo National Park and climbed the big four peaks. Abruzzo has provided a feast of mountains for us throughout 2015, and although it’s a close call, I think these have been my favourite of all of them.
Read more
I’m on track to publish my book ahead of schedule. If you pre-ordered it then it should appear on your e-reader early in November. If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, here’s the complete prologue to whet your appetite and tempt you to buy the whole thing.
Read more