author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
The Apennines were our home from home while we lived in Italy, but I always wanted to visit the Dolomites at some point too. I finally had the opportunity in the very last week before I moved back to London.
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The learning curve for beginners is always much steeper. Now that I’m safely back from my first ever cycling trips, I thought it would be a good moment to share some tips.
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Tomorrow Ecuador’s most popular volcano will be open again for the first time since a major eruption in 2015. But is it safe or is the decision premature? Here are my thoughts after a month in Ecuador.
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On Wednesday, Edita and I reached the 6310m summit of Chimborazo for the second time. We climbed via the Whymper Route on the southwest ridge, which traverses across the west face to join the Normal Route that we climbed last
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The fun is over. Tomorrow the serious business of cycling up Chimborazo begins. Our aim is to cycle from sea level then climb to the summit, with a bit of hiking in between. I have no illusions. It’s going to
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False summit claims were back in the news when a Swedish mountaineer retracted his summit claim after studying photographs and realising he hadn’t reached the very top. He was praised for his refreshing honesty, but a similar story of mountaineering integrity also deserves attention.
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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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There was a surreal moment during our cycle ride of the North Coast 500 a few days ago. I had pedalled myself to complete exhaustion up and over steep hills for nine days, and my legs had nothing left. I
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We looked upon our four days in the Dolomites as a reconnaissance: an easy hike from hut to hut, carrying little more than a day pack. We had no set itinerary, and chose our route from day to day. We also wanted to do some research with a view to climbing the famous via ferratas.
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Our big adventure was due to start in the Dolomites, but just before we left Rome, we had one final opportunity to sneak up Corno Piccolo, the last major peak in the Gran Sasso range to elude us.
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