How the Colombian páramo thwarted the Spanish conquistadors

January 15, 2020 History andes, colombia, frailejones, paramo, simon bolivar, wildlife 4 Comments

The story I’m about to tell might be total bollocks, but it’s a funny story, so I’m going to tell it anyway. It was told to us by one of our guides as we trekked through the páramo landscape of Colombia last month.

Wanda Rutkiewicz: the mountaineer’s Google Doodle

October 23, 2019 History 8000m peaks, alison hargreaves, bernadette mcdonald, carlos carsolio, edita, everest, google, k2, kangchenjunga, wanda rutkiewicz 4 Comments

If, like me, you’ve never wondered why Google don’t feature mountaineers on their daily Google Doodle, then you would have been surprised to open your web browser on Wednesday to find a cartoon line drawing of somebody in a pith helmet tugging on a rope.

What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered?

August 21, 2019 History aconcagua, alexander von humboldt, andes, charles-marie de la condamine, chimborazo, dhaulagiri, everest, himalayas, joseph barclay pentland, kangchenjunga, pierre bouguer, sajama 2 Comments

Yes, I know that a number of pedants will read the title of this blog post and mutter under their breaths with a shrug of indignation: ‘What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered? Why, Everest

Did Edward Whymper make the first ascent of Carihuairazo?

April 17, 2019 History andes, arturo eichler, carihuairazo, chimborazo, ecuador, edward whymper, first ascents, history of mountaineering, volcanoes 3 Comments

Nobody knows if Edward Whymper made the first ascent of Carihuairazo in 1880. Nor was Whymper very sure himself. He made an ascent of a summit, but whether it was the main one is open to debate. In this post I examine the evidence.

What happened to Alison Hargreaves on K2?

March 6, 2019 History 8000m peaks, alison hargreaves, climbing fatalities, everest, k2, karakoram, nanga parbat, pakistan, peter hillary, reinhold messner, tom ballard

The story of British climber Tom Ballard, who has been missing on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan for nine days now, is a particularly poignant one. Twenty-four years ago his mother Alison Hargreaves also lost her life on another mountain in Pakistan, K2.

Humboldt and Boussingault on Chimborazo: how high did they climb?

February 6, 2019 History alexander von humboldt, andes, book extract, chimborazo, ecuador, edward whymper, history of mountaineering, jean-baptiste boussingault, south america, travel writing 1 Comment

How high Humboldt and Boussingault climbed on Chimborazo has been the subject of much debate. When Edward Whymper made the first ascent in 1880, he was baffled by their descriptions of the climb. So what happened, and how high did they really get?

The first ever successful Everesting of Everest

October 3, 2018 History cycling, everest, everesting, first ascents, himalayas, tibet 1 Comment

A Chinese cyclist has recently completed the first ever Everesting — where a cyclist repeatedly climbs the same hill until they’ve biked the height of Everest — on the side of Everest itself. It’s a story I first reported on a few months earlier.

7 countries with mountains on their flags

September 12, 2018 History andes, bolivia, central america, cerro rico, chimborazo, costa rica, ecuador, el salvador, europe, monte titano, nicaragua, san marino, slovenia, triglav 6 Comments

No fewer than seven countries have mountains on their national flags. To spare you from ruining your eyesight by squinting at a database of world flags to find out which ones, and to give you more time to read angry social media posts, here’s the full list.

Chimborazo’s role in proving Newton’s theory of gravity

February 14, 2018 History andes, charles-marie de la condamine, chimborazo, ecuador, french geodesic mission, pierre bouguer, science, sea to summit, triangulation 2 Comments

It’s a little-known fact that in 1738, during a boring period of the French Geodesic Mission to Ecuador, the scientist Pierre Bouguer decided to use Ecuador’s highest mountain, Chimborazo, to prove Newton’s theory of gravity.

Tomek Mackiewicz and Nanga Parbat: a Shakespearean mountaineering tragedy

February 7, 2018 History 8000m peaks, adam bielecki, albert mummery, crowdfunding, denis urubko, elisabeth revol, heinrich harrer, k2, mountain rescue, nanga parbat, pakistan, peak lenin, reinhold messner, simone moro, tomek mackiewicz 10 Comments

Tomek Mackiewicz’s death on Nanga Parbat carries a number of characteristics of a Shakespearean tragedy. It has a tragic hero with a tragic flaw that will ultimately lead to his downfall. It involves a tragic waste, an external conflict, and even a catharsis.