What’s next? The mountaineer’s most frequently asked question

August 28, 2013 Opinion and advice adventure travel, buddhism, denali, everest, quotations, seven summits, travel writing 1 Comment

Our lives are such a constant quest to get somewhere that sometimes we fail to appreciate where we are. By far the most common question I get asked is ‘what’s next?’, but isn’t where we are and where we’ve been much more meaningful?

A dark year in the Karakoram

August 14, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, broad peak, climbing fatalities, gasherbrum, k2, karakoram, karakoram highway, muztag ata, nanda devi, nanga parbat, pakistan, tourism, willi unsoeld

The mountaineering season in the Pakistan Karakoram is winding down, and not a moment too soon. I’ve been watching events unfold on its five 8000m peaks this year with a mix of sadness and horror which has left me wondering whether I will return there.

The new Everest Base Camp police force

August 7, 2013 Opinion and advice climbing records, commercial mountaineering, elizabeth hawley, everest, everest base camp, mountain environment, nepal, nepal mountaineering association, sherpas, simone moro 9 Comments

The government of Nepal is to set up an integrated service centre at Everest Base Camp to regulate mountaineering activities, the BBC reported last week. But is this necessary, practical or even true? Let’s delve into the story in more detail.

4 ways to climb Denali

July 31, 2013 Opinion and advice alaska, bradford washburn, denali, first ascents, history of mountaineering, hudson stuck, mountain flights, ricardo cassin, route descriptions, seven summits, united states 6 Comments

One advantage of failing to climb a mountain like Denali is that you have an excuse to go back there. Mountains have many facets, and by choosing an alternative route you can feel like you’re climbing a different mountain. There are some great options on Denali, depending on your talent and fortitude. Here are four of them.

When the mountain is trying to tell you something

July 9, 2013 Opinion and advice aconcagua, alaska, american alpine institute, belmore browne, commercial mountaineering, denali, first ascents, history of mountaineering, hudson stuck, seven summits, united states, weather 16 Comments

When Belmore Browne and Herschel Parker had to turn around just 50m short of the summit of Denali during a storm in 1912, it would have been hard for them to imagine there could be any consolation in such bad luck. But sometimes the mountain is trying to tell you something, and when that happens it’s always worth listening.

Is it a bad thing the world is becoming more accessible?

May 29, 2013 Opinion and advice annapurna circuit, apa sherpa, climbing equipment, commercial mountaineering, edmund hillary, everest, exploration, first ascents, grant rawlinson, maurice herzog, media sensationalism, mont blanc, mountaineering ethics, phurba tashi sherpa, sherpas, snowdon, stephen venables, teahouse trekking, tenzing norgay 10 Comments

Today is the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. I expect there will be quite a few editorial pieces published today reflecting on how the mountain has changed in the intervening years. I expect most of them will lament the changes as a bad thing, but I’m going to adopt a slightly different stance in this post.

Everest is not for climbers – you’re joking aren’t you!

May 6, 2013 Opinion and advice cathy o'dowd, commercial mountaineering, ed webster, everest, first ascents, george mallory, guided climbing, history of mountaineering, mountaineering ethics, stephen venables, tibet 5 Comments

There’s nothing like a negative Everest story to trigger a flurry of publishing absurdity. For example, some people say Everest has now become so crowded with commercial expeditions there is no longer any room for real climbers, an argument that can be easily refuted with a single photograph.

How civilised does an expedition base camp have to be?

May 1, 2013 Opinion and advice 7 summits club, 8000m peaks, acclimatisation, alex abramov, altitude junkies, bill tilman, charles bruce, cho oyu, commercial mountaineering, digi comms, elbrus, eric shipton, everest, everest base camp, expedition food, expedition logistics, gasherbrum, jagged globe, kenton cool, noel odell, seven summits 3 Comments

Photographs of members of the Russian 7 Summits Club playing pool at base camp on Everest’s north side will have raised the blood pressure of a few purists who believe such luxuries have no place in mountaineering, but a bit of pampering at base camp has long been a part of expeditions to the 8000m peaks.

Following the Everesters

April 24, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, alan arnette, altitude junkies, blogging, commercial mountaineering, digi comms, edita, everest, explorersweb, grant rawlinson, margaret watroba, phil crampton, sherpas, the chomolungma diaries 15 Comments

This time last year I was lying in a tent on the north side of Everest, listening to a deafening wind pound against the nylon beside my head. Every spring a few hundred people seek to share my experience by trying to climb Everest, and thanks to the miracle of modern communications, it’s possible to watch from the sidelines.

Why Tenzing is the greatest Everest climber

April 10, 2013 Opinion and advice apa sherpa, chongba sherpa, earl denman, edmund hillary, eric shipton, everest, first ascents, george mallory, himalayas, history of mountaineering, nepal, reinhold messner, sherpas, tenzing norgay 9 Comments

While George Mallory, Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and Eric Shipton all deserve their place in the Everest pantheon, if there’s to be an award for the greatest of all Everest climbers, then IMHO it should go to Tenzing Norgay, because he had to work so much harder to achieve his ambition than any of the other climbers.