author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Every year people show up at Everest Base Camp, believing they can climb the mountain with very little experience. Every year they get reported in the media, and more people believe that climbing Everest must be easy. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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In this era of fake news, the BBC has launched a Reality Check series to analyse popular news stories that sound plausible and assess whether or not they’re bollocks. I thought it might be fun to run one the BBC’s own stories through a reality check.
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When I was a small child I used to love fresh snow. If you’re trekking and mountaineering in the Himalayas, however, fresh snow isn’t such good news. It improves your photographs, but it also plays havoc with your plans. Here are three reasons why.
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I’ve talked a bit about the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, and how they are shrinking at an alarming rate, but what about the climate on the rest of the mountain? This aerial photo by the NASA Earth Observatory illustrates them as clearly as any map.
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Last week I enthused about Kilimanjaro’s inner crater, and said that I considered it to be the jewel in Kilimanjaro’s crown. Yet the overwhelming majority of people who climb mountain don’t see it. This week I will talk in more detail about what they’re missing out on.
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Night-time ascents spoil the enjoyment of a climb, and should be avoided wherever possible. But on some popular, guided peaks, climbing at night has become the norm, and reaching the summit is considered more important than enjoying the experience.
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In 2014, the government of Nepal published a list of 104 peaks that were newly open for climbing, unleashing a scramble to make their first ascents. There was just one problem. Some of these peaks had already been climbed before.
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When I received an email from BBC Top Gear asking me whether I thought it might be possible to drive a vehicle up Chimborazo, my first reaction was to roar with laughter. But after I gave it some consideration I realised it required a better response than that.
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There was another big controversy on Manaslu this year. It was widely reported that record numbers reached the summit, but it now appears that a problem with the rope fixing meant that the majority didn’t reach the main summit at all, but one of the two foresummits.
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The American operator Alpenglow is pioneering a new approach to Himalayan mountaineering with its Rapid Ascent trips. These expeditions are unaffordable to most ordinary people, but I believe it won’t be long before cheaper operators follow suit.
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