4 ways to improve the south side of Everest

July 2, 2014 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, alpinism, altitude junkies, climbing fatalities, commercial mountaineering, everest, everest base camp, himex, lhotse, mountaineering ethics, nepal, sherpas

I’m going to finish my series of posts on this year’s Everest season on a positive note by looking at some possible ways forward for commercial mountaineering on Everest. The aim is not just to make the mountain safer but to improve the overall experience for all who climb it.

The cod science of Everest hate

June 25, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing fatalities, commercial mountaineering, everest, media sensationalism, nepal, outside magazine, sherpas, tenzing norgay, trekking 10 Comments

One thing every Everest climber has to get used to is hate written about them in the media. Sometimes the hate becomes so pervasive that it starts to resemble propaganda, and one particularly corrosive piece of propaganda concerning Everest has been cited frequently recently and needs to be challenged.

A mountain of deceit: introducing Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism

May 28, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing fatalities, climbing permits, commercial mountaineering, everest, everest base camp, media sensationalism, mountain environment, mountain flights, nepal, sherpas, waste management 6 Comments

The government of Nepal made a number of announcements about mountaineering on Everest before and during the Spring 2014 season, which received widespread media attention. Here I examine some of the announcements and assess how successfully the government met their intentions.

The Everest avalanche: how did it happen?

May 17, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing fatalities, everest, mountain photography, nepal 0 Comment

After publishing yesterday’s eyewitness account of the 18 April avalanche on Everest I was contacted by one of my team mates, Mel Huang from China. Mel has been studying before and after photographs of the West Shoulder and Khumbu Icefall in order to analyse precisely what happened.

Don’t be fooled by disaster porn

March 5, 2014 Opinion and advice commercial mountaineering, everest, history of mountaineering, jon krakauer, k2, lincoln hall, media sensationalism, mountain literature, mountaineering disasters, the chomolungma diaries

Since Jon Krakauer’s seminal disaster porn classic Into Thin Air came out in 1997 publishers have flocked to release books about mountaineering disasters, but every time I see a new book like this I can’t help wishing they had never been published. Why? For me there are two reasons.

Everest: The Return of the Mavericks

February 19, 2014 Opinion and advice climbing permits, commercial mountaineering, everest, jagged globe, mountaineering ethics, nepal, tibet 6 Comments

The government of Nepal has slashed permit fees for individuals climbing Everest from $25,000 to $10,000. But the group permit system that provided discounts for larger teams has been abolished, and the fee for a team member has increased to $11,000. What does this mean for the spring climbing season on the south side of Everest?

Nepal’s top 5 most valuable mountains

February 12, 2014 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, ama dablam, cho oyu, climbing permits, commercial mountaineering, edmund hillary, everest, griffith pugh, himlung, lhotse, manaslu, nepal, trekking peaks 19 Comments

The government of Nepal recently published figures about the revenue it earned from climbing permits in 2013, including a list of the five most valuable peaks for tourist income. There are few surprises, but the extent to which four mountains dominate is a bit of an eye opener.

Climbing big mountains isn’t everyone’s cup of tea

February 5, 2014 Opinion and advice aconcagua, andes, argentina, high altitude mountaineering, mera peak, seven summits, south america, travel writing, trekking 7 Comments

We’re all different; some of us enjoy walking all day up a steep hill and going to sleep in a tent, while others prefer lying on a beach or partying all night. Luckily the world is big enough to accommodate all of us, but there seems to be a surprisingly large number of people who climb big mountains when they’re really not enjoying themselves.

Do we really need more 8000m peaks?

October 23, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, asian trekking, broad peak, hillary peak, kangchenjunga, lhotse, mera peak, nepal, nepal mountaineering association, pakistan, peak bagging, reinhold messner, tenzing peak, topographic prominence, trekking peaks

The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) is considering a request from Nepal to reclassify five peaks within the country, and another in Pakistan, as 8000m peaks. But are they worthy of the name, and is there any point? Let’s have a look at the peaks in question.

Summit day on Manaslu: what’s it really like?

September 25, 2013 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, alan arnette, altitude junkies, commercial mountaineering, first ascents, gyalzen norbu sherpa, himalayas, jagged globe, manaslu, nepal, reinhold messner, toshio imanishi

Variable snow conditions mean summits of mountains can differ from year to year. One mountain whose summit is unrecognisable from when it was first climbed in 1956 is Manaslu in Nepal. Its summit has changed so much that modern mountaineers could almost be climbing a different mountain.