Backpacker’s Britain: walking guides for people who like it tough

June 21, 2011 Reviews and tributes abergwesyn hills, backpacking, book reviews, britain, cicerone guides, dehydration, exhaustion, glen shiel, graham uney, hill walking, hypothermia, knoydart, off piste walking, rhinogs, scotland, skiddaw, wales, walking guides, wild camping 0 Comment

I’d like to pay tribute to a man called Graham Uney. I’ve never met him and I probably never will, but thanks to his Backpacker’s Britain walking guides I’ve had many an enjoyable weekend in the UK’s hills, in places

Book review: Savage Arena by Joe Tasker

March 28, 2011 Reviews and tributes 8000m peaks, boardman tasker prize, book reviews, changabang, dick renshaw, doug scott, eiger, everest, himalayas, joe tasker, k2, kangchenjunga, karakoram, mountain literature, nick estcourt, pete boardman, ron rutland, travel writing 1 Comment

“Every step was dogged by a presentiment of catastrophe, as if, out of the mists above, a white wave of death would engulf us.” Is it time for a mountaineer to begin questioning his sanity when he reads a book

BBC Human Planet: amazing photography, shocking script

March 9, 2011 Reviews and tributes altai mountains, david attenborough, himalayas, human planet, mongolia, mountain photography, natural history, wildlife documentaries 1 Comment

Although I had given up on Human Planet, the latest blockbuster documentary series by the BBC Natural History Unit, a few weeks ago, as a mountaineer who loves mountain photography, I knew I wouldn’t be able to resist the episode

5 great books about mountain exploration

February 13, 2011 Reviews and tributes africa, andes, annapurna, bill tilman, book reviews, chimborazo, cotopaxi, douglas freshfield, ecuador, edward whymper, eric shipton, exploration, famous explorers, himalayas, india, k2, kangchenjunga, karakoram, kilimanjaro, maurice herzog, mount kenya, mountain literature, nepal, rwenzori mountains, travel writing 2 Comments

If you like books about mountaineering, here are some of my favourites. I make no claims that these are the 5 best books about mountain exploration ever written, because I can’t claim to have read them all. They are simply