author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Back in September my editor Alex Roddie was launching his own book The Farthest Shore, about his winter hike of the Cape Wrath Trail in north-west Scotland, at the Highland Bookshop in Fort William. I attended the launch and then read the book.
Read more
There is currently an unmissable 1 hr 45 min documentary film, The Last Mountain, available on BBC iPlayer for the next year. The film follows the last climb of elite mountaineer Tom Ballard, who died on Nanga Parbat in 2019.
Read more
I don’t often accept books for review – not because I’m not interested, but because life is short and there are too many books I want to read. Sometimes, however, I make an exception, like when Robert Anderson offered me a copy of his latest book Nine Lives.
Read more
Here is some essential reading, not only for those of you interested in Everest history, but as a salutary lesson in human psychology. It will also be of interest to potential Everest climbers wondering which operators to avoid when the pandemic is over.
Read more
In 2019, the mountaineering film maker Renan Ozturk and climbing writer Mark Synnott led an expedition to the north side of Everest to look for the body of Sandy Irvine. They didn’t find him, but they brought back a sumptuous feast of photography.
Read more
In today’s post I’m going to show you the most terrifying thing you’ve ever seen (at least on this blog). If you’ve been following my series of posts about the Cuillin Ridge, you will know that it’s not a place to venture without a rope – or with a bike.
Read more
When I published The Chomolungma Diaries in 2012, there were very few books about climbing Everest written from the perspective of a commercial client. Now there are several and one runaway success has been Ascent into Hell by Fergus White.
Read more
It’s been a while since I wrote at length about Frank Smythe, the legendary British mountain explorer who was something of a celebrity in the 1930s when he became one of the first people to make a career of climbing,
Read more
I can confidently say that Lands of Lost Borders by Kate Harris is my favourite of all the Boardman Tasker Prize winners that I’ve read. It reminded me of Dervla Murphy, but how similar is it? I read Dervla Murphy’s book Full Tilt to find out.
Read more
It’s not clear why Kangchenjunga should be considered the last great mountain, but whatever: this book is a comprehensive history of all expeditions up to its first ascent in 1955. I learned a lot from it, and I can thoroughly recommend it, however well acquainted you are with Kangchenjunga’s history.
Read more