author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
When I hiked the Ring of Steall last year, I saw an emerald valley to the east, accessible only by foot and surrounded by Munros. I imagined wild camping in that idyllic location, and picking off the mountains one by one. Barely a year later, my dream came to fruition.
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It’s time for my very last set of videos, and those of you who like listening to the wind drowning out the sound of my voice are in for one final treat. Last Christmas and New Year, I journeyed to Colombia for a short trek in Los Nevados National Park.
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It’s time for my latest set of videos: Unexplored Ecuador. Last autumn Edita and I made our fourth trip to Ecuador, and decided to get a little off the beaten track by visiting some of the country’s lesser known volcanoes and mountain areas.
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It takes me so long to get round to editing my videos these days that I know some of you die of excitement waiting for the next one to appear. Lockdown has provided me with a window of opportunity and I’m hurtling though them like a snail. Here, finally, are the videos of my trip to Ojos del Salado a year and a half ago.
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a great series on the Great Himalaya Trail. This inspired me to return to my old footage of the last time I was in Nepal. It’s now two years since Edita and I trekked the Kangchenjunga Base Camps circuit, and I still hadn’t completed editing my video footage from that trek. Well, now I have, and it’s been great fun going back and reliving it.
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Los Nevados National Park in Colombia’s Cordillera Central mountain range has some similarities with the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy. It rises to just over 5,000m and it surrounded by páramo. But in one key respect it’s very different – volcanoes.
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Eight years ago I hiked the Cocuy Circuit trek in Colombia. To whet your appetite for this beautiful country, here are five videos covering all five days of the trek I completed in 2011. The smiles in these videos tell it all.
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There are few more quintessentially conical volcanoes than Cotopaxi, and it’s hard to look at without wanting to climb it. Edita hadn’t, and as soon as the mountain re-opened after the eruption in 2015, she had to do so at the first opportunity.
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Formerly one of Ecuador’s most active volcanoes, Tungurahua was re-opened for climbing in 2017. It was an obvious objective for us this year, especially since it just squeaks into the list of 10 peaks in Ecuador over 5,000m.
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Welcome to this, the second in my series of Apennine ‘up the backside’ posts, so called because I tackle the mountain from the opposite of its usual side. I have previously talked about an ascent of Monte Marsicano via its
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