author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
I recently wrote about Colonel Jimmy Roberts, the grandfather of trekking. Now I would like to introduce another important figure in the development of tourism in Nepal, a ballet dancer called Boris, whose colourful life reads like a surreal fairy tale.
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If you’re planning on visiting Everest’s Khumbu region on a prearranged itinerary these days then there’s a high probability of your plans going tits up. But things look about to change with plans to build a road all the way to Lukla, the Khumbu’s gateway village.
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Some people think adventure is dead because most of the world has now been explored, and there aren’t many genuine firsts in exploration still remaining. But is this true, or is it just the meaning of adventure that needs to be redefined?
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Our lives are such a constant quest to get somewhere that sometimes we fail to appreciate where we are. By far the most common question I get asked is ‘what’s next?’, but isn’t where we are and where we’ve been much more meaningful?
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No, the title of this post is not a euphemism, but a reference to the similarities between one of the great mountaineering survival stories, Joe Simpson’s Touching the Void, and another less well-known survival story which happened in the Pakistan
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Snow on the hills is great, but it’s best not to go out walking when it’s actually snowing, so last weekend I took the easier option and spent it indoors at the Outdoors Show at London’s ExCeL conference centre, if
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Having the right guide can mean the difference between success and failure, particularly on a mountain like Aconcagua, where many guides don’t appreciate the great expense – financial, emotional and physical – that clients are putting into the climb, and
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Imagine a metal tube of human sardines flying through the air. Sixteen people are crammed tightly together inside with their thighs pressed up against their chests and modestly full day packs balanced on top of their knees. Most of them
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There are some facts about Mera Peak, one of Nepal’s most popular trekking peaks, that not many people know. This is partly the fault of adventure travel companies offering it as a trip, whose literature can range from vague to
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For a long time the Annapurna Circuit was one of the world’s classic treks, high up on the must-do list of many a seasoned traveller. And with good reason, too: circling one of Nepal’s most beautiful mountain ranges over a
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