Well folks, I have something rather special this week to help stimulate the senses while you are in coronavirus lockdown. Fellow mountain writer John D Burns has featured an audio excerpt from Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest on his weekly podcast, and it’s great – a dramatic reading of the crux section where I tackle the infamous Second Step.
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BREAKING NEWS: False alarm as climber’s tracking device suggests he is trapped inside toilet tent
There were several hours of mayhem on Everest yesterday when the tracking device of German climber Jurgen Kobblers showed that he had strayed off route into dangerous territory. Rescue parties sprung into action, but in the end it turned out to be a false alarm.
Read moreWanda Rutkiewicz: the mountaineer’s Google Doodle
If, like me, you’ve never wondered why Google don’t feature mountaineers on their daily Google Doodle, then you would have been surprised to open your web browser on Wednesday to find a cartoon line drawing of somebody in a pith helmet tugging on a rope.
Read moreWhat the North Coast 500 has in common with Everest
Queues of slow moving traffic, people who don’t know how to drive, human faeces by the side of the road – are we talking about Everest again? No, it’s the North Coast 500, a magnificent road trip in north-west Scotland which I once pedalled round.
Read moreWhat was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered?
Yes, I know that a number of pedants will read the title of this blog post and mutter under their breaths with a shrug of indignation: ‘What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered? Why, Everest
Read moreIn memoriam: Jeremy “Bunter” Anson, who put Twixes on the Himalayan map
I would like to pay tribute a mountaineering friend of mine who passed away last month. He is not someone you will have heard of, but I believe that it’s important to remember such people, for they are the ones most like ourselves.
Read moreAn interview with … Mark Horrell (and why not)
What to do when you spend an evening answering interview questions for a journalist, only for them not to be published? Of course, it’s obvious: publish them yourself on your own blog. So here is the world’s first ever interview with Mark Horrell.
Read moreIs it time to boycott the south side of Everest?
The problems which occurred on Everest this year are nothing new, but they have now reached such a degree that it’s time for operators who value their reputation and for those who dream of climbing Everest to take a principled stand.
Read moreWhat happened to Alison Hargreaves on K2?
The story of British climber Tom Ballard, who has been missing on Nanga Parbat in Pakistan for nine days now, is a particularly poignant one. Twenty-four years ago his mother Alison Hargreaves also lost her life on another mountain in Pakistan, K2.
Read moreWhat’s the highest mountain in the solar system?
While I’m in Chile climbing the mountain with the most superlatives in the world, I thought it might be interesting to consider just how superlative a mountain can get.
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