himalayas

An idiot’s guide to topographic prominence Once upon a time paid employees of the British Empire went to extraordinary lengths to calculate the height of the Himalayas. It’s quite widely known that the highest point on the planet is named

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

The story of Manaslu, autumn 2011 Sir Ranulph Fiennes eventually reached the summit of Everest on his third attempt. After suffering a heart attack during his first one in 2005, turning back with exhaustion during his second in 2008, and

Today is the last day of waiting. It’s six days since we came down from our false start of a summit push, and tomorrow we begin again. There’s been no serious precipitation for a few days now, and the heavy

I’m sitting in a damp and misty Manaslu Base Camp, tired but excited. Yesterday we made our first foray onto the mountain when we went up to Camp 1 to deposit loads. It was a big jump in altitude from

The great Tyrolean mountaineer Reinhold Messner famously claimed to have seen a yeti when he was camping alone in a clearing in Tibet in 1986. Whatever it was, it moved adeptly on two legs and was too big to be

Well, it’s nearly that time of year again when I escape from the real world to spend a couple of months in a tent on the side of a mountain. At the end of the month I head for the

I’m going to conclude my trio of posts about Bhutan by relating an incident that happened at a place called Jangothang on the Jhomolhari trek. In previous posts I’ve been moaning about the weather in Bhutan, and how the beautiful

I explained in an earlier post how the government of Bhutan charges a minimum USD $200 per person per day fee to all tourists irrespective of what they do, a fee that’s set to increase to $250 next year. I

This is a post of two halves, with the second instalment next week looking at the other side of the coin. Much has been said about the high cost of tourism in Bhutan, where the government charges a minimum fee

How to measure the height of a mountain

Is the Manaslu Circuit the new Annapurna Circuit?

Manaslu 2011: Ice axe and Cramptons

Manaslu – The time has come

A monsoon trek and first foray onto Manaslu

How to escape from a yeti

8 useful web tools for expedition base camp

Drukpa Kunley’s Rhubarb: an extraordinary Himalayan vegetable

5 reasons why Bhutan is NOT worth the $200 per day tourist fee

5 reasons why Bhutan IS worth the $200 per day tourist fee