author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Last year I was on my way into the Khumbu Icefall on Everest, and watched in horror as a huge avalanche took the lives of sixteen Sherpas. This year I watched from a distance as an earthquake put that event into perspective. Here is my personal account of witnessing both tragedies.
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Sixty-two years ago to the day Colonel Jimmy Roberts made the first ascent of Mera Peak with the Sherpa Sen Tenzing. This little postscript to the first ascent of Everest in 1953 may have been the birth of commercial trekking.
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This is part 5 of a series of posts about early tourism in Nepal. For the previous posts see part 1: How Nepal first came to open its doors to tourism, part 2: Bill Tilman: Nepal’s very first trekking tourist,
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I’ve recently finished reading Cho Oyu by Herbert Tichy, an account of the first ascent of Cho Oyu in 1954. The book is hard to get hold of, but it’s as good as Maurice Herzog’s Annapurna, regarded by many as one the best mountaineering books ever written.
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The great mountain explorer Bill Tilman made three treks in Nepal in 1949 and 1950. His second to the Annapurna region made him one of the first to explore an area which now sees thousands of tourists completing one of the world’s best known treks.
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The great mountain explorer Bill Tilman made three treks in Nepal in 1949 and 1950. His first to Langtang was not successful in mountaineering terms, but as an exploratory journey it must have been as enjoyable as any he undertook.
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A few weeks ago I wrote about the history of Nepal and how it came to open its doors to tourism. In the second post in this series I introduce you to Nepal’s very first trekking tourist, who was already a Himalayan veteran and an interesting character.
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The book I’m writing about my journey to the summit of Everest contains a chapter on high altitude trekking. Nepal was isolated from the outside world for much of its history, but has become the Himalayas’ go-to destination. How did this happen?
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Machapuchare, the celebrated 6,993m peak in Nepal’s Annapurna range, is often given the ludicrous spelling Machhapuchhare, with two sets of double aitches. This post is all about how to spell the mountain correctly.
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Last year was the first since 2005 I didn’t go to Nepal, so in 2014 I’m making up for it by going twice. By the time you read this I will be heading to the Khumbu region to attempt 6440m Cholatse. It’s likely to be the hardest climb I’ve ever done.
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