author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
It was a slow news week over the Christmas period, and the mainstream media fell for the Everest silly announcement hoax for the umpteenth time. This particular stunt happens roughly once a year, and the process is described here.
Read more
Back in May I reviewed a new guidebook to Nepal, written by the man behind The Longest Way Home website. Then it was only available as a PDF, but it’s now been published as a paperback by Nepali publisher, Himalayan Travel Guides.
Read more
Earlier this week a fundraising appeal for Sange, a 19-year-old Sherpa who suffered severe frostbite on Everest this year, reached its ambitious target of $42,000.
Read more
When I first heard about the death of Ueli Steck on Everest’s west peak, Nuptse, I was shocked, but not mystified. It sounded like a simple climbing accident, and nothing more. But an enlightening interview with the Nepalese climbing guide who found his body raised many new questions.
Read more
While I know some of you have read all 6,626 words of the Langtang trip report I posted in April, others of you prefer just to watch telly. Luckily for you people I also cobbled together some extremely professional video footage. Here’s a short selection of the best bits.
Read more
News is reaching us that a 42-year-old expedition leader from Cumbria has been arrested in Nepal for allegedly doctoring images Mount Everest’s legendary Hillary Step, and posting them on Facebook.
Read more
I’ve mentioned a couple of times how I’m a keen follower of The Longest Way Home blog, written by UK-born travel writer David Ways. He’s also been writing a series of guidebooks to Nepal, and while I was there in March I took the opportunity to try one of them out.
Read more
One of the most jaw-dropping experiences of my recent visit to Langtang was passing through Langtang village, the site of a devastating landslide during the 2015 earthquake. Yesterday was the second anniversary, so it seems like the right moment to remember what happened.
Read more
I’ve been meaning to go to Langtang for a long time. It was Nepal’s third most popular trekking destination, but this changed suddenly after the Nepal earthquake. The region is getting back to normal again and I was long overdue a visit. Here’s the story of my trek.
Read more
In this era of fake news, the BBC has launched a Reality Check series to analyse popular news stories that sound plausible and assess whether or not they’re bollocks. I thought it might be fun to run one the BBC’s own stories through a reality check.
Read more