author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
There is currently an unmissable 1 hr 45 min documentary film, The Last Mountain, available on BBC iPlayer for the next year. The film follows the last climb of elite mountaineer Tom Ballard, who died on Nanga Parbat in 2019.
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It’s not very often that the ascent of an 8,000m peak makes international news headlines, but earlier this month something rather special happened when a team of 10 Nepali climbers stood on the summit of K2.
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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.
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Tomek Mackiewicz’s death on Nanga Parbat carries a number of characteristics of a Shakespearean tragedy. It has a tragic hero with a tragic flaw that will ultimately lead to his downfall. It involves a tragic waste, an external conflict, and even a catharsis.
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Mick Fowler and Victor Saunders are two legends of the Himalayan mountaineering scene who climbed together in the 80s and completed several first ascents. They went their separate ways for 29 years, but reunited for a climb last year. I attended their very first lecture together.
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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.
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A quick book update. I’m in the process of publishing revised editions of the Footsteps on the Mountain Travel Diaries, and making them available as paperbacks for the first time ever. Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers is now available in paperback form.
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A quick book update. I’m in the process of publishing revised editions of the Footsteps on the Mountain Travel Diaries. The revised digital version of Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers is available now at a bargain price from the main online bookstores.
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If you write about a subject that appeals to people of all political beliefs, then you should avoid talking about politics. But what if politics touches on the things you care about deeply enough to write about – do you say nothing? The answer to this is surprisingly simple.
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When Bill Tilman travelled to the Pakistan Karakoram in 1937, he hoped to solve two unexplained geographical riddles: the existence of an icecap in Central Asia, and a glacier without any river outlet. He relished the opportunity to prove the scientists wrong.
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