Craig y Llyn: zipping up the cliff of the lake

November 19, 2025 Trip reports bannau brycheiniog, brecon beacons, britain, county tops, craig y llyn, hill walking, peak bagging, wales 0 Comment

A short distance south of Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons is a range of peaks less well known to the outside world. The Rhigos Hills are home to the highest point in the county of Glamorgan.

An ascent of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Dominican Republic

October 8, 2025 Trip reports caribbean, dominican republic, everest, guias de alturas, peak bagging, pico duarte, trekking 0 Comment

This is the second of two posts about our recent visit to the mountainous island of Hispaniola. In the first post, I introduced you to the Dominican Republic, and how we came to trek there. In this post, I describe our assault on Pico Duarte (3,101m), La Pelona (3,095m) and La Rusilla (3,040m), the three highest mountains in the Caribbean.

A mission to climb the highest mountains in the Caribbean

September 24, 2025 Trip reports caribbean, dominican republic, guias de alturas, haiti, hispaniola, peak bagging, pico duarte, small steps adventure tours, trekking 0 Comment

A few years ago, I wrote a blog post to explain that from that moment on I would aim to climb more obscure mountains that hardly anyone writes about. But how to decide which unusual peaks to climb? Well, that was the easy the bit. I would ‘go with the flow’.

Wetherlam to Waterlam: climbing the Old Man of Coniston in a summer heatwave

July 16, 2025 Trip reports britain, county tops, cumbria, hill walking, lake district, met office, old man of coniston, peak bagging, swirl how, weather forecasts, wetherlam 0 Comment

The whole of Europe is in the middle of a scorching heatwave. Here in the Cotswolds the grass is as brown as a hay bale and the thermometer has been touching 30°C. It seemed like a good time to go hill walking in the Lake District, where good weather seemed guaranteed for a change.

Is this the world’s most expensive boat trip? Climbing the Mullardoch Munros

July 24, 2024 Trip reports boat trips, britain, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, peak bagging, scotland 3 Comments

We left the longest walk of the trip until the second week, when we hoped to be more mountain fit. Even so, when we stood on the summit of Toll Creagach and looked across Loch Mullardoch to its four associated Munros (the ‘Mullardoch Munros’), we could see quite clearly that it was going to be a loooong day.

All 14 Welsh 3,000ers for the Queen’s jubilee

June 15, 2022 Trip reports britain, hill walking, peak bagging, snowdon, snowdonia, wales, welsh 3000ers 5 Comments

Our beloved monarch Queen Elizabeth II has now been sitting on the throne for 70 years. To celebrate this event, and because the people of Britain had been granted an extra day of public holiday to mark it, I decided to do something special.

The Ben Lawers Five: peak-bagging perfection

November 3, 2021 Trip reports an stuc, ben lawers, britain, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, peak bagging, scotland, scrambling 2 Comments

You’ve heard of the Famous Five and the Jackson Five, and you may even remember the Dave Clark Five, but if you’ve never heard of the Ben Lawers Five then you’re missing out – it’s one of the great days out for Munro baggers.

The Glen Spean Nine: peak bagging and bet hedging in Central Scotland

August 20, 2021 Trip reports binnein beag, britain, creag meagaidh, glen roy, glen spean, hill walking, munro bagging, munros, peak bagging, scotland 1 Comment

Glen Spean is a good place “for those who want to hedge their bets with the weather” said the Walkhighlands guidebook. Given that the weather in the Highlands of Scotland is famous for being unreliable, this sounded like a pretty good recommendation.

Binnein Beag from Glen Nevis: when reaching the summit is just a tick in the box

June 30, 2021 Trip reports ben nevis, binnein beag, hill walking, mamores, munro bagging, munros, peak bagging, ring of steall, scotland, scottish highlands 3 Comments

Binnein Beag is probably a peak that most Munro baggers leave till last because it’s not worth climbing until you have to. Squirming up its rubble felt like a tick in the box. But would I taste fulfilment when I reached the summit?

Nirmal Purja’s ascent of all fourteen 8,000m peaks: why is it controversial?

November 6, 2019 Opinion and advice 8000m peaks, explorersweb, first ascents, himalayan database, kim chang-ho, media sensationalism, mountaineering ethics, nepal, nirmal purja, peak bagging, reinhold messner, seven summits treks, sherpas

Last week was one of those weeks when a mountaineering story is so big that it makes it into the popular press. On the face of it, it was a straightforward story of someone smashing a record to smithereens. But if you dig a little deeper, there is another side to it.

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