author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
We’re all different; some of us enjoy walking all day up a steep hill and going to sleep in a tent, while others prefer lying on a beach or partying all night. Luckily the world is big enough to accommodate all of us, but there seems to be a surprisingly large number of people who climb big mountains when they’re really not enjoying themselves.
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I thought my ascent of the highest mountain in Central America, an extinct 4220m volcano in Guatemala called Volcán Tajumulco, was going to be little more than a tick in the box, but that was far from being the case. Its summit was a real surprise, with a view as fine as any mountain I’ve climbed.
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Our lives are such a constant quest to get somewhere that sometimes we fail to appreciate where we are. By far the most common question I get asked is ‘what’s next?’, but isn’t where we are and where we’ve been much more meaningful?
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One advantage of failing to climb a mountain like Denali is that you have an excuse to go back there. Mountains have many facets, and by choosing an alternative route you can feel like you’re climbing a different mountain. There are some great options on Denali, depending on your talent and fortitude. Here are four of them.
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It looked like a good year to come to Denali. Prior to our arrival there had been an unprecedented spell of good weather and people were climbing straight up and reaching the summit without a hitch. But the good weather was certain to break eventually. Would it continue long enough for us?
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It’s time to say goodbye to another friend from South America who has lost his life in the mountains. The Argentine climber Leonardo Rasnik was found dead in the Peruvian Andes on Thursday. He was assistant guide when I climbed Aconcagua in 2010, and a more cheerful and enthusiastic human being you couldn’t wish to meet
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When Belmore Browne and Herschel Parker had to turn around just 50m short of the summit of Denali during a storm in 1912, it would have been hard for them to imagine there could be any consolation in such bad luck. But sometimes the mountain is trying to tell you something, and when that happens it’s always worth listening.
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If everything goes to plan then by the time you read this I’ll be freezing my nuts off on a glacier in Alaska. In January my friend Dan and I decided we would book to climb Denali, the highest mountain in North America, also known as Mount McKinley.
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Photographs of members of the Russian 7 Summits Club playing pool at base camp on Everest’s north side will have raised the blood pressure of a few purists who believe such luxuries have no place in mountaineering, but a bit of pampering at base camp has long been a part of expeditions to the 8000m peaks.
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When the Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen stood on the highest point in South America in 1897, as far as anyone knew it was the highest place man had ever been, but he stood there alone. His expedition leader Edward Fitzgerald had been left behind with altitude sickness at 6000m.
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