author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
Ever since an incident in the Italian Apennines, the promise of ladders on a hiking route has made me nervous. As we approached the 11 ladders of the Grand Balcon Sud on the Tour du Mont Blanc, I wondered: would they be like the cakewalk on Everest or the sphincter ticklers on Corno Piccolo?
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Without requiring technical skills, crampons or a down-suit to fend off the biting cold, Mont Blanc trekkers cover more cumulative metres of altitude than Everest climbers. So my guidebook says about the TMB, but how did did we find it, and was it really like climbing Everest?
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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.
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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’.
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There is a moment in your life when you start reminding yourself of your dad. For me that happened earlier this month while I was editing Edita’s videos of myself trekking the GR20. It wasn’t a pleasant realisation.
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It’s that special time of year when you get to see more of my amazing videos. A full eighteen months ago, Edita and I had the great pleasure of trekking the GR20, the infamous long-distance trail along the spine of the mountainous island of Corsica.
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I left you a month ago having climbed the easy trekking peak Dzo Jongo East and made a valiant attempt on Dzo Jongo West in a whiteout. With the peaks happily under our belt, we experienced four days of trekking joy as we crossed high passes linking the Langtang and Chang valleys in a landscape that changed with every day.
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Yes, folks. It’s time for the next mesmerising instalment of my award-winning video diaries. I left you a month ago having passed through the villages and oases of the narrow Markha Valley. High up in the wide open spaces of the Nimaling Valley, it was time to tackle the mountains we had come to climb.
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It’s over three years since I last released a series of my trademark shit videos on YouTube. Some of you are wondering if a yeti got my tongue. Eighteen months have gone by since I trekked in Ladakh, and the hilarious footage that I took has been lying untouched on my hard drive. It’s time to give it an airing.
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Solo trekking will be banned in Nepal’s national parks starting from next month, unless hikers carry a live chicken strapped to their backpacks. Officials say it will improve safety for millions of thrill seekers who travel to the Himalayas every year.
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