“I was eating something from the rubbish, I was sleeping on the street. And it broke me a lot.” — Denis UrubkoDenis Urubko, enigma of the mountaineering world. A hero to some, vilified by others. One thing you can’t…

Ten days after setting out on the Chilkoot Trail from SE Alaska into Canada I arrived in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon and by far the largest town in the Territory.

So-called 'wild camping' is in the news and not in a good way. Pictures of dumped tents and camping gear surrounded by trash are all over social media. This, we are told, is wild camping. It isn't....

Matt Kettlewell was born and raised on a remote farm at the head of a long valley. There is no through road. Matt had travelled very little when he accidentally got a job that required him to move to Africa.

The adventure world woke up this morning to the sad news that pioneering British climber Joe Brown passed away yesterday. I’ll go no further on Brown and his fabled career, as there will no doubt be many a fine obituary published in…

Exactly one year ago today the climbing world lost three leading lights. Austrians David Lama and Hansjörg Auer, and American Jess Roskelley were killed while descending Howse Peak (3,295m) in the Canadian Rockies. They were…

Another text on Everest climbing history might not usually pique my interest, but when I learned today that New Yorker journalist Ed Caeser’s book on the mountains most peculiar character is due out in November, I felt a twinge of…

I’ve spent the last few days putting together a hundred or so adventure links for ExplorersWeb. While I’m on a roll, I thought I would put together a quick selection of long reads (well, most of them) on polar and arctic travel.…

A selection of favourite images from leading climbers, polar adventurers and photographers that I’ve interviewed or written about in the past few years. Click on the image to see the corresponding article. A peak in the Western…

I’m no photographer, but I’ve enjoyed snapping some of the Leicestershire countryside during the now savoured daily sojourns outside. Here’s a few of the better ones. Some bright and cheerful, others more in tune with the…

For many of us, COVID-19 lockdown means a chance to indulge in things we don’t often have the time to do. For me, it’s reading for pleasure. I’m usually burnt out from gawping at my work computer all day, so reading at…

When veteran climbing and sailing royalty combine to adventure above the arctic circle and write a book about it, you expect a heady mix of tales on greying beards, knot-tying competitions and perhaps a musing on the ageing body. Thankfully…

Couple weeks ago I wrote to David Roberts - the ‘Dean of Adventure Writing’ - to thank him for writing a book that spurred my interest in arctic travel. Not something I would usually do, but Robert’s who is suffering from…

Two days ago my girlfriend and I sat amid bucolic bliss in the Leicestershire countryside. Bottoms parked on a church bench - an interlude to our now cherished daily exercise - we surveyed the sun drenched lambs gambolling, the birds…

If you're getting covid cabin fever already, spare a thought for Captain Scott and his men, who overwintered in a hut for 14 months before their ill fated push to the South Pole in 1911.Here's my favourite bit of entertainment from their…

Weeks of stormy weather. Snow, thaw, rain, snow. And worst of all wind, howling shrieking wind that roars through the tree tops and crashes down mountainsides, deafening disorientating wind that upsets the balance of body and mind. Day…

February 9: Yesterday it snowed heavily, the fields and and woods were white. Overnight the temperatures rose. This morning it was raining heavily and the snow had gone. That pattern has been repeated over and over again this month,…

This is part one of a fascinating story about two British adventurers who in 2019 followed a route which consisted of a 900 mile paddle and 400 miles walk in the footsteps of a piece of shameful American history.

I did not ask any big questions like ‘would I like to live more adventurously?’ until I was in my twenties. I was just getting on with life and working towards becoming ‘Mr Humphreys, the Science teacher’. I was modest in my ambitions,…

Our paths are one of our most precious assets, hidden in plain sight, and often taken for granted. They are part of our history and our route to everyday adventures in nature, both on our doorstep and across Britain’s iconic landscapes.