Blogs

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…