I was reminded today by an old friend, Wibbs Coulson, that it's been 10 years now since Pete McBride and I sat with Wibbs and his friends on the bank at Devprayag (Deva prayāga), shooting for our film Holy (un)Holy River (Amazon or Vimeo). Devprayag is a special place. In the foothills of the Garhwal […]

Well, it wasn’t A-23, but it was the remnants of another massive iceberg, A-38B. It was October 2004, and Dave Hahn, Dierdre Galbraith, and I had just finished leading our nine clients on a Shackleton crossing of South Georgia. We were back on the ship, guide hats replaced by tourist coats, guests of Lindblad Expeditions […]

It was, without doubt, a stunning morning on Mount Everest. Perhaps even perfect. No wind, bright sun, an impossibly blue sky. The only issue was I was in the Khumbu Icefall. Not that the Icefall is all bad - it isn’t. It’s immensely interesting, engaging, from the audible creaks and pops and groans of ice […]

To say that Everest has changed in a century is to grossly understate the matter. Physically, of course, the mountain has changed little. It’s a bit warmer perhaps, and bit less snowy. The monsoons are a bit more erratic. But it still rises high, steeply, to dizzying altitude and, as yet, there is no escalator […]