Listed below area a series of essays written on my mountaineering experiences. They are in pdf format. To download simply click where it says to click!
Essay #1 Aconcagua Argentina
Triumphs and Tragedy on the South American Giant
Sometimes in life you meet the unachievable. No matter how hard you try and for whatever reason your best isn't quite good enough. On the subject of mountaineering, you have to be pragmatic and realise no matter how hard you tried - it just wasn't your time to achieve the summit of that mountain.(If you try too hard, you might not be around to worry about it!)...to read more click here
Essay #2 Vallecitos Argentina
Viva Vallecitos!
The battered black and yellow taxi careered along the motorway, the driver keen to demonstrate to me just how close he could get to the rear or the car in front. The experience was somewhere between being on a scalextric track and the car chase in the film 'The Italian Job'. We stopped at some traffic lights and I let out the breath I'd been holding, since I'd first got into his taxi at the airport. Suddenly behind us we both spotted a car that was weaving through the stationary vehicles - flashing it's lights, sounding the horn and the driver half leaning out of the window shouting and waving a large piece of cloth that looked like a towel...to read more click here
Essay #3 Mt Meru Tanzania
African Understudy
The best chance of summiting a high mountain will usually start with acclimatisation either on the mountain itself or on a subsidiary mountain. A good example of this is when I first climbed Kilimanjaro in Tanzania...to read more click here
Essay #4 Mt Everest Nepal
Descent from the top of the world
I was numb. Numb through the physical effort of the last nine and a half hours climb, and numb emotionally the mental strain of concentration for the last three days had drained me of all thoughts of triumph and celebration. The only feeling I had was pain...to read more click here
Essay #5 Mt Kinabalu Borneo
Headhunters and High Mountains
It was the summer of 2009 and I was scratching around for guiding work. A few Cv's had gone out but nothing was doing; until I got a telephone call from an expeditions company I had written to. 'Have you been ever been to Borneo?' said Dave the Head of Overseas Operations for the expedition company.
'Borneo?Borneo?Borneo? - where is it' I thought to myself. 'Err no, but I've been out that way' I cautiously said.
'Well if you can be available in July, I'd like you to lead an expedition' he said.
'Ok I can do that' was my reply as I fumbled on the keyboard of the computer trying to do a search for Borneo.....to read more click here