OK I confess, I am a bit of a fan of Boreal mountaineering boots. Over the years I have had several pairs. My first were the original Arwas, what could be termed a B3 (i.e. step in crampon compatible) insulated boot. I really liked them; not least because they were warm, stiff, broad fitting and waterproof. ...
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I was proud to contribute both writing and photography in the early stages of a book by Bart Jordans titled 'Trekking in the Karakoram'. The acknowledgement by Bart within the book reads "Originally, this book was planned to be co-written by a KE colleague and climber Tom Richardson from the UK. For several reasons he had to leave the project at an early stage, but not before he had managed to start on some of the chapters. Thanks, Tom, for your valuable input."
An off-the-beaten-track trip in the little-visited Fann Mountains, camping alongside pristine azure lakes and trekking through rocky valleys and high passes...
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Tom Richardson is something of a living legend in the KE world – a status well earnt by taking hundreds of KE travellers into some of the world's most stunning mountain ranges. He has a wealth of experience in the Greater Ranges...
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For the first time since lockdown, Tom Richardson led a group on a KE Adventure Travel trekking expedition to the Karakoram. The team attempted to cross the Gondogoro La in the Karakoram mountain range, taking in spectacular views of Great Trango, K2 and Masherbrum along the way...
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Tom reflects on 35 years in the Karakorum mountains A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be sitting on a rock on the moraine of the Baltoro Glacier, below Broad Peak, in the Karakoram Mountains of Pakistan. Broad Peak (8047m) is situated near K2 (8611m) but as it....
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The Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon takes place on 29th May each year. It started in 2003, the brain child of Bikram Pandey of Himex Nepal, to mark the historic first ascent of Everest in 1953. It attracts an international gathering of proper serious mountain runners...plus me....
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My strategy for beating the lockdown blues is in two parts. I got the idea for 'bookshelf expeditions' from a book in my bookcase that belonged to my Dad. It is called Blank on the Map and it was written by Eric Shipton and published in 1938. It was republished by Diadem in a compendium of Six Mountain Travel Books by Eric Shipton and I think is still relevant today...
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If you are planning a Coast to Coast expedition or even just a long walk, you should carry and be able to navigate with both a map and compass. Take digital devices but do not rely 100% on them; batteries fail, screens smash if you drop them on the rocks etc. I do however strongly recommend carrying a mobile phone...
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If you are the sort of person who sees the attraction of completing Munros, Corbetts, Welsh 3000ers, Bob Graham or Wainwrights – not just as a tick list exercise, but as an opportunity to visit and explore new places – you might enjoy these gentler day walks that I call “The Normans”...
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Janet and I first walked it in several sections over 2007-2008. It’s an excellent hike and unlike many of the other National Trails it has become less rather than more popular in recent years, so has maintained much of its wilderness appeal...
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My first surprise was not the weather, but the breathtaking speed of what some people might call development. The Minya Konka Range is approached from the city of Chengdu, famous for the Panda Breeding Centre. It used to be a very long day’s drive via the city of Luding to Kangding, a sort of Chinese Chamonix. The road wound mostly along steep sided wooded valleys...
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We carried heavy loads including tents, food and fuel for all ten of us. My load contained amongst much else 8 litres of petrol. It was tricky going circumnavigating the crevasses. As the snow cover developed they became impossible to even spot as a slight indentation white surface, so we probed the blank snow with trekking poles to find and avoid them...
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Deepening snow and low cloud also made route finding difficult and several of the porters following in our tracks took off their glacier glasses to see better in the disorientating whiteness. It was a mistake, as within an hour or two of reaching camp, 5 of them were suffering from agonising snow blindness...
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At one point along a particularly narrow section of the gorge, we were stopped by soldiers from the Nepalese Army and instructed to take shelter as road builders blasted a route along a vertical cliff on the other side of the river near the village of Jagat. We thought that they were being overly cautious until the dynamite exploded...
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On the first trip the weather was not good. We reached K2 and Broad Peak Base Camps but we couldn’t cross the pass. Disappointed, on our return trek back down the Baltoro Glacier we met several groups coming up and although we didn’t say so, we had a pang of jealousy that they might get over it...
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A few months short of 20 years ago, Janet and I walked the famous Annapurna Circuit Trek in Nepal as part of a slow journey home from living and working in Bangladesh for 3 years. It was brilliant and we have great memories of it, so we thought it was a good opportunity to return to it...
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After a week of inspirational trekking crossing many high passes and camping in remote valleys, we reached the Yalung Naula Pass (5400m) where we got our first views of the glowing azure blue...
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In contrast to Everest, K2 Base Camp the second highest mountain on earth, or indeed anywhere in the Karakoram Mountains of Northern Pakistan, is not on many bucket lists...
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The first few KM are on the ice of the Khumbu Glacier and by the time I’d reached the steep moraine leading from it, I had lost sight of the others ahead of me. I also felt rough, unusual for me...
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Our plans were to spend Christmas Day in Namche Bazaar, the de facto Sherpa capital, and do two treks, one in the Gokyo area and another up towards Everest, returning to Namche for New Year in between...
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Our trek had an ominous start in thick cloud and rain for the first two days before a wondrous transition to blue skies was hailed by the most magnificent rainbow over our camp...
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Leading the KE Adventure Travel trip to the Karakoram to trek up the Baltoro Glacier, visit K2 Base Camp and cross the Gondogoro La, I thought it would begin with the dramatic flight from...
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On the ridge the wind accelerated, sapping energy and breathe from the already tired team. We moved slowly along it and reached a small col. The summit was close, just above us but the cold and wind was fierce...
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After as early a start as we could manage, we set off next morning, the 30th August to climb Khuiten, the main prize, via a col and the ridge that skirts the flank of the north face. One member elected to stay at High Camp, exhausted by the carry the day before...
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The established climbing routes on it vary from Russian grade 2 to 6 on both rock and ice. The known routes were all first climbed by Russians between 1936 and 1984. The potential for new lines both here and across the whole range is...
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