It began to snow as we arrived in Gorak Shep (nothing more than a couple of lodges wedged between two glacial moraines) and the weather didn’t let up for a couple of days. Our first day in Gorak Shep was a total white-out, but I wasn’t about to let it stop me ascending to, Read More
The next day we walked from Dzonglha to Gorak Shep. As we had already acclimatized we had no need to stay at Lobuche which we passed en route, but we were glad not to as it was a bit of a dump anyway. Me and the Old Man with our first view at the, Read More
We left Gokyo in the afternoon and had a short day’s hike back the way we came and then east across the Ngozumpa Glacier. It was an eerie walk as it was very cloudy, we couldn’t see much and we could hear lots of small rockslides and ice falls around us. We stayed in, Read More
Gokyo is a pretty little village nestled between a turquoise lake and the edge of the glacier. It’s the furthest and highest permanent settlement in the valley, and used to be nothing more than a summer pasture for local herders. It’s still quite undeveloped with only a few lodges. We woke up early the, Read More
We arrived at Namche Bazaar and checked in to the Hotel Namche, one of the larger trekking lodges in town. We were going to be in Namche for two nights, as this was one of our accilmatization stops. Namche Bazaar, the largest village in the Everest region – and the last place with email! , Read More
On Day 1 we flew in a small Twin Otter aircraft from Kathmandu to Lukla. The flight was incredible: the foothills we were flying over got more and more dramatic, and out the left-hand side we saw glimpses of the Himalaya. After about 1.5 hours we flew close over a ridge and had our, Read More
We had arranged a 20-day trek in the Everest Region of eastern Nepal. We would fly from Kathmandu to Lukla to avoid the long approach walk into the mountains from Jiri (which would add a few more weeks to the trek – it’s meant to be a beautiful walk but we just didn’t have, Read More
The final stop on our South American vacation was Ecuador. We flew into Quito – the 2nd highest capital city in the world! – and while it’s at 3000m we didn’t have any problems acclimatizing to the altitude as we’d just come from Bogota which is also pretty high. Fascinating Quito! We, Read More
Rugby Club Zurich won the Swiss Cup for the first time in 2003. It was a fantastic day for the club, with all three teams (Mens A, Mens B, Womens) winning their respective national trophies. It was great to be a part of such a day. First team photo before the match. , Read More
In the summer of 2003 I took a week off work to join a guided mountaineering tour in the Alps. The location was in the mountains surrounding one of the most picturesque villages in Switzerland – Saas Fee, "Die Perle der Alpen". The town lies in the Oberwallis or Upper Valais region of the, Read More