I started to write this post in the airport as we travelled back from the USA! We had been there for three weeks visiting our family and friends. When I was given my diagnosis last October, my doctor said I couldn’t fly. The news not only meant I had to face treatment for cancer but also…Read more »

  The last big challenge when climbing Everest is the Hillary Step at almost 29,000 feet above sea level. It is a forty-feet vertical ice and rock wall that is named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first mountaineer to reach the summit with Sherpa Tensing in 1953. This technical challenge is up in what…Read more »

In all the accounts I have read of climbing Everest, the danger of avalanches is never far from the climbers’ minds. They can happen at any minute and threaten to overwhelm the climber within seconds. They are dangerous As I mentioned in my last post, I had been recovering from the operation, managing pain and…Read more »

As climbers ascend to higher altitudes the air becomes thinner. The effect of this is decreased oxygen in the blood, which can cause altitude sickness.  More effort is required for each movement and it’s common to experience nausea, dizziness, fatigue and breathlessness.   Over the past few days I have experienced all these – plus…Read more »

A few nights ago I was lying in my warm, cosy bed listening to the roar of gale force winds whistling around my house thinking what it would be like being in such weather in a small tent camped on the side of Everest. That is what climbers there can experience! I can’t imagine how scary…Read more »

  The first challenge when climbing Everest is scaling the Khumbu Icefall. It is described as one of the most dangerous parts of the ascent. It is where the Western Cwm glacier of higher up becomes a gushing river of frozen ice constantly moving at about one metre a day as it is squeezed through the mouth of the…Read more »

I can’t imagine climbing a mountain alone. I never have! In fact, I don’t do many things alone. I am one of those people who loves working in a team! When I started running about 14 years ago, I ran in a group called the Histon Hobblers. It is a local running group set up…Read more »

I’ve always loved mountains! The first mountains I ever saw as a child were in Scotland where we went on camping holidays. In teenage years we visited the Alps where whole ranges of snow-capped mountains dominated the landscape.  They impressed me then and they still do today. On a recent trip to Scotland, my daughter…Read more »