Mountain Treks
Mountains Round the World
Below is a list of all the treks I have been on; mainly in the Himalaya but also some in the Andes and the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia. There are videos, maps and animations to illustrate the walks and, in some cases, my written log of the trek. There are also interactive panoramas, most of which are best viewed in full screen.
This image was made with considerable difficulty. First I had to travel to Nepal and Pakistan, then these three great ladies had to be persuaded to pose together for this snap. This was more difficult than I expected. Everest, who refused to pose at all unless she was exclusively referred to as Sagamatha, insisted on being in the middle and she was not going to move from the Khumbu. She was , after all the “mother goddess”. I managed to persuade Kangchenjunga to make the short move to the Khumbu by complementing her on her splendid covering of snow. “You put Sagamatha to shame” I said. K2 was not so easy as it is a long way from the Karokaram to the Khumbu region but she finally agreed only if she could be at Sagamatha’s right hand and if I used lighting that was particularly flattering of her “good flank”
This was the first trek I went on and my first visit to Kathmandu. It was in May 1998 in the pre monsoon trekking season. As with most of my trips (but not all) it was with World Expeditions. We started in Tumlingtar in the Arun valley and reached the high point of 5500m on top of Gokyo Ri.
This was our second trek with World Expeditions, just one year later. Starting in Kathmandu we then took the short flight to Tumlingtar where the walking started.
It was quite a long trek, about 4 weeks, and traversed very varied countryside. We walked across the Milke Danda to Dhoban , then up the Ghunsa Khola to Ghunsa and visited the northern side at Pang Pema and then South over the Mirgin La to the Yalung Glacier. We returned to Sukitar from where we flew out.
My third trek took me to Pakistan to see K2 the worlds 2nd highest mountain. After a few days looking around Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi we got a bus to Skardu, then jeeps to Tongol where we started walking.
I had to return from Concordia with a bad cold whilst the main group went over the Gondogoro La to Hushe.
Two years later in 2003 I went on another trek, this time to the far north of India. We started at Manali and spent a few days crossing the Hampta La, partly to help with acclimatising but it was also on the route to Lamauru in Ladakh which was the end of the trek.
We went on to visit Leh and had a look at the gompas before flying back to Delhi.
In 2005 I did a long trip that included Beijing, Almaty, Samarkand, UK and Peru.
This is about the trek in the Tian Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan. We started in Almaty in Kazakhstan and walked through the mountains to lake Issy Kul. Then followed a helicopter trip to the Khan Tengri base camp where we had a few days walking around the glaciers.
After the trek in the Tian Shan I visited the UK after getting stuck in Almaty for a few days because of a baggage handlers dispute in London.
It was then on to South America and Peru where I did the Huayhuash Circuit with a small group, (there were only 3 of us trekkers.)
Again we were trekking with World Expeditions. This time we flew to Phokara from where , after a short drive, we set off on the circuit of the Annapurna range. We were a small group, camping all the way.
This trek was in the far South of Chilean Patagonia.
After arriving in Santiago, having a look round and visiting a winery we flew south to Punta Arenas. It was then on to land and water transport to the Paine National Park.
This trek was in the Indian Himalaya up the Gori Ganga to the East of Nanda Devi.
The route had to be altered as we had some very heavy rain that fell as snow on the heights and made the pass to hard. Strangely my video of the trek seems too have attracted more attention than is usual for my vids.
After a tour round the highlights of Mongolia I met up with the trekking group with whom I was to travel to the Altai mountains in the west. We were let by Tim Cope.
We has a shortish flight to Ulangong, then a drive to the start of the trek.
2011 took me to Tibet and Nepal. We started in Kathmandu and drove to Lhasa, where we looked at various gompa’s and the Portola. Then we had a really long drive into the west to Guge then Mt Kailash where we did the kora.
The return was a trek through the Limi valley in western Nepal to Simikot where we were stuck for 4 days waiting for the weather to clear enough for a flight out back to Kathmandu.
This trek took place to the east of the Annapurna range in Nepal. We started in Augrat Bazzar and circled Manaslu crossing the Larkya La.
We were lucky with the weather.
This was an attempt to get up Mt Meru and Kilimanjaro. I failed at both mainly through poor acclimatization and lack of sleep. However it was a great walk through spectacular country.
After this we went on a safari which was also great.
In 2016 I went to Bhutan for a trek called “The Chorten Path”.
We walked between Paro – Thimphu – Punakha. It was one of the wetter treks I have done.
I did two treks on this visit to Nepal. The first was to the Khopra ridge and Poon hill. We had fine views of Dhaulagiri and the Annapurna range.
After the Khopra Ridge trek it was back to Kathmandu to join up for the next trek to Everest Base Camp.
There were more trekkers on this and the trek was a lot busier than the previous one, but the weather was fine, if a little cold, and it was through impressive terrain.
This year we visited India and went to Darjeeling for a trek along the Singalila Ridge with great views of Kangchenjunga to our North. We also had a good look round the town and had a ride in the “toy Train”.
Of course we also had to visit some tea plantations.
Here we have the trek over the Kauri pass in the Indian Himalaya to the west of Nanda Devi. We had some good views of the mountain toward the end of the trek
This was our first post Covid trek. It was the classic route to the so called Annapurna Base camp which is really a group of lodges. Lots of up and down with more steps than there are stars in the universe.