Sunday, August 1

August 1999 - Base of the Pyramid

After a 9 month stint working in Kuwait, Claire & I were fortunate enough to embark on a round the world mountaineering trip. Starting in the Alps (with some excellent courses with ISM - www.alpin-ism.com - Terry Ralphs, Steve Jones & Mark) and including many guided 4,000m peaks – where I have to point out, that Claire still has climbed more 4,000m peaks in the Alps than I have, following on to North America to Mount Olympus with Willi Prittie of www.alpineascents.com in Western Washington, Mt Athabasca in Canada with Tarn Pilkington. In between this we experienced the amazing tundra and spectacular views of Denali with Brian and Diane Okonek (see and listen to the story about the sleeping bag http://uaf-db.uaf.edu/jukebox/DENALI/html/brok.htm). After a fun stay in Los Angeles, we zoomed off to New Zealand and had some great climbs with Jonathan Morgan & Anton Wopereis of www.alpineguides.co.nz. Claire and I attempted Mt Aspiring, dubbed as "the Matterhorn of the Southern Alps”, but due to some bodies on the “ramp” – not really but that’s another story…
The objective of the trip was to get a good grounding in the principles of mountaineering. It was especially interesting to experience the different approaches between America and Europe.
The Millennium celebrations party was great fun at Ray's house, especially as no one recognised me...

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