August 2001 – Kirgyzstan

Ever been to an ex-Russian state called Kirgyzstan? No, ok lets go and hike up the Inylchek glacier, yes on your birthday, yes camping again on your birthday! This time on a moving creaking glacier. Here we spent a couple of weeks doing the most amazing trek with Sasha and “family” www.kyrgyz-travel.com. The objective was to acclimatise and get my mountain legs in preparation for an attempt on an unclimbed peak in Western China. I have to admit that I planned a route that was a little adventurous for the amount of time we had available – it ended up being a hard long slog without any rest days. As it was Claire’s “holiday” I had hoped we would be able to rest along the way and enjoy the scenery – so I got grumpy (due to my bad planning) and walked at the back, while Claire did an amazing job literally skipping up the icy glacier. By now Gromit was an integral part of my climbing – and it was after this that he put himself in charge of planning and navigation.

March 2001 - Ice Ice baby

Waterfall ice – now that’s the stuff. An absolutely fabulous medium to climb. Just relying on the front points of your crampons and some technical ice tools to keep you suspended. I’m not a great rock climber, but I think, as long as you totally trust the ice, one can climb up some amazing formations. Claire and I had some great times with Anders Swensson and Terry

Claire


Looking down the ice column

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...

September 1998 - Yes definitely!

Claire says "Yes Definitely" and I became a very proud and happy husband














A great shot taken by Scott Tuttle!

April 1998 - Khumbu region

So then this occurred:

The six week trip to Nepal was an exploratory trip to find out more about this “high” environment. I trekked with Pasang and a porter (Priem) up, down and along the main valleys in the Khumbu area. The highlight of the trip was two nights at Everest base camp, just alongside the Singapore Everest Expedition camp. Seeing the size of the icefall was very intimidating. I could only just muster up enough courage to approach the outskirts of it. But hearing the discussions (some in English), seeing the preparations, focus and commitment of all involved was very inspiring. More seeds were planted…

April 1996 - In the beginning

So where did this all begin... This was my first view of Everest. As you can see it was an incredible day - amazing blue skies and as we rounded a bend on the way to Namche Bazaar, Pasang my Sherpa said have a look over there! - So that's Mount Everest!
I had not been interested in mountaineering at all in my past, except for some great trips during my childhood, to the Mountain Leadership School in the OFS. The real inspiration funnily enough, stemmed from one man, Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes - or Sir Ran Fiennes. I picked up one of his books at a B&B - Living Dangerously and the first seed was set. It’s a fabulous book in which he defines what the human body is capable of if ones mind is strong. Starting with his childhood in South Africa, he takes one on a journey through his life’s ups and downs, his close human relationships and his self belief. Somehow I read into all of this that I should plan an attempt Mount Everest. (Perhaps the ultimate challenge) By the way although it is not relevant you must also read The Feathermen by him – an amazing ending!

Raymond E Hose

Raymond was testing adding pictures to the blog and this was what appeared...
As I liked it so much, although not really relevant to the blog, I decided that it should stay

Cheers Dad!




- an antique, sepia (nogal) picture of the Golden Era! Hooray, it works!