Richard Walker
- Blogs
Everest Blog: Decision Time
So after a very successful trip to the North Col and above, we slogged eight hours and 20 miles back down to Base Camp to join the rest of the team. It was great to be back together as one team and the others were full of anticipation watching the ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog: Looking at the world from 7,020m
The next morning the storm had disappeared and it was a beautiful clear day. From 7,020m the world looks amazing, and the views down to ABC and up to the summit of the world were crystal clear. The summit looked so close, and you could see the four day route ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog - I’m Turning Into Howard Hughes
Well, we finally got to Advanced Base Camp (ABC). It is a two day trek ascending 1,200m over about 20km. At altitude that hurts a lot, and I was really surprised at how tough it was. The worst bit however is the ‘Interim Camp’ overnight stop. ...
- Blogs
Everest blog: The North Col
So after sitting around at the unhealthy altitudes of ABC, it was time to make our attempt on the North Col. That is why we came to the mountain and there was no use putting it off any longer, as the trade-off between our bodies acclimatising and deteriorating was starting ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog: High Altitude Mountaineering is a Test of Patience
Don't think I'm heroically ploughing up some steep snowy slope, clinging on for life with gritted teeth. Oh no. I am in fact lying in my tent completely bored out of my rapidly shrinking, hypoxic brain. For the second day in a row. ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog: No More Claret, But Lots More Altitude
On Good Friday we finally left Base Camp, after a week of acclimatising. It felt good to be making progress up the mountain and taking a further step toward our goal of the North Col. But like the old bloke in ‘Shawshank Redemption’ who didn’t want to leave prison after ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog: Luxury living at high altitude
We've been at Base Camp for five days now, and are redefining luxury at altitude! Our set up here is great, especially the food. Most evenings we will have hors d'oeuvres of Parma ham carved off the leg by Chris, the fantastic chef we brought with ...
- Blogs
Everest Blog: The remaining kit gets blessed!
So Tingri was worse than Nyalam; but I won't continue to slag off these places. They are just very remote, very cold and very dirty! The landscape quickly transformed into a barren and lunar like scene, as we are now up onto the Tibetan Plateau. Finally, three ...
- Blogs
Huge press coverage of our dramatic lorry crash
There's been a surprising amount of press coverage about our dramatic lorry crash the other night. My favourite headline was "The Beer has all gone! But our wine is safe!"
- Blogs
I’m getting the pattern of this expedition malarkey now
So I’m getting the pattern of this expedition malarkey now: wake up after a fitful night’s sleep of snow and thunderstorms; as the sun gets higher the inside of the tent starts to drip as the frozen condensation from the night begins to thaw – everything gets wet; have ...
- Blogs
Everest blog: Football in the foothills
So here I am at 2,800m in a remote hill top village in the foothills of the Himalayas. We’ve just had a game of football with the local kids. We have been on our Nepali trek for three days. It is a 12 day route designed to get our bodies ...
- Blogs
Everest blog: Chaos at Kathmandu
After a day of travelling we landed in Kathmandu – a massively overcrowded and chaotic city. “Kdu” is located in a valley and has seen its population explode in the last five years since the Maoists took over. It is city planning gone badly wrong, with dry stinking rivers, rubbish ...
- Blogs
Reckless and dangerous: Bywater Properties founder takes on Everest
So I’ve got three days to go until I depart on the biggest and most reckless mission of my life. I bumped into Julian Stocks today (my former boss at JLL and now MD at Tishman Speyer)… “How’s business?” he asked. “Good” I said; “Except I’m climbing Everest for two ...