Messieurs Goldman and Davenport, in Switzerland for the McCombie nuptials, invited Ms Crockett and Mr Laursen to an attempt on the Jaegihorn, above Saas Grund in the Swiss Valais region. Goldman and Davenport charmed the hut mistress into providing extra victuals. With full bellies and a 4am start, Laursen led the team on a circular [...]

The snow under my tentatively placed left boot gave way and I scampered back onto my perch. I leaned heavily on my ice axe with one hand and cheerlessly on the snow with my other hand. I pawed the snowy slope like a misguided rhinoceros charging up the wrong mountain. When I hazarded a look [...]

The photo: Kane skiing the Vallée Blanche on the Mont Blanc Massif, France, February 2008. The outlet: Cover of Cambridge Mountaineering, the journal of the Cambridge University Mountaineering Club. The catch: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but nobody paid me for this one.