It’s not often one of your photos is chosen to be the front cover image of a widely circulated magazine, but that’s what recently happened to me!
I was contacted by Solar Journal from Tokyo who wanted to use this photo from one of my Himalayan expeditions around 15 years ago. It was taken near Lobuche in the Solu Kumbhu region of Nepal which is about a half day walk away from Everest Base Camp and at an altitude of 16,000ft. The photo shows The Italian Pyramid Altitude Research Station against a backdrop of Pumori, the mountain whose name means Daughter’s Peak in honour of Mallory’s daughter. (Mallory wanted to call it Clare’s Peak but that didn’t translate into Nepali so easily!) It stands at an altitude of 23,494ft and is a popular climbing peak near Everest; first summited in 1962 it has since become popular with Japanese mountaineers. It was on my list for the following year but an assessment of the avalanche risk ruled it out, especially since by 2005 a total of 42 climbers had lost their lives in the attempt! Sadly, two of my climbing friends in the centre of the picture, Ged and Andy, both died from cancer within the last 12 months.

Categories: Photography, Travel

Tags: Everest, himalaya, Italian Pyramid, Japan, Nepal, Pumori, solar magazine, solu khumbu