Alpine expert Kev Reynolds has spent fifty years exploring mountain landscapes and thirty writing about his experiences. Here he shares some of the high points of a full life as a wanderer and writer. Kev is the leading international authority on many mountain ranges, including the Pyrenees, many regions of the Alps and the Nepal Himalaya. As the author of numerous guides he has inspired many thousands of trekkers to follow in his footsteps. As a lecturer he regularly evokes the mood and majesty of the mountains to spellbound audiences. In this book Kev tells how he set off, aged 21, to explore the Atlas Mountains of Morocco – and never looked back. He abandoned his desk-bound local government job to pursue a life in the mountains, living and working in Britain, Austria and Switzerland before finding his true metier as a writer. These 75 stories capture the joy he has take in exploring the Atlas Mountains, Pyrenees, Alps, Himalaya and ‘Other Wild Places’ again and again, meeting the local people and the mountain guides, experiencing the local food, faiths and lifestyle and watching the sun rise and set against some of the world’s highest peaks from summit bivvies.
Inhoudsopgave
A word before we begin
Atlas Mountains: exotic mountain playground
1: Travels in an ancient land
2: Mules, frogs and bivvy bags
3: Mint tea with a muleteer
Pyrenees: a spiritual home
4: Out of the shadows, into the light
5: Up and over
6: The last green valley
7: It was the nightingale
8: Tragedy on Jean-Pierre
9: The longest day
10: C’est le paradis
11: A Pyrenean maestro
12: Something of a doo-day
13: No friend in high places
14: Death of an izard
15: Among the Enchanted Mountains
16: Hole in one
17: The lost patrol
18: The way to Andorra
19: Rendezvous in Gavarnie
Alps: always something new to discover
20: A big moon rising
21: Living in the clouds
22: Chasing sunrise
23: Out with a pro
24: Battle of the ibex
25: Reflections in the alpenglow
26: The wind of relief
27: Mello magic
28: The pink château
29: A roar of disapproval
30: Unease on ice
31: The joy of doing nothing
32: Just hanging around
33: Walking on ice
34: One sunset too many
35: Henry V goes walkabout
36: Heart of the storm
37: Rtikon paradise
38: Breakfast on a tray
39: Under leaden skies
40: For the thank you
41: Recording historic landscapes
42: The Emperor’s Mountains
43: The giant green tortoise
44: Collecting summits
45: On the hill with Hrst
46: Moments of being
Himalaya: where dreams come true
47: Abode of the gods
48: Ten thousand prayers in the wind
49: Culture shock
50: Guru with an empty doko
51: The puja room
52: Clever little sod
53: The wonder of a blue front door
54: The ultimate chapatti
55: A taste of beauty
56: Head-to-head in the Himalaya
57: The Khumbu carpenter
58: Old man very tired
59: Song of the hidden land
60: Lost
61: Mountaineers of the future
62: To the ends of the Earth
63: A shadow to Cheri Gompa
64: Ballast
65: Saving Tsewan
66: With the aid of a hearse
67: Pasa Chaur
Other wild places: a kaleidoscope of experience
68: Corsica: sun and snow on the scented isle
69: Norway: the blessings of bad weather days
70: Spain: the fragrance of the hills
71: Madeira: lunching with lizards
72: Tenerife: island of the dragon tree
73: Turkey: yogurt with the matriarch
74: Peru: the garden of tears
75: Peru: Alpamayo dreaming
Afterthought
Glossary
Over de auteur
A lifelong passion for the countryside in general, and mountains in particular, drives Kev’s desire to share his sense of wonder and delight in the natural world through his writing, guiding, photography and lecturing. Spending several months every year among various high mountain regions researching guidebooks, makes him The Man with the World’s Best Job; a title he aims to keep by remaining active for another 100 years at least.
Kev has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Cicerone since the 1970s, producing 50 books, including guides to five major trekking regions of Nepal, and to numerous routes in the European Alps and Pyrenees, as well as walking guides for Kent, Sussex and the Cotswolds and he has several more books in the pipeline. His latest book, A Walk in the Clouds, is a collection of autobiographical short stories recording 50 years of mountain travel and adventures. He is also the contributing editor of the collaborative guide Trekking in the Himalaya.
A frequent contributor to outdoor magazines, Kev also writes and illustrates brochures for national tourist authorities and travel companies. When not away in the mountains, Kev lives with his wife in a small cottage among what he calls ’the Kentish Alps’, with unrestricted walking country on the doorstep. But he also travels throughout Britain during the winter months to share his love of the places he writes about through a series of lectures.
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