Holiday Traditions: Cogne Ice Climbing Festival - December 16 - 18, 2016

Christmas is a time of traditions – traditional foods, traditional songs, traditional stockings hung by the fire… For me (as well as about 80 others!), the Christmas season is marked by another tradition - an annual migration to the Aosta Valley – to Cogne, Italy – for the Cogne Ice Opening celebration.  Spearheading this annual event is no easy task – fluctuations in weather, coordinating ice-themed movies and gathering an array of inspirational...

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FINALIST...! Moving Mountains Shortlisted for Promax UK Awards

Moving Mountains Shortlisted for Promax UK Awards By Phil Mahony, 2nd of November 2016 for London:DC The London:DC team is proud to announce our documentary - Moving Mountains - has been selected as one of five finalists in the PROMAX UK short film festival sponsored by Amazon Video. Shot by Bafta award winning cinematographer Huw Walters, Moving Mountains is a powerful first hand account of London based financial consultant Heather...

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Article Feature: This Girl Definitely Can. Extreme Adventurer Heather Geluk

Style Altitude: The online ski and snowboard magazine for mountain news, ski and snowboard gear reviews, style views and features with an edge (or two). Park, piste and powder. Off piste, backcountry, slackcountry. Live Mountain Webcam AND Winter Ski Blog. For skiers and snowboarders written by riders for riders,#doitinstyle SHE HAS INHERENT BALANCE FOR SKIING AND MOUNTAINEERING, BUT SHE HAS ALSO GAINED A BALANCE FOR LIFE. MEET THE...

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A Fleeting Sunrise in the Annapurnas of Nepal

Our brief had been to get pictures of, ‘big mountain views’ – but all Lakpa Rita Sherpa, John and I could see was a dense bank of clouds which had culminated to produce a steady drizzle. The view from Sarangkot's perhaps optimistically named ‘Sunrise Point’ wasn’t looking too promising that Saturday afternoon. A local guest house owner who promised us the ‘Best Organic Coffee on this side of the Himalayas’ (look out Wholefoods) suggested that...

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Wellbeing of Women Team Kilimanjaro Reunited - Mount Toubkal Weekend Adventure Fix

About 4 years ago I began to organise annual climbs of Kilimanjaro with friends and colleagues to raise money for the women's health charity, Wellbeing of Women. These climbs have not only raised over 100,000gbp for the charity, they've also led me to meet a huge number of incredibly inspiring men and women who I now call friends. As we were descending from the upper slopes of Kilimanjaro earlier this year, there was a general consensus...

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Article Feature: Sidetracked Magazine: "It's Not About The Summit"

Absolutely thrilled to have been able to share my 'mountaineering journey' with a broader audience and extremely honoured to have it published in Sidetracked Magazine... Many thanks to everyone who has been part of the journey and the people you meet along the way... Article written by Tarquin Cooper // Heather Geluk Photography by Alex Buisse & Huw Walters ‘I went into the “brace-brace” position. I put my hands over my head and...

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Fin de Saison. Where one season closes, another begins...

It’s May 1st . I’m sat in front of a roaring fire in Chamonix, sipping a healthy glass of red wine. This weekend marks the ‘Fin de Saison’ meaning that ski-season is unofficially over and many of the lifts around Chamonix are now closed until the late autumn snows return.   Sitting here I can’t help but reflect on ‘fin de saison’.  A year ago today, I was still ‘stuck’ somewhere on the Nepal - Tibet border. We had just begun our...

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The Nepal Earthquake - One Year On: A Celebration of Gratitude and Hope in Gairung Village, Gorkha

I held my breath and braced for impact as our jeep coasted over yet another gaping pothole hidden by a cloud of fine brown stilt. It landed with a soft thud, our driver jerking the wheel sharply to the right to stop our jeep from careening off the mountain cliff and into the abyss. My muscles ached - we’d been bouncing along for about 2 hours – and the entire vehicle swirled with dust. I could feel silt between my teeth, in my eyes and hair....

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SUMMIT SUCCESS! Kilimanjaro Climb raises over 25,000 GBP to support research into the health and wellbeing of women and babies

As I type the final members of our team are making their way back to the UK from the heights of Tanzania. We left just over 8 days ago as colleagues, bound together by a common ambition to reach the Roof of Africa. We return to sea-level bound by new friendships and memories that will last a lifetime – friendships built through shared laughs, fears, experiences, and a shared sense of team as we plodded our way to the 5,895m summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. As...

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