So pleased to see my PhD student publish her second paper on an increasingly important topic in a post-Covid world.

Our biggest ever buy one get one free bundles have just gone live. secondsandsales.com/collections/...

If you're an Everest climb watcher, here's an alt quest that may be of interest. @ashrouten.com reports.

The first wave of skiers is heading south to Antarctica to begin their expeditions. Compared with last year, there are a few more longer sled journeys. My latest for ExWeb. I'll be covering the season until late December before other commitments take over. explorersweb.com/antarctic-ex...

Uath Lochans from Farleitter Crag, a recent one from an early stakeout overlooking these bonnie lochans. A long chilly wait before the warm light finally broke through the dreich and spread over the Inshriach forest #Scotland #Cairngorms #Rothiemurchus www.damianshields.com

A fun story I worked on recently. Before Alex Honnold and Netflix's skyscraper stunt, a more introverted breed of climber was free soloing buildings through the night. "The Origins of Buildering: The Students Who Climbed England’s University Spires After Dark" explorersweb.com/the-origins-...

In 2023, 25-year-old German cyclist Max Roving set off eastward from his hometown in northern Germany, aiming to “go as far as I’d like, or can afford.” explorersweb.com/traveling-th...

Excited to share that I’ll be speaking at Expedition Finse 2026, taking place 20–22 February 2026 at Hotel Finse 1222, Norway 🇳🇴 There’s a great lineup of speakers including British broadcaster Ben Fogle. More details in the below 👇 www.ashrouten.com/blog/talk-at...

Great Lakes followers, a good read here. Check out the map to see how daunting the trek was. h/t @ashrouten.com for sharing.

After 480 days and 7,810km of paddling, 24-year-old Peter Frank has completed a canoe journey around most of the Great Loop the “wrong way.” Beginning and ending in Escanaba, Michigan, the U.S. adventurer wrapped up his journey on October 20. explorersweb.com/pirate-paddl...

So pleased to share one of my favourite pieces I’ve written for ExWeb - a dive into the incredible world of rock climbing giant strangler fig trees in Costa Rica. So cool! explorersweb.com/climbing-tre...

Really useful stuff from @ashrouten.com. Saved me from another disappointing night out 🍺 TL;DR if you're thinking of drinking your own Fosters, do it before you get thirsty. explorersweb.com/drinking-pee...

2026 calendar available NOW! I only have 9 copies available on the website, and a few more I'll be taking to the Shackleton Autumn School at the end of the month. I hope you like sea ice and tallships!

BLEA CALM - first dawn at Blea Tarn in the Langdales on Saturday morning. A short spell of colour before the fog and mist descended for the weekend. #FSprintmonday #Sharemondays2025 #Appicoftheweek #SonyAlpha #landscapephotography @fotospeed.bsky.social

On October 1, Balin Miller died when he accidentally rappelled off the end of his rope in Yosemite. We examine the flawed media reaction to his death. explorersweb.com/balin-miller...

Does the desperate act of drinking your own pee actually work, or is it just a survival myth that refuses to die? Well here’s my answer 👇 explorersweb.com/drinking-pee...

Here's a writeup of my packrafting trip through Assynt in northwest Scotland a few weeks ago. I've only ever written a handful of pieces on my own travels, it's always about someone else, so I hope you enjoy. If you do, feel free to pass it on. explorersweb.com/a-packraftin...

Video #1 from packrafting in Assynt last week. A stony beachside camp with the hulking mass of Suilven looming in the background. I’d spent a few hours making very slow progress through a headwind and whitecaps to this point, so the calmer evening was a welcome respite.

Antarctica is usually unoccupied except for scientists, wealthy tourists, and adventurers. Surprisingly, though, a small number of children have entered the world there. My latest for ExplorersWeb. explorersweb.com/born-in-anta...

Now back home from five days of slow travel packrafting through Assynt, northwest Scotland. Paddling along Lochs Veyatie and Fionn, portaging to, and circling every inch of Sionascaig and its web of smaller lochs and lochans.

Grateful to be a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Festival article prize among excellent company for my @thefence.bsky.social story 'In the Shadow of the Mountain'. www.banffcentre.ca/articles/mou...

A brief tale of two young men planning their trek using ChatGPT. My latest for ExWeb. explorersweb.com/when-chatgpt...

One of my favorite stories I’ve written for ExWeb. Roman Dial is both an Alaskan backcountry legend and a mathematician. He combined the two to come up with a formula on how far you can hike unsupported. explorersweb.com/how-far-can-...

Swimming and wild camping should be a right for all people to enjoy in the English countryside, Labour MPs have said. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

On September 4, team of mostly Canadian paddlers brought their canoes ashore in Waskaganish, a Cree community on James Bay. They had completed a 1,200km journey that began three months earlier in Tadoussac, Quebec, where the Saguenay River meets the St Lawrence. explorersweb.com/canadian-tea...

In 1911, Scott and Amundsen reached for the South Pole with little grasp of human limits. A century later, tech and training have advanced, but sled hauling remains challenging. Three decades of research now reveal how Antarctic expeditions transform the body. explorersweb.com/what-antarct...

Alan Davison has completed a 6,800km solo kayak journey he calls “Australia’s longest inland paddle.” explorersweb.com/a-6800km-kay...

Canadian athlete Adam Mertens has completed a unique alpine traverse in Bow Valley in the Canadian Rockies, combining trail running, roped climbing, free solo climbing, scrambling, and even paddleboarding. My latest for ExplorersWeb. explorersweb.com/canadian-ath...

Reminds me on an xlnt book on water by an Oxford scholar. Water: A Biography. Tracks water from 10,000 BCE when nomads began to settle near moving water, rivers.

Did you know humans were caving 16,000 years ago? And not just easy stuff, technical sections too. This was an interesting one to research and write. explorersweb.com/extreme-cavi...

I'm writing an essay about how we need to expand access to public lands due to the potential of AI reducing the hours we need to work, and I ran across this interesting article. Effortful leisure is a source of meaning in everyday life www.nature.com/articles/s44...

In this new paper colleagues and I argue that ring-fencing paid work time for physical activity is a pragmatic strategy that would provide employees with the opportunity to be more active, likely without harming productivity. journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

The all-female team who call themselves the Hudson Bay Girls have completed their 80-day canoe expedition from Grand Portage on Lake Superior to Hudson Bay. explorersweb.com/hudson-bay-g...

Just something I want to say about my trips and treks, I’ve said it before but I just want to repeat it. It would be dishonest of me to pretend that these treks are all about fundraising, I do these long distance treks for me, I enjoy pushing myself, I enjoy the test & being in wild places.

As a novice packrafter, but experienced wilderness traveller, recently planning my first packraft trip I was naturally interested in learning about how to stay safe. So I decided to dig into Luc Mehl’s fatality list and pull out some key points. explorersweb.com/what-kills-p...

BBC News - Litter picking on mountain like 'sinking ship' www.bbc.com/news/article...

A pair of Japanese data scientists have published a paper exploring whether artificial intelligence (AI) can predict mountaineering accidents. explorersweb.com/can-ai-stop-...

Next week, Americans Kyle Sprenger, 23, and Jacob Myers, 27, will travel to southeastern Alaska to ski 430km across the Bagley Icefield, often cited as the second-largest icefield outside the polar regions. explorersweb.com/crossing-the...

We are gen Z – and AI is our future. Will that be good or bad?

It’s never entirely summer in Greenland, at least not by southern standards, and several ski expeditions are heading onto the Ice Sheet with their sleds. explorersweb.com/greenlands-s...

I see so many articles about how overcrowded the Cotswolds is and yet no-one's interested in commissioning a piece about my quiet, historic little corner that is the resting place of a queen of England (and which can be reached via a £3 bookable minibus service from two different train lines)

Loic Cappellin is already over 7,000km into a multi-discipline expedition, traveling solely by human and wind power from North Cape in Norway to the Amazon. explorersweb.com/swiss-advent...

My story about Scottish demining charity @thehalotrust.bsky.social and their work in Ukraine is in today's @scotnational.bsky.social + my photos. In Budy, Chernihiv Oblast, 171 hectares remain contaminated. "We'll have work to do for decades." www.thenational.scot/news/2537810...

After Forrest Fenn’s infamous $2M treasure was found in the Rockies, a new hunt is on🗺💰 Justin Posey hid gold, gems, coins and a growing bitcoin wallet somewhere in the American West. This was a fun story to write! #TreasureHunt #Adventure #Mystery #Bitcoin explorersweb.com/after-forres...

Pre order goes live today. www.adventurebooks.com/products/pea...

The legendary astronaut Jim Lovell (of Apollo 8 & 13) has just died, aged 97. There are only 5 Apollo astronauts still living, only five who have been far enough from home to really see the precious jewel of Earth hanging in space. I wonder whether human eyes will see it again in a their lifetimes.

RIP Jim Lovell ‘When I circled the moon and looked back at Earth, my outlook on life and my viewpoint of Earth changed... Earth is a spaceship, just like Apollo & just like Apollo, the crew must learn to live & work together. We must learn to manage the resources of this world with new imagination.’