In preparation for the climbing that I'm planning with some friends before we launch into full-scale 'launch dinner' and Greenland mode, I've just invested in some brand new mountaineering boots - the amazing AKU Spiders which use kevlar material to make the boots incredibly light at less than a kilo each. Pretty amazing technology and they have the rigidity and insulation to support my feet in the Alps and further afield in the future... Their website is www.aku.it

Breaking news:

"Seems like the first Everest summit this season has just taken place! One hour ago, at 6 p.m. Chinese time, Vassily Pivtsov and Maxut Zhumayev have called on the radio from the summit of Everest!" They are the first summits of the year (April summits are unusual) and they did so with without oxygen and without Sherpa assistance.

"Maxut and Vassily are currently descending, hoping to go down as low as possible and stop by nightfall. "At the worst case, they will sleep at 8,300m," Abramov reported, adding weather conditions are currently good, with no strong wind."

Meanwhile, my Journey South 2007 team-mate Andy has recently recently reached Camp 2 on Everest and is climbing strongly. A summit should come with luck in early May.

I've started to import some climbing videos from last summer onto the new videos page. There'll be more to come so check back soon........!

At the moment I've got finals at uni so there may be a slight lack of posts... I'm one of the lucky ones and have my week of finals in 5th week of Trinity Term (21st-25th May) so at least get them out the way soon!

After they're all sorted I'm be free to get on with sponsor hunting for the expedition and also the far more exciting preparations for after exams. There's a week of climbing on Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn in mid-June and then the big launch dinner party for the expedition on the 27th. Just a few days after the event the team and I plan to be in a helicopter travelling to Greenland in order to get our polar training underway. Plenty to look forward to!

Hey everyone! My new blog is the 'shop window' for my official website and I will be updating it as much as possible so do check back soon!

I'd really like the blog to be a place for open discussion so please feel free to write comments in response to my posts.

Also, don't forget to visit the Journey South 2007 website to check out the latest news for the expedition.

so here we go!!!...