Setting suns

Mid summer 1995, and all hell had let loose in the Pakistani Himalaya, with monsoons of devastating consequence,. I was on my very first visit to Asia and typically found myself thrown in ad the deep end, that being stranded and extremely sick in a small village beneath Nanga Parbat, one of the most feared 8,000 meter peaks.

As conditions worsened it looked at though I would be stuck there for months, along with just a handful of locals, but luckily I managed to escape to safety, my life and outlook were change forever. Unfortunately many climbers were to lose their lives during that period, and our expedition also came to blows with the mountain and lost fight, or at least that round of it.

I’d been sent to Pakistan as mountaibike guide on an expedition attempting a first ascent of a dangerous ridge on the mountain,. We were to ride in to the roadbed by bike - over the Deosai Plateau, considered the longest of such altitude in the world. The leader of the expedition was my friend Doug Scott, a legendary mountaineer, a man who was a huge supporter and influence on me during those years.

Sadly today he passed away from illness, and although the sun set over his hallowed legacy for the final time the legend will live on, as humbly and under stated as ever - such was his nature.

Unfortunately 2020 is turning into the year from hell, as another friend also passed the following morning, following on from tragedy much closer to home just weeks before. All I can say is that I hope that sun will rise and shine an even brighter light on the future, one fuelled by harsh lessons learned in the past year.