From 1977 to 1992 I used to go on a Himalayan climbing expedition almost every year. I loved the intensity of reaching previously untrodden summits or, in the case of Everest, pioneering a new route to the top. Then in 1992 it all went horribly wrong when I nearly died in a huge fall after making the first ascent of a 6,000m peak in India.
The accident didn’t stop me climbing but it did make me nervous about extreme climbing at high altitude, particularly as I now had a young family. Some sort of reassessment seemed in order. On the other hand, I couldn’t just give up visiting the greatest mountain range on earth. So, taking a leaf out of the book of Colonel Jimmy Roberts, who virtually invented commercial trekking in Nepal in the late 1960s, I remembered that the best bit of an expedition was often the walk to base camp. The long trek to a mountain – or, even better, around a mountain – can be as rewarding as any climb but without all the danger, fear and discomfort.
The only problem is that Himalayan trekking has become something of a victim of its own success. The famous Everest base camp trek has become an overcrowded sponsored walk and a road now goes a good deal of the way round the hackneyed Annapurna circuit. Not my idea of fun. However, you don’t have to stick to the most obvious brand names: there are mountains other than Everest and Annapurna. Take Manaslu, the world’s eighth highest peak, which rises just to the east of Annapurna.