Democratise the mountains / Thomson Reuters Foundation

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A feature story and photo package for Thompson Reuters Foundation today about the Chilean grassroots campaign Queremos Parque that is on the brink of convincing the government to create a 1,420km2 national park on the doorstep of the capital. 

The campaign’s plan is to create recreational opportunities in this rampantly unequal country for the majority who are geographically and economically excluded from accessing the national park system. Also Queremos Parque believes the park creation will protect the glaciers and Santiago’s water supply from the advance of the mining industry. 

You can read the article here. 

Storytelling and photography from an Earth Rise Productions expedition. 

A Park for the People / Geographical

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GEOCHILEFEBRUARY2021_GT

The feature story above is from the October 2020 clandestine expedition I organised into the Río Colorado Estate and was published by Geographical magazine in their January 2021 edition. For this expedition I put together a team of mountain guides, conservationists, activists and hired a mule herder to take us for five days into a 350,000 acre wilderness area on the outskirts of Santiago. Our aim was to explore the citizen led Queremos Parque (We Want a A Park) campaign that has gained majority support in the parliament and senate to declare an accessible national park for the capital’s 7million that would potentially be the biggest conservation story in Chilean history. Along the way our team made the first ever recorded ascent of Cerro El Barco and the highest known descent of the Rio Colorado by packraft. 

Many thanks to supporting comment from Senator Alfonso de Urresti, Kristine Tompkins, James Hardcastle from the IUCN, Viviana Callahan, Tomás Gonzales and Felipe Cancino; as well as expedition logistical support from Alpacka rafts, Patagonia Chile and Fundación Plantae.

 

Child soldier to world class ultra runner / Red Bull

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Photo courtesy of Martina Valmassoi

There once was a Nepalese village girl called Mira Rae. From age 12 she worked all day carrying 28kg bags of rice to market.

At 15, she sneaked away from her village to join the Maoist guerrilla army. In the jungle she learned that she could be as strong as any boy. She practiced karate. And she carried a gun. 

When the war finished, Mira stumbled into a 50K race. And won.

She didn’t stop there. She carried on running. Going on to win on the world stage at the Marathon du Mont Blanc.

I was asked by Red Bull to tell Mira’s story. With lots of patient help from Mira and her good friend Keilem Ching, you can follow her journey.

Read it here

Fitness and Fatherhood – Men’s Fitness

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A lovely big feature story about my wild, wonderful and ultra wearying journey into fatherhood as I attempt to maintain a shred of athletic self respect. For Men’s Fitness.

Click here to read full page. 

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Andean plane mystery / Geographical

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How do you engage people on a big scary issue like climate change?

This February filmmaker I headed into the Andes with two other British mountaineers to try and find the 1947 crashed plane Star Dust. In 2019 it’s emerging from the glacier-ice on 6570m Tupungato due to global warming. Told for the June 2019 issue of Geographical. 

“So you want to travel to the Lancastrian?” From a mid-winter Bristol suburb, my call has rung through to the Refugio Plaza military base, high in the mountains southwest of the Malbec-growing hills of Mendoza, Argentina. Sergeant Casado of the 11th Mountain Regiment listens to my request.

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