Everest the easy way

As a young reporter on the Yorkshire Post I was invited once to accompany a team of climbers to Everest base camp. Among the team was Al and Adrian Burgess, twin brothers from Holmfirth who I had come to know through reporting their climbs, not to mention drinking their home brew.

The twins were among the finest climbers of their generation but did not always get the recognition afforded to others with whom they climbed such as Sir Chris Bonnington and Doug Scott.

In return for the invitation they were seeking just £200 sponsorship from the Yorkshire Post. Had I had the confidence to walk up the corridor to the editor's office I'm sure it would have been forthcoming. As it was I approached the news editor who dismissed the proposal out of hand.

I suppose it's just as well. I'm sure I would have gone farther than base camp and that might not necessarily have been a good thing. The Burgess twins were climbing before chequebook mountaineering destroyed the free spirited ethic that had flourished briefly within the alpine-style teams, sandwiched as they were between military-style assaults and commercially guided climbs.

Even getting to base camp was a challenge as my wife, Gill, discovered in 2004. But whatever majesty the mountain has left the Chinese seem bent on destroying in building an asphalt road to its base on their side. Is there nowhere on this planet safe from the meddling "improvements" undertaken by people? Not that the British are above such crassness on a smaller scale.

Do the Chinese think they are to be admired for carrying out this project? Domesticating the wild places in this way is wrong. Given the chance to climb Everest today with those same young legs I would shake my head and go elsewhere.