Aleister Crowley

Aleister Crowley: A Passion for Evil is a new play by John Burns about the infamous occultist, poet, chess grand master, and rather good mountaineer. It can be seen at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival from August 6-28. Hear Burns read from Crowley's Confessions, including a section on how he became a climber here. The site also features a trailer for the play, an excerpt, and a podcast on how it came to be written.

Perhaps not surprisingly, no mention of the fact that Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page used to own Boleskine House, Crowley's place on the south east shore of Loch Ness. There are all kinds of stories about what 'the wickedest man in the world', and indeed Page, allegedly got up to in the house. Perhaps it did hold some dark secrets, but part of the attraction must have simply been that it's a handsome looking residence set in stunning surroundings - not to mention the mountain of Meall Fuarvounie just across the water.

For a detailed description of Boleskine read Mick Wall's So Mote it be from When Giants Walked the Earth or listen to this BBC radio documentary.

In 1902 Crowley and Oscar Eckenstein made the first attempt on K2. Eckenstein and Crowley are sitting in the middle.

Thanks to UKClimbing for pointing me in the direction of the Crowley play.

A history of British mountaineering

British Mountaineering: Two Centuries of Firsts is an excellent 30-page special in this month's Trail Magazine. Featuring many of the great names - George Mallory, Eric Shipton, Chris Bonington et al, it includes some fine pictures plus a detailed timeline. This contains the infamous story of how well known Satanist, and rather good mountaineer, Aleister Crowley, pulled a gun on his fellow climbers during an attempt on K2, in 1902. There are also more book suggestions:

Charles Houston

Charles Houston, the physician who led the 1953 American expedition to K2, died last week. His great legacy for mountaineers and trekkers emerged from the groundbreaking research he carried out into high altitude medicine. As well as a Guardian obituary there is a lot more information about the great man on The MountainWorld Blog.