After warming up with the Welsh 3000s and Mont Blanc over the summer (and continuing with my regular 5-6 times a week training schedule after that), I felt ready to tackle Aconcagua which had been on my list for a couple of years. It was not the easiest of decisions as I’d never been …
Author Archives: inasearchofbalance
the welsh 3000s
In preparation for Mont Blanc, a couple of friends and I decided to take on the Welsh 3000s challenge. In essence, that means climbing all 15 mountains in Wales over 3,000ft in under 24 hours, without using any transportation means. Luckily, all fifteen fall within 3 mountain ranges (so we had to do 3 …
keep steady or climbing mont blanc (4,808m)
To be honest, Mont Blanc wasn’t in my plans of peaks to tackle. After Kilimanjaro in 2014, it was a toss-up between it and Elbrus and I chose the latter, which I climbed in August 2016. But a friend of mine asked me to try it together for his birthday so we started making …
sofia lightning storm
I’ve been waiting for a chance to shoot lightning for years now. It’s not as easy as it sounds — you want to be at a safe distance and ideally not get rained on, but still close enough to the action with a good vantage point. Well, I finally got lucky a couple of …
nasir ol molk, the pink mosque
One of the most well known architectural sites in Iran has to be the Nasir-Ol-Molk in Shiraz, commonly referred to as the Pink Mosque. From the outside, it looks fairly similar to other places of worship in the country, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. The facade of the mosque features …
the curious case of japan
Japan is certainly an interesting place. You won’t get quite as lost in translation as you would have 15 years ago, but the country has managed to retain a lot of its idiosyncrasies and cultural traits despite the obvious influences from the West. And there are so many! From the simple ones like no …
dar es salaam, tanzania
I can’t believe it’s been just over 3 years since our trip to Africa. In a lot of ways it still feels very recent, yet a lot’s happened since then. I realized recently that there are photos sitting unshared from Tanzania which is a waste. So here we are 🙂 Dar es Salaam often …
the unexpected moscow
On the way to climbing mount Elbrus, we decided to spend a couple of days in Moscow. My dad lived there back in the late 60s & early 70s so I’d heard plenty of stories from those times, but nowadays the public image of Russia is quite different so it’s hard to make up …
don’t go to iran
“… you might just fall in love”. That’s how I thought I’d start this post (inspired by this video) after buying the tickets for my 10 day trip and reading up on this otherwise atypical tourist destination. That’s what my research showed me — that it was a country that took you by surprise, …
