This afternoon I returned from an excellent few weeks in the Russian Altai mountains.

I went out there with a group of friends, with the aim of exploring somewhere new and in the hope of climbing some mountains that hadn’t seen a lot of previous footprints. In these, and most other senses, the trip was a great success.

We had wonderful weather, with blue skies and sunshine far beyond our expectations of Siberia; we found a good range of routes to the summits of six different mountains, four of which were almost certainly first British ascents and, possibly, the first time anyone has climbed them; fresh bear prints at basecamp added an element of exotica and excitement; and, I hope, everyone on the team got something out of the expedition.

Right now I need some sleep and a shave but I hope to upload some exciting new content from the trip over the coming weeks before I go to Norway in July (details to follow). In the meantime, you can read the updates on Twitter that I sent during the expedition.