Billi Bierling – Journalist and Climber

I have been in Europe for two weeks and I am enjoying the good food, the clean air, the organised life and all the outdoor possibilities Europe has on offer. I have been swimming in lakes and rivers and have been hiking in the Alps.   Last week I went up the 3,768m-high Wildspitze, Austria’s [...]

This is just a quick update whilst in civilisation before I go off into the mountains again. I have just come back from trekking to Concordia and the K2 memorial site in Pakistan and even though I had rather climb mountains than just trek, this trip was simply amazing. The Karakorum is more dramatic and [...]

After having spent one week in the sweltering heat of Islamabad I am now off to K2 base camp – a trip I am leading for a British tour operator. I am really excited to finally see the Baltoro Glacier and discover another part of Pakistan – away from the suffering and plight I saw [...]

It has been six months since the floods in Pakistan caused huge devastation, left more than 1,000 people dead, killed around 500,000 animals, destroyed more than 2.2 million hectares of crops and affected almost 18 million people. I happened to be here when the water started to spread across the country and it was shocking [...]

„I have written some poetry for you,“ Mohammad Zai Parishan proudly told me when I finally found him at the local hospital at Surkhab Refugee Village in Balochistan, where he had been for a regular check-up. “I knew you would be coming back.” About six weeks ago, I visited the 21-year-old man, who is suffering [...]

Quite a lot has happened since I posted my last newsletter, in which I wrote about my amazing encounter with Mohammad Zai, the wheelchair-bound man I met in Pishin near Quetta. Following the article I posted on the UNHCR website, I received an email from a university in Toronto offering to collect some money to [...]

My work in Pakistan has taken me to Quetta in Balochistan, which is in the south west of the country and is very close to the borders with Afghanistan and Iran. I came here more than one week ago and even though the city is surrounded by beautiful looking mountains, I am not allowed to [...]

Last night I rang Dell in Germany as I am trying to buy one of their Mini Laptops with a solid state drive (SSD). The reason why I need  SSD is that computers with a normal hard drive often die (forever) at high altitude. A hard drive sits on a cushion of air and the air above [...]

I never thought I would enjoy being cold as I spend a lot of time freezing in the mountains, wishing for warmer weather. However, trying to lead an outside life in Islamabad, where the thermometer sometimes hits 48 degrees Celsius, is pretty tough. Everyone who tells me that the heat is not that bad usually [...]

Now, here is a thought on coffee on expeditions. It has always boggled my mind why most expeditions still use instant coffee, when good coffee is available in Nepal. I guess the problem is, or rather was, the availability of good coffeemakers in Kathmandu – but that has changed now. A very good friend of [...]

I have arrived in Kathmandu and it is good to be back! I literally went straight from the plane to see Miss Hawley to discuss, who is interviewing which expedition this season. Despite the economic crunch this spring looks pretty busy, at least when it comes to big expeditions in Nepal, which we cover in [...]

My amazing friend and Ironman World Champion Chrissie Wellington talked to a journalist about a bonkers bike trip we did in Argentina a year ago. It was actually the honeymoon of our close friend Tina, who got married to Seba in Mendoza in November 2008. Tina, Chrissie, Helen and I used to bike together in [...]

If you think Valentine’s Day is only big in the ‚Western World’ then you are wrong. Here in Pakistan, people also make an effort to get married on this day, which was established by Pope Gelasius I in AD 496. On Sunday, 14 February, our office took the opportunity to go on an outing to [...]

Those who know me from Kathmandu will know that I hardly ever – or rather never – leave the house without my bike. My two-wheeled companion is my best friend and I would not know how to get around Kathmandu, or as a matter of fact any other city in the world. My bike gives [...]

Those who know me also know my motto in life: Life is beautiful. However, in times like these, this motto is hard to believe and I sometimes wonder whether I can keep on saying it. Tragedies will always happen in our lives – they happen all over the world, however, we are often far away [...]

Apparently the series, the Discovery Channel shot on our Everest expedition, has been aired in the States. There are five episodes and our team, led by Russell Brice, is on episode five. It is weird not having seen it as a lot of people have contacted me saying that they had no idea that my [...]

This is just a quick note to say happy New Year to everyone and to apologise for the malfunctioning of my website. I guess it also needed a rest over the Christmas period but it is back up and running and waiting to be filled with more interesting news. I guess it was probably a [...]

Sunday was another big event for the sporty folks in Islamabad. The Canadian Club in the Diplomatic Enclave had organised a fun race comprising a 3km, 5km and 10km race. A few friends of mine and I took part in the event and this time around it went through and was not cancelled because of [...]

Last Friday, another piece of mountaineering history died when Lino Lacedelli passed away in his Italian hometown of Cortina d’Ampezzo. Lacedelli, who died of a heart condition at the age of 83, was one of the first two men to conquer K2, Pakistan’s highest peak and the second highest mountain in the world. I was [...]

After having written about normalcy in times of war last week, this week I went to a camp, where internally displaced people from Swat, Buner, Malakand and Shangla Districts are currently living. And I guess, for them life is everything but normal at the moment. We went to Jalozai Camp just outside of Peshawar, the [...]

On Sunday once again, at least 10 people died in a suicide bomb attack near the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar – and, once again, it happened in a busy market place. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and these violent strikes are expected to continue as long as the Pakistani military carries on [...]

Last week I was writing about my amazing friend Chrissie Wellington, who has probably made the male triathlon world shiver with her latest performance at the Ironman Triathlon event in Kona. Well, this week I want to write about my own little triathlon experience in Islamabad, which is a lot less impressive but also very [...]

I am back in Pakistan and the country seems to be falling to pieces. Last week, a suicide bomber blew up the United Nations World Food Programme offices killing five people, and on Thursday, 15 October, there were several bomb attacks across the country. Life in Islamabad still seems reasonable quiet, however, it could be [...]

On Monday, 5th October, a suicide bomber entered the building of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, and blew himself up. Sadly, five people lost their lives in the attack and the United Nations are now on high alert. This is just a short note to say that I am [...]

I seem to have confused a few people with my sudden return to Nepal but I guess I did not explain why I am actually back in Kathmandu. I have taken a two-week holiday from my job in Islamabad and have come back here to help Miss Hawley with interviewing expeditions.  Spring and autumn are [...]

I got back to Nepal on Saturday, 26th September and I arrived right in the middle of Dashain, which is the biggest festival in the Himalayan country and I guess it is comparable to our Christmas time. The country virtually stops for the duration of the holiday, which is about 10 days, however, the eighth, [...]

On Friday, it all of a sudden dawned on me that I had four days to play with as our office was closed for the event of Eid-ul-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramandan. During this festival, people get together, exchange presents and basically eat all day. And as eating all day is not really [...]

I have just come back from an interesting experience in a bike shed in Islamabad. I had been biking around with a puncture for the last few days as my puncture repair kit did not hold one of the most important items: the glue. However, who needs a puncture repair kit if one has duct [...]

My trip to Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, was interesting, however, it was rather short. We drove two hours in a convoy, were picked up by a police escort just outside the city, went straight to the office, had an informal chat with a very interesting journalist and came back to [...]

Other than talking about life in the Pakistani capital, which is probably not representative for the situation in the rest of the country, I would also like to tell you a bit about the problems, Pakistan is faced with at the moment. When we talk about Pakistan, we often associate this beautiful country with conflict, [...]