From Jaipur’s magical pink palace to the summit of North America, we share our top Instagram posts of 2024
It’s been another busy year at Atlas & Boots. In May, I reached the summit of Denali, one of the coldest and harshest peaks on the planet, bringing me a step closer to my dream of climbing the seven summits.
Kia spent most of the year busy with her next book, What Happens in Dark, which is out next June. She did, however, manage to fit in a beach holiday to Greece for some much-needed rest and a trip of a lifetime to China.
Our final blog post of the year takes a look at our top Instagram posts of 2024. We’d like to take this opportunity to bid you all a Happy New Year. Thank you for following along. We look forward to sharing another year with you both here and over on Instagram.
January
Hawa Mahal, or ‘Palace of the Winds’, is one of the most iconic sights in Jaipur, India. Built in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, the grandson of the founder of Jaipur, the palace was an extension of the women’s chambers in the City Palace. It was designed as a viewing screen through which women of the royal household could freely watch the vibrant bazaar while remaining unseen.
We stopped only briefly at Hawa Mahal to take some pictures during a jam-packed day on our Essential India tour but it was enough time to snap this shot, one of our top Instagram posts of 2024.
February
Another iconic moment from India was our visit to the Taj Mahal, one of the New Seven World Wonders. The scale of the building is magnificent and the symmetry is stunning, made all the more affecting by its origin story. The Taj was famously built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their child.
Poet Rabindranath Tagore described it as ‘a teardrop on the cheek of eternity’ while writer Rudyard Kipling called it ‘the embodiment of all things pure’. Needless to say, it was the number one highlight of our trip to India.
March
In preparation for climbing Denali, I spent a week in Scotland on a Winter Mountaineering course. Based in the Western Highlands, close to the iconic peaks of Ben Nevis, Glen Coe, Aonach Mor and the Mamores, I spent the days on the snowy slopes practising a variety of winter skills.
It was, of course, outrageously good fun but more importantly, it prepared me for the wild slopes of Denali, the highest peak in North America. I also tacked on a day of private tuition on crevasse rescue in Scotland which particularly came in use during the descent of Denali when, as the lead climber on my rope team, I went into no fewer than six crevasses!
April
The final landing of our 2022 trip to Antarctica was to Barrientos Island, home to gentoo and chinstrap penguins. No one told us beforehand that there was one final surprise in store. The gentoos had had a successful breeding season and the colony was full of penguin chicks. We had the honour of watching the feathery little bundles nest, feed and play with their parents. It was nature at its finest.
To celebrate World Penguin Day this year, we shared a short video of some squabbling gentoo chicks we met on Barrientos. Its popularity further demonstrates John Ruskin’s famous remark, “One can’t be angry when one looks at a penguin.”
may
Just before I left for Denali, I shared some photos of my previous seven summit climbs including Kilimanjaro in Tanzania back in 2010, followed by Elbrus in Russia in 2017, Kosciuszko in Australia in 2018, and Aconcagua in Argentina in 2020.
It was heartening to receive so many messages of good luck from friends, family and followers before I headed to Alaska for what proved to be the biggest physical challenge of my life.
June
Fast forward a month and I was overjoyed to share a summit shot of me on the top of Denali – the highest peak in North America at 6,190m/20,310ft. I had just got off the mountain and didn’t have much to say other than an enormous “thank you” to everyone who helped me get up there.
Climbing Denali is the hardest thing I have ever done. I trained for over a year, spent a fortune on the expedition and then almost let it slip through my fingers at the final hurdle. You can read more about that in my Denali trip report.
July
Denali features again in our top Instagram posts of 2024. This time, after a few weeks of reflection, I put together a reel from summit day on Denali. Conditions on the mountain were ideal. It was cold of course but it was sunny and, crucially, not too windy.
That said, on the day our team had to overcome a number of issues including assisting in the rescue and recovery of two climbers stranded at around 5,970m. By the time we made it back to camp, it was nearly midnight and we had been out for over 12.5 hours. We dived into our tents, scoffed rehydrated meals and drank as much water as possible before doing the only thing we could manage: sleep.
August
August marked 10 years since we packed up everything we owned and went off on a year-long journey around the world. In the decade since, we have visited many more countries, all seven continents, the seven world wonders and thousands of places of interest.
To celebrate the occasion, we ranked our top 100 travel experiences. Our Instagram post showcased our top 10 experiences and was one of our most popular of the year.
September
During the downtime between our 10th anniversary and our next trip, we reminisced on some of our top travel experiences. Seeing rhinos in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) came 15th in our ranking and produced some of my favourite travel photography.
Over the course of our visit to Eswatini – which prides itself on its rhino conservation work – we saw 13 rhinos including two of the elusive black variety. Seeing the mother and baby rhino, featured in our Instagram post, was one of our most magical wildlife experiences ever.
October
My first trip away since Denali was a trip to Albania to trek the High Scardus Trail. The eight-day trek runs through the borderlands of Albania and Kosovo via some of the least visited mountains in Europe.
The trail begins in glacial valleys and alpine meadows with only flocks of sheep, wild horses and the occasional sheepdog for company and ends with a short amble around a series of tiny mountain villages that dot the hillsides. The late-summer trip was delightfully peaceful – a warm welcome after the trying conditions on Denali.
November
After my Albania trek, I took a few days to visit the tiny nation of Kosovo. I didn’t do much while I was there but one thing I didn’t want to miss was a visit to the charming Prishtina Bear Sanctuary.
Located in a remote forested spot just 20km from the capital, the bear sanctuary houses 18 European brown bears that were rescued from captivity by the charity Four Paws. It was a wonderful, relaxing day trip from the city, and the characterful residents were simply adorable.
December
The last of our top Instagram posts of 2024 is a reel from Kia’s travels to China. The 15-day trip featured a visit to the Great Wall of China – her seventh wonder of the world – as well as stops at Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu, Mt. Emei, Yangshuo and Shanghai.
Despite some initial apprehension about travelling solo, she had an amazing time on what turned out to be a trip of a lifetime. She’ll be sharing more from the trip in the New Year.
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