Longer guided expeditions aboard the Segways are being planned for several ports.
Now novices and anyone unfamiliar with the valley can get a toehold in the ice with new guided expeditions.
Mr. Merle had already guided expeditions to four of the Seven Summits — Aconcagua, Everest, McKinley and Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
Abercrombie & Kent (01242 547 702; abercrombiekent.co.uk), which arranges six-night guided expeditions along the scenic Machame Route, has a 97 per cent summit success rate.
For details of this and other Globebusters guided expeditions, including their 135-day Alaska to Patagonia trip and North and West Africa, see globebusters.com; 08452 308452.
Despite a dozen deaths on Everest in the 1996 climbing season, demand remains strong for commercial guided expeditions to the 29,028-foot peak.
Landing a job as an environmental agent for Hurtigruten, whose fleet serves the entire coast of Norway, allowed her to take that passion a stage further, during reccies and guided expeditions ashore, and by giving on-board talks.
Thrill seekers and advanced skiers can go on guided expeditions to ski on virgin snow and unmarked trails.
Eat at locally owned restaurants, patronize local activities such as farmers running horse-riding activities and indigenous people taking you on guided expeditions to see the land as they do and look for authentic locally-made souvenirs made from renewable resources.
And Billy was the man to help me - an Inuit, now in his early 60s, who makes his living in Qikiqtarjuaq, a small island off the north coast of Baffin Island, guiding expeditions of tourists, fishermen and hunters around his homeland.
