For most people, a love of mountains might lead them to a holiday chalet in the higher reaches of a smart Alpine resort. For Canadian-born Jeff Fuchs, 46, whose childhood in Ottawa was punctuated by stints in Geneva, it has resulted in a journey halfway around the world, to set up home in the shadow of the Himalayas: an area of China’s northwest Yunnan province that borders Tibet.
Fuchs, 46, defies easy categorisation, with his multifarious interests coalescing along his path to Shangri-La: writer, photographer, mountaineer, explorer, connoisseur and merchant of teas. He attributes much of his free spirit to the influence of his Hungarian grandmother. “She was fearless, emotional and believed that no one had the right to disturb a good meal or drink,” he says.
At high school in Ottawa, says Fuchs, his tendency to question anything too doctrinaire led to a run-in with his religious studies teacher, prompting him to quit prestigious St Pius (“which caused a bit of a scandal”) and complete his schooling elsewhere, before heading to Montreal to study photography. At the same time, his father and grandmother encouraged him to engage in activities “that got the blood activated”, inspiring his love of the outdoors.