His climbing has taken him to the distant corners of the earth: from the Alps to Alpine ascents in the Himalaya. From solo in Antarctic to the sun baked granite walls of Yosemite, from an attempt on K2 in winter to the brutal cold of the first and still unrepeated winter ascent of the Cassin Ridge on McKinley.

His climbs include the North face of the Eiger in Winter with Steve Bell and the first British ascent of Nanga Parbat with Dave Walsh, In 1998, with Doug Scott, he climbed the SE Pillar of Drohmo, a virgin peak in East Nepal.

In 1985 following a season spent working with the BritishAntarctic Survey, Roger made the first unsupported journey to the South Pole, becoming the first to walk there since Captain Scott. For this he received the Queen's Polar Medal. The story of that expedition 'In the Footmenus of Scott', won Roger the 1986 Boardman Tasker Memorial Award for mountain literature. On that expedition with Mike Stroud and Gareth Wood, he also made the first and only repeat in winter of the 'Worst Journey in the World" as well as the first ascent of an Antarctic mountain in Winter with his solo climb of Mount Erebus.

Roger has guided in the Alps, South America and Greenland, and in the Himalaya on Cho Oyu and Everest. He has also guided Mount Vinson, the highest mountain in Antarctica, on three occasions.