Mark Horrell's Blog, page 13

When Joe Brown went hunting for Inca treasure in Ecuador’s Llanganates Mountains

Much has been written about Joe Brown, the great alpinist and rock climber who died earlier this year. In some ways his life was a conventional rags-to-riches story: a working-class lad from Manchester who by means of his exceptional talent went on to own a chain of successful climbing shops and become one of the most celebrated mountaineers in the world.

In today’s post, I’m going to talk about an episode where he tried distinctly unconventional means to achieve his fortune – when he followed a...

If you climb a peak that collapses in an earthquake, did you still climb it?

In today’s big philosophical question, we feature a video with the most entertaining commentary since these three Geordie lads went hiking on a winter’s day in the Cheviots.

At 8pm on 7 August this year, a 4.2-magnitude earthquake struck the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains. It caused a famous rock feature known as Baron Spire, affectionately known as Old Smoothie, to collapse. The subsequent rockslide was captured on video by a group of climbers camping on the opp...

His father, Frank Smythe – biography of a Himalayan legend

It’s been a while since I wrote at length about Frank Smythe, the legendary British mountain explorer who was something of a celebrity in the 1930s when he became one of the first people to make a career of climbing, writing and photography.

He first appeared in this blog in 2011 in the course of a frivolous post about yetis (a chapter of his book The Valley of Flowers describes his discovery of a set of yeti footprints). The following year his thoughts on maintaining a steady pace at high altit...

The volcanoes of Colombia’s Los Nevados: the videos

I’ve finally finished editing all the video footage from my trips going back more than two years, and it’s time for my latest – and I’m sorry to say, very last – set of videos. Those of you who like listening to the wind drowning out the sound of my voice are in for one final treat.

Last Christmas and New Year, I journeyed to Colombia for a short trek in Los Nevados National Park. It was a more innocent time, when we all thought nothing of hopping on a plane crowded with a few hundred other pass...

What mountain summit has the world’s longest view?

I’ve recently been reading The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs by the unusually named Tristan Gooley. It’s an excellent book that will cause you to look at nature in a different light (to paraphrase climbing writer Jim Perrin on the back cover, every outdoor lover should hold at least one Gooley in their library).

For example, if you’ve ever wondered why rainbows always seem to precede rain showers in the morning but follow them in the afternoon, there’s a simple explanation (if you live...

My second audiobook – Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo, narrated by Philip Battley

It’s been a busy last few months for me on the publishing front, which reached it’s summit last week with the release of my second audiobook, Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo.

I sneaked my second big travelogue Feet and Wheels to Chimborazo out at the end of last year, and if you were looking the other way you might have missed it. As someone who writes mostly in their spare time, I don’t really do big book launches and prefer to let my writing filter through the airwaves and speak for itself (if y...

What does Mount Everest look like from space?

If you follow the Everest Today (@EverestToday) account on Twitter, which posts topical daily messages about Himalayan mountaineering, you may be used to seeing the occasional photo of mountains taken from the International Space Station. This is because the account is run by Chhabi Pokhrel, a Nepali who, alongside his interest in mountaineering, also happens to be something of a space enthusiast.

As you might expect, all things, including mountains, look very different from above. I know this b...

Is Kate Harris the new Dervla Murphy?

Kate Harris arrives among us like a meteor.

Barry Lopez

In a post last September I mentioned how frustrating it was that the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature is essentially an award for climbing literature only. This makes its winners’ list a little uninspiring if your reading tastes are broader than that. I pointed out that only one winner in the last 20 years wasn’t about climbing, and to show how inclusive the subject of mountain literature really is, I provided a list of ten gre...

The sorrowful tale of Little Mo the moorhen chick

This post doesn’t have anything to do with mountains, so please forgive the indulgence (lockdown does strange things to your travelling instincts). It’s a salutary tale about interaction with nature that may interest you though. It contains some useful lessons (for me, at least) and a few schoolboy errors that I expect will have some of you shaking your heads in disbelief.

Right outside the main front porch of our house, a pair of moorhens have built a nest among sprawling ivy on a pergola. The ...

Win a signed copy of The Baruntse Adventure

The latest revised edition in my acclaimed Footsteps on the Mountain Diaries series, The Baruntse Adventure, is out now in paperback. To celebrate this milestone I am offering a unique opportunity to win one of 3 signed copies.

I don’t sign many copies of my books, which makes this prize a collector’s item. I can say with confidence that a signed Horrell is rarer than a signed Messner, so get in quick while you have the chance!

The Baruntse Adventure is out now in paperback

The Footsteps on the ...