Mark Horrell's Blog, page 21
February 13, 2019
What the devil is a circumhorizon arc?
As we made our way from base camp for an acclimatisation hike on Ojos del Salado (6,893m) in the Puna de Atacama region of the Andes last month, we witnessed a strange phenomenon in the sky.
Above the adjacent peak of Cerro El Muerto (6,488m) a solid bank of cloud flashed all the colours of the spectrum. It was something none of us had ever seen before. We have all seen rainbows many times, but these are just narrow bands in a semi-circle. Here we had a whole band of dark grey cloud giving of...
February 6, 2019
Humboldt and Boussingault on Chimborazo: how high did they climb?
Work on my book about Chimborazo (and our cycling and climbing adventures in Ecuador) continues apace. I have now received all my feedback from beta readers and am working on the 4th draft, which involves more cuts and changes as I make edits to the flow and tone of voice.
Writing a book involves a lot of butchery. With Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest I wrote 180,000 words initially, then ruthlessly chopped it down to 117,000 for the final version. My first draft of Chimborazo had 140,000...
January 30, 2019
Free Solo: my review of an Oscar-nominated climbing movie
I don’t often go to the movies, and last time I did the film started with a crazy man standing alone on a ledge up a sheer cliff face.
There was a feeling of déjà vu when I went to a local cinema for the first time in over a year a couple of weekends ago. Different film, similar opening as the camera panned in on the same crazy man climbing alone on a different sheer cliff face.
Free Solo: a film about a crazy man shinning up a cliff face. The phrase ‘In theatres this fall’ is unfortunate. Th...
January 23, 2019
Salt before breakfast: an ascent of Ojos del Salado
Christmas and New Year for me usually means some new ascents in a mountainous region of Africa or Latin America. When I received an email from Jagged Globe sometime last year announcing a new trip to Ojos del Salado in Chile’s Puna de Atacama region, I didn’t have any doubts that was the peak I wanted to climb.
At 6,893m, Ojos del Salado is the highest mountain in Chile, the second -highest mountain in South America, and the highest volcano in the world. Like its more famous Argentine counter...
January 16, 2019
Cerro Vicuñas, the world’s easiest 6,000m peak? Quite possibly
Last year I returned from Nepal and reported that I may have ‘discovered’ the easiest 6,000m peak in the world to climb (in much the same way Columbus discovered America, in that it wasn’t lost and somebody had been there before me).
In terms of ease, the peak in question – Drohmo Ri – rises 800m above Pangpema, the last teahouse on the Kangchenjunga base camp trail. There was so little snow that we hiked up in approach shoes, and had need for neither crampons nor an ice axe. It wasn’t even p...
January 10, 2019
Ojos del Salado – the photos (and a quick message about cheating)
It’s a much-delayed, slightly rapid half-post this week. This is because I’ve been climbing the world’s highest volcano and away from all contact with the outside world.
Ojos del Salado, seen across Laguna Verde It’s great being incommunicado for a few weeks, especially when the national news is universally stupid. When I got back to civilisation I discovered that a great controversy had taken place while I was away, and it had been splashed all across the news.
Had a wall been built around t...
January 2, 2019
Happy 50th birthday to Cicerone guidebooks
One of the things about writing an outdoor blog is that people sometimes contact me asking if they can send me free stuff. Some people would call this a perk, but I don’t see it that way.
Free stuff usually comes with an obligation. First it was brands and retailers offering to send me clothes and gear to review. But I’m not really interested in writing a few hundred words of text about a fleece or a pair of gloves. There are a limited number of jokes you can make and most of them have been m...
December 26, 2018
What’s the highest mountain in the solar system?
While I’m in Chile climbing the mountain with the most superlatives in the world, I thought it might be interesting to consider just how superlative a mountain can get.
Most of us have climbed mountains where we’ve not been able to see the summit until we’re standing on it. A few of us have also climbed mountains where the slope has been so gentle that the horizon has remained just a few metres in front of us for much of the ascent (for me, Muztag Ata springs to mind).
But imagine climbing a...
December 19, 2018
Ojos del Salado at last: climbing the world’s highest volcano
This weekend I’ll be departing for my annual New Year mountaineering trip, and this time I think it’s going to be a bit special. Edita and I will be attempting Ojos del Salado, a peak I’ve been wanting to climb for a few years now.
In the far north of Chile is a high, arid plateau known as the Puna de Atacama. For a distance of over 300km the land rises to an astonishing 4,000m in its lowest parts. There are some 40 peaks over 6,000m and the highest, Ojos del Salado reaches 6,893m. Despite th...
December 12, 2018
A short scramble up Rumiñahui, the stone-faced Inca warrior
I made my first close acquaintance with Cotopaxi, Ecuador’s highest active volcano, when we climbed Rumiñahui, an attractive peak of three rocky summits a stone’s throw to the north-west.
There is a clear avenue of volcanoes as you drive south from Quito. Pichincha, Atacatzo, Corazón and the Ilinizas rise in a line to the right of the Pan-American Highway, while Sincholagua, Pasochoa and Rumiñahui form a protective shield to the left. Behind these mountains the high grasslands of Antisana and...
