Mark Horrell's Blog, page 28

The kindness of strangers is helping a young Sherpa recover from frostbite

Earlier this week a fundraising appeal for Sange, a 19-year-old Sherpa who suffered severe frostbite on Everest this year, reached its ambitious target of $42,000. Thanks to the generosity of climbers, trekkers and friends of Nepal, a young man who would have been crippled for life, is now able to pay for advanced surgery to save his hands.

This is a story of good and bad, where mistakes were made that could easily have been avoided, but help was provided that prevented a bad situation becomi...

A short walk in the Sesto Dolomites

The Cima Grande … would not be so beautiful or so striking if it were not a part of the trinity of the Tre Cime. Gaston Rebuffat, Starlight and Storm

Back in July, Edita and I did a brief hike in the Dolomites, a range of dramatic rock peaks in north-east Italy. I didn’t have time to write a full report then, and scribbled down a few notes instead. Here is the report now. I hope it was worth waiting for.

The Apennines were our home from home while we lived in Italy, but I always wanted to vis...

5 beginner’s tips for cycling up mountains

The learning curve for beginners is always much steeper. Now that I’m safely back from my first ever cycling trips, I thought it would be a good moment to share some tips.

In August I cycled the North Coast 500, a bike route around Scotland’s northern coastline. There were lots of very small hills and I found it hard. I lost count of the number of times I had to get off and push.

Last month I climbed 6310m Chimborazo from sea to summit. This involved starting at Guayaquil on the coast, and cy...

Is Cotopaxi now safe to climb?

We returned from a few days relaxation in the Amazon jungle earlier this week to learn that the Ecuadorian government was about to reopen Cotopaxi for climbing. This was exciting news for Edita, who is yet to climb it and keen to do so, but we had some strong reservations.

Cotopaxi (5897m), an active volcano that is Ecuador’s second highest mountain, has been closed for climbing since a major eruption in 2015. Now it seems certain that the first commercial clients in two years will be allowed...

Is this the world’s first ascent of Chimborazo from sea to summit?

On Wednesday, Edita and I reached the 6310m summit of Chimborazo for the second time. We climbed via the Whymper Route on the southwest ridge, which traverses across the west face to join the Normal Route that we climbed last time.

We reached the summit at 6.30am with Romel, the same guide who led us up last time, and had it to ourselves. Conditions were better than our previous ascent. There was more snow on the glacier, and the traverse between the two summits was flat, without the maze of...

Ice needles and guinea pigs: acclimatising in Ecuador

The fun is over. Tomorrow the serious business of cycling up Chimborazo begins. Our aim is to cycle from sea level then climb to the summit, with a bit of hiking in between.

I have no illusions. It’s going to be tough, our buttocks will be pounded like raw meat at the butcher’s, and Edita will be hearing many profanities spewing from my mouth over the next few days. But we’ve just got to get on with it, and pedal like our lives depend on it.

We’ve now been in Ecuador for a week. We’ve had som...

The truth about the first Lithuanian ascent of Sgurr a’ Chaorachain

False summit claims were back in the news recently when the Swedish mountaineer Fredrik Sträng retracted his claim to have summited 8,047m Broad Peak after studying other people’s summit photos and concluding his own were not quite right.

From time to time we hear stories of climbers claiming summit success when they didn’t make it to the true summit, or of climbers claiming first ascents without properly verifying them. Against this backdrop, Sträng has been rightly praised for his refreshin...

The peat-bog method of training for a big adventure

In the last three weeks I’ve cycled 830km across 1273 hills, hiked up 8 Munros and 4 Corbetts, and scratched 253,953 midge bites 37 times per day. I camped for 20 consecutive nights and have lost count of the number of ways it’s possible to lose a pair of socks and find them again in an unlikely location. I’ve woken up in more pools of water than a thirsty frog, and drunk in more bars than Oliver Reed. I can now get it erect in less than 5 minutes (my tent).

I would be lying if I told you tha...

Get me off this bike and back on my feet

There was a surreal moment during our cycle ride of the North Coast 500 a few days ago.

I had pedalled myself to complete exhaustion up and over steep hills for nine days, and my legs had nothing left.

I was hurtling down a steep hill into the village of Bettyhill on the extreme north coast of mainland Britain. Traffic was haring past me, and I was struggling to control my bike because a fearsome side wind was causing it to jolt from side to side. I wrestled with it like a cowboy straddling a...

Some thoughts on hiking in the Dolomites and via ferrata

We just had time for a short four-day hike in the Dolomites, prior to leaving Italy and returning to the UK for the first part of our cycle adventure around Scotland.

The Dolomites, close to the Austrian border in the far north-east of Italy, is a mountain range I have wanted to visit for a long time. It’s famous for dramatic rock spires and impossibly sheer faces of rock, rising up from pine-clad valleys.

I was expecting some amazing mountain views, but I wasn’t sure if we’d be climbing any...