Mark Horrell's Blog, page 29

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...

Unfinished business on Corno Piccolo

2,655m Corno Piccolo was the last of the major peaks in the Gran Sasso range we were yet to climb. After our wrong turn three weeks ago, which took us up the via ferrata, rather than the normal route we had been intending, I wondered when our next opportunity would come. We are moving from Italy in August, and it may be some time before we are back in the Apennines.

We had one more opportunity last weekend, however. After attending a farewell party in Rome on Saturday afternoon (back home in...

The long road to Chimborazo on legs and wheels

By the time you read this I will have embarked on the first stage of a two-month adventure that will take me from the mountains of Italy to the coast of Scotland and – if all goes to plan – the highest point on the planet in a way that’s never been done before.

Hang on a minute, I hear you saying, you’re going to be climbing Everest dressed as a rhino during the monsoon season?

That would certainly be a first, but that’s not what I’m doing, for several reasons. For a start, that would be sill...

The Corno Grande and Corno Piccolo traverse

It would have been a pity to say goodbye to the Apennines without climbing their highest mountain, Corno Grande (2,912m) in the Gran Sasso range, by one of its more interesting routes.

From every summit in central Italy, Corno Grande rises on the horizon like a cathedral towering over a mediaeval city. From every angle, and every position, it’s easily the most eye-catching peak for miles around, a striking tower of rock, rising hundreds of metres above the gentler summits that surround it.

Co...

Monte Acquaviva: the Maiella massif from both sides

Our previous visits to Maiella have focused on Monte Amaro (2,793m), its highest peak and the second highest mountain in the Apennines after Corno Grande (2,912m). But there is another peak, Monte Acquaviva (2,737m) that is almost as high and, in fact, more commonly climbed.

In its highest reaches Maiella, in the western part of the Italian region of Abruzzo, is a vast moonlike plateau, with over a dozen relatively indistinct, scree-clad summits rising over 2,500m in height.

This area is most...