Mark Horrell's Blog, page 31
March 29, 2017
The 3 curses of the Himalayan snow
There’s no such thing as an easy Himalayan peak. I knew this already. For various reasons in the past I’ve failed to get up 6000, 7000 and 8000m peaks. Until now I’ve not made any attempts on 5000ers, but I expected the same principles to apply.
It’s officially still winter in Nepal until 21 March. That’s why this year the Spaniard Alex Txikon persevered with his winter attempt on Everest until halfway through March. Mountaineering bodies may classify it as winter, but for locals (and nature)...
March 22, 2017
The climate zones of Kilimanjaro from space
Another short one for you today (said the bishop to the actress), as I’m still trekking in Langtang as you read this, somewhere close to the summit of a mountain (unless you’re reading it a few weeks later, in which case I could be anywhere).
I’ve talked a bit about the glaciers on Kilimanjaro, and how they are shrinking at an alarming rate, but what about the climate on the rest of the mountain?
In January, the NASA Earth Observatory released this fantastic aerial photo of the whole mountain...
March 15, 2017
The story of Gosainkund, the sacred mountain lake
A quickie today, because I’m not actually here. I’m trekking somewhere in the Langtang Valley, Nepal, with no access to the internet.
Last time I was there, my Nepalese friend Siling, who is fond of a story, told me about the origin of Gosainkund, the sacred lake that I will be passing as I cross over the Laurebinayak La, a high pass dividing the Langtang and Helambu regions of Nepal.
Prayer flags and ceremonial bells beside the shores of Gosainkund There are actually a series of lakes in the...
March 8, 2017
My first visit to the Langtang Valley
By the time you read this Edita and I will be somewhere in the Helambu region of Nepal, an area of low-lying hills and terraced fields north of Kathmandu. Our destination is the Langtang Valley, which until recently was Nepal’s third most popular trekking region, after Everest and the Annapurnas.
Two years ago, the Langtang Valley was the scene of a great tragedy. Langtang village lies directly beneath 7,227m Langtang Lirung, the highest mountain in the region. The narrow valley witnesses man...
March 1, 2017
In Ladakh two men tackle climate change by making artificial glaciers
The freezing of running water is another mystery … the struggle between frost and the force in running water is not quickly over. The battle fluctuates, and at the point of fluctuation between the motion in water and the immobility of frost, strange and beautiful forms are evolved. Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain.
Today I’m going to tell you a story so bizarre that when I read about it on the Indian site The Sunday Guardian, I thought it must be fake news. But after some rigorous Googling,...
February 22, 2017
A night on Kilimanjaro’s summit: the videos
As many of you will know, I write a lot of waffle in this blog which you sometimes can’t be bothered to read. For example, the Kilimanjaro trip report I wrote last month came to an eye-glazing 5,000 words. While I believe that post was a masterpiece that is well worth reading in its entirety, not all of you will agree. In that case, this post is for you.
As well as scribbling my notes in a diary every evening (or these days I tap it into my phone), I stagger around with a video camera recordi...
February 15, 2017
Introducing Grant Axe Rawlinson, the human-powered adventurer
I’ve just been reading From Peak to Peak by Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson, about a three-week journey from the summit of Ruapehu, the highest point in New Zealand’s North Island, to the summit of Mount Cook, the highest point in the South Island.
From Peak to Peak, by Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson Axe describes himself as a human-powered adventurer. What this means (apart from having me yearning to meet a battery powered one) is that he picks adventures that he is able to complete without resorting to motori...
February 8, 2017
Should outdoor and mountaineering writers talk about politics?
First things first. This is not a political post, and you’ll see why later. It is, however, a post about shared, international values by someone who has travelled a lot in different countries.
Last month I received the following email from a reader (or ex-reader) that gave me food for thought.
1) I have enjoyed your writing immensely
2) if you opine on politics, you risk alienating ~50% of your audience
3) if you feel that John Lewis’ comments about Trump were fair (about his election being i...
February 1, 2017
Tilman and Shipton’s travels in Africa
Our trip to Tanzania prompted me to re-read Snow on the Equator by H.W. (Bill) Tilman. Better known as a Himalayan explorer, Tilman actually spent fourteen years of his life in the 1920s and 1930s as a coffee planter in Kenya (then known as British East Africa). During that time he made a number of exploratory treks and climbs on Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro, and in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda with another coffee planter, Eric Shipton.
A few years later Shipton and Tilman would both hold...
January 25, 2017
A brief introduction to Kilimanjaro’s volcanic crater
In my Kilimanjaro trip report last week, I enthused about Kilimanjaro’s inner crater, and said that I considered it to be the jewel in Kilimanjaro’s crown. Despite this, the overwhelming majority of the 40,000 or so people a year who climb this giant volcano – perhaps as much as 99% of them (a wild guess on my part) – don’t actually get to see it.
In this post I’m going to talk in a little more detail about what they’re missing out on. But first, here’s a photo I took of it.
Kilimanjaro’s spe...
