Mark Horrell's Blog, page 32
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...
January 18, 2017
The best way to climb Kilimanjaro
In the Kilimanjaro chapter of Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, about my journey from hill walker to Everest climber, I described the Shira Route, that I used on my first ascent of Kilimanjaro, as the Stagnant Water Route. There is plenty of variety on the flanks of Africa’s highest mountain, but the dirt track I took up to the Shira Plateau on the west side of the mountain, was distinctly uninspiring, and I promised myself that if I ever returned to Kilimanjaro I would find a more interes...
January 14, 2017
The Everest Politics Show is out now in paperback
Just a quickie to let you know that I’ve just released my latest travel diary The Everest Politics Show in paperback format, for those of you who like to read something that you can grasp firmly in your hands.
It’s available on Amazon initially, for 5.99 / 6.99 / $7.99 and various other currencies depending on your location. I hope to make it available in other outlets via Ingram by the end of the month. This means that many local bookstores will be able to order it for you.
The Everest Polit...
January 11, 2017
The Tanzanian Mount Meru
Thanks to a hardcore climbing movie released in 2015, an obscure peak in the Indian Himalaya, that few people have ever climbed and not many more will ever see, is now the most famous Mount Meru in the world. But for many years a far more accessible and attainable peak of the same name in northern Tanzania was much more widely known.
Mount Meru, rising 60km away to the west, was a constant companion during my first ascent of Kilimanjaro I first became aware of the Tanzanian Mount Meru in 2002...
January 4, 2017
Why I’m not a fan of night-time ascents
I hate night-time ascents.
Half a night’s sleep, waking up in the dark, in a freezing cold tent, and getting dressed by the beam of a head torch.
Trying to have breakfast in the middle of the night when you’re not remotely hungry.
Waiting around in the cold night air for your companions to get ready.
Trudging for hours in the pitch blackness and seeing nothing at all of your surroundings. All you watch for hour after hour are the legs of the person in front by the beam of a head torch.
Gettin...
