Mark Horrell's Blog, page 34

Monte Corvo: Crow Mountain

This little massif, belonging to Gran Sasso Western part, is one of the highest mountains of the whole Apenninic chain and from its lonely summits the view is unlimited toward the rest of Gran Sasso group and the main ranges of Central Apennines. Summitpost

My first view of Monte Corvo was from the west, on a cold winter’s day in January. Edita and I had slogged our way up Monte San Franco, a gentle grassy ridge that looked easy from the contours on the map.

It was a windy day, but there were...

Why a crowdfunded mountain rescue raised $200,000 in under a week

There is a moment in Kyle Dempster’s short film The Road from Karakol, where he is confronted with yet another dangerous river crossing and, as he sees it, his own death.

Before he sets off across, he makes a short statement to the camera that he’s been carrying with him to record his journey.

I’m pretty scared, so I just want to let everyone know that if something shitty happens I love you all an incredible amount, and I want you to know that if I die I was definitely doing something that I’...

The Guardian prints another self-righteous opinion piece about Everest by some couch potato

Forget the bucket list, forget the ego. If you want to be a hero, stop conquering Everest was the clickbait headline that appeared in The Guardian last week (you will notice I’ve doffed my hat to the headline writer by tossing a similar one back at them).

The Guardian provides some advice to Everest aspirants, but who the hell is Brigid Delaney?

The article was a response to the story about the Indian couple who doctored their Everest summit photos. Although it was originally reported in The...

K2: Touching the Sky – a film review

Saturday, 13 August was, for me, all about Pakistan. I was back in London to watch the cricket: England vs. Pakistan at the Oval. England were 2-1 up, but Pakistan had an opportunity to fight back and level the series. Which they did, quite comprehensively. By the end of the day Younus Khan had hit a double century, and Yasir Shah had taken three cheap England wickets. Pakistan went on to win the match easily.

But apologies to my American readers. I realise I might as well be talking about pa...

Pizzo d’Intermesoli, Gran Sasso’s forgotten sister

It’s not without good reason the highest massif in the Apennines is known as Gran Sasso – the Great Stone. Its height meant that it was the first range we visited. As everybody does, we tried to climb its highest peak, Corno Grande, first. It took us a few attempts, but we got there at the third time of asking.

The high peaks of Gran Sasso – The Great Stone – Corno Piccolo (behind left), Corno Grande (behind right) and Pizzo d’Intermesoli (front) from the summit of Monte Corvo

We have since e...

Shipton’s mountain travel classics now available as sensibly priced ebooks

I can’t remember precisely when I first became aware of Eric Shipton’s writing, but I think it may have been 2002, when I was climbing Mt Kenya (or more accurately, trekking to Point Lenana, its third highest summit).

Shipton had a long and significant acquaintance with Mt Kenya. He arrived in Kenya in his early 20s, intending to spend his life as a tea farmer, but the first view he got from his plantation changed all that:

The whole northern horizon was filled with a gigantic cone of purple...

Why I don’t give a toss about the BMC renaming itself Climb Britain

Last month Britain’s biggest mountaineering membership organisation, the British Mountaineering Council (BMC), puzzled its 80,000 or so members by announcing completely out of the blue that it would be changing its name to Climb Britain.

The logos are nice though

Reaction to this news wasn’t entirely positive. Within a matter of hours a thread had been started on the UK Climbing forums, where baffled BMC members expressed their incredulity. A petition appeared on Change.org demanding the name...

The Manaslu Circuit: a bridge lover’s paradise

The Manaslu Circuit Trek website recently reported that the Manaslu Circuit is open for business again after suffering extensive damage in last year’s Nepal earthquake. Tour operator Richard Goodey inspected all the bridges on the trek for signs of damage, paying particular attention to cables and concrete for cracks or deformation. He concluded that all of the bridges were in great condition and safe to cross.

The Manaslu Circuit appears to be one of the success stories of regeneration after...

Monte Gorzano, the highest point in Lazio

For most people outside Italy, Lazio is better known as one of Rome’s two football teams: fierce rivals, and the Liverpool to Roma’s Everton (or at the risk of offending anyone Liverpudlian or Roman, the Everton to Roma’s Liverpool). For English fans, it’s the team Paul Gascoigne played for in the 1990s. I sometimes wonder how he settled in. I’m a little slow learning Italian, and I had a head start over Gazza in that at least I arrived being able to speak English.

More generally, Lazio is th...

On summit certificates, liaison officers and funny mountaineering rules

In a surprise announcement, The Himalayan Times reported last week that Sherpas who climbed Everest this year will not be receiving summit certificates. This follows reports that a pair of Indian police officers (of all people) did receive summit certificates in exchange for Photoshopping a pair of summit photos.

So what on Earth is going on? Once again, here at the Footsteps on the Mountain blog, I try to shed some light on the bizarre workings of Nepal’s Ministry of Tourism.

Two Indian poli...