Mark Horrell's Blog, page 37

Everest is not piled high with dead bodies

<!-- <blockquote>When you die, you want to die a beautiful death. But what makes for a beautiful death is not always clear. To die without suffering, to die without causing trouble to others, to die leaving behind a beautiful corpse, to die looking good - it's not clear what is meant by a beautiful death. Does a beautiful death refer to the way you die or the condition of your corpse after death? This distinction is not clear. And when you start to stretch the image of death to the method of how to dispose of...<!-- </blockquote></p>

An early history of the 8000m peaks: the first ascent of Annapurna

This is the third in a short series of posts about the early history of the 8000m peaks. In the first post I introduced three memorable characters and in the second I looked at the Sherpa contribution. Today I examine the most famous 8000m peak expedition of all.

Maurice Herzog was leader of the French expedition that set out for Nepal in 1950 with the specific aim of making the very first ascent of an 8000m peak. To begin with, they weren’t sure which mountain they were going to climb, as lo...

A 250-page love letter to Nepal

I take a seat in the shade against the ochre walls of the house, listening to the rush of Nepali voices, the snort of a buffalo tethered in a nearby field, the background buzz of cicadas, the distant rumble of the river carried by a stray breeze … and come to recognise the special relationship that has developed between me and this land. In that recognition I know the meaning of contentment. Kev Reynolds, Abode of the Gods

In 2006 I trekked the Annapurna Circuit with three friends. We travell...

Win a pair of Scarpa Phantom 8000 boots that have been to the summit of Manaslu

I am in the process of clearing my flat of stuff I no longer have a use for, and one of the things I’m looking to dispose of are a pair of Scarpa Phantom 8000 mountaineering boots that I have not worn since I upgraded to La Sportiva Olympus Mons for my Everest expedition in 2012.

The boots have been to the summits of Manaslu (8163m), Aconcagua (6959m), Mera Peak (6476m) and Island Peak (6189m). I have also worn them above 6000m on Cho Oyu, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and Baruntse.

Scarpa Phan...

2Mbps broadband available on Mount Everest, claims UK cable company

Here’s another one to put in the dubious claims about Everest file.

This week a few news sites have been reporting that five places in the UK (Ashwell, Miserden, Brent Knoll, Ulverston and Gilsland) have slower broadband internet speeds than Everest.

UK villages have slower broadband speeds than Mount Everest proclaimed a headline in Newsweek.

“These speeds are slower than the 2Mbps average internet speed found on the Himalayan mountain post,” the article went on.

Is this monk really better o...

Winter on Nanga Parbat: a good news story from Pakistan

I seem to have spent a disproportionate amount of time in the last couple of years blogging bad news from the Himalayas and Karakoram. Natural disasters and political turmoil have made Nepal an unhappy place recently. Both of these factors have spilled over into mountaineering, and Himalayan mountaineering itself has suffered from negative media reporting.

Pakistan’s mountainous geography has the potential to make it a great alternative travel destination to Nepal, but religious intolerance a...

An early history of the 8000m peaks: the Sherpa contribution

This is the second in a short series of posts about the early history of the 8000m peaks. In the first post I introduced three memorable characters. In this, the second post, I look at the Sherpa contribution.

The Himalayan Tigers

The surge in Himalayan expeditions in the 1920s and 1930s created a need to provide reliable staff and supplies, and a handful of notable Himalayan explorers set up the Himalayan Club in 1927. The club was based in Simla in the Himalayan foothills north of Delhi, an...

My review of Sherpa – Trouble on Everest

I expect not too many people have found themselves in a movie theatre watching a two-hour film about a real life drama for which they have been an eyewitness. In December I had that experience for the first, and perhaps the only, time in my life.

Sherpa was released in a few select cinemas here in the UK just before Christmas. It kind of slipped past the radar and didn’t get much coverage in the press. The day before I left for Ecuador I managed to catch a matinee screening at the Bertha Doch...

Vesuvius and the Path of the Gods

When I was in Ecuador last month I heard all about last year’s eruption on Cotopaxi. Although its last major eruption was in 1904, and there weren’t too many signs of activity when I peered down into the crater in 2010, there had been numerous warning signs.

In February it started smoking, and shortly afterwards the smell of sulphur became much stronger. By June the inside of the crater contained a great deal of water from the melting ice, and in August the volcano finally erupted. Debris bel...

5 reasons to buy the paperback of Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest

Yes, that’s right – Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, the story of my ten-year journey from hill walker to Everest climber is out now in paperback. You can see a list of stores where you can buy it here.

The paperback is available through Amazon initially. I will be expanding the reach over the next few weeks and adding more book stores to the list as it becomes available elsewhere. You can sign up to my mailing list to be kept up to date.

But why should you give a toss? Here are five reas...