Mark Horrell's Blog, page 39

Snowdon’s Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel: a little piece of Everest history

Earlier this month I completed a long-held ambition, when I stayed at the Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, at the foot of the Pen-y-Pass on the flanks of Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales.

The Pen-y-Gwyrd Hotel stands by the roadside at the foot of Snowdon

Staying for a couple of nights in a hotel may not sound like much of an achievement, but this one is extra special. Trapped in a time warp, its stone walls are hung with ivy, the floor boards creak, the fittings could grace a BBC period dram...

BREAKING NEWS: People with size 14 feet can no longer climb Mount Everest

Responding to recent reports in the media that Everest has become far too easy to climb, the government of Nepal has announced a new set of arbitrary criteria in an effort to limit the numbers and produce a better quality of climber on the world’s highest mountain.

People with very big feet will no longer be allowed to climb Everest, a government spokesman has announced

A list of those who will no longer be issued permits to climb Mount Everest in future include:

People with size 14 feet. Bi...

I’m giving The Chomolungma Diaries away FREE, and here’s why

The release of a major Hollywood movie about the 1996 Everest tragedy (see my review of it here) means Everest has been generating a lot of interest recently.

Traffic to my blog has virtually doubled in the space of a few days, but the interest is very narrow. I’ve written a great many posts about Everest (some would say too many!) since I started this blog five years ago, but of the 123 posts tagged with “everest” three in particular have been receiving the lion’s share of the traffic:

5 me...

Everest the Movie: my review of the Hollywood blockbuster

I’m going to start this post with a couple of warnings. Firstly, I should point out that I don’t watch much telly, and the last time I went to the cinema was October 2013, to watch the re-released version of John Noel’s 1924 silent movie The Epic of Everest. Many of the big name superstars who I understand fill the cast of Everest the Movie like the guest list at a Playboy Mansion party mean absolutely nothing to me.

With this in mind, if you still feel my film review is worth reading then go...

Monte Amaro, a mountain worth drinking to

I’m going to start my latest trip report from the Italian Apennines by talking for a short while about alcohol.

One of the more accessible peaks in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca is 5752m Pisco, which happens to be the name of a popular brandy-like liqueur drunk in large quantities in South America. It is also the name of a city on the Pacific coast, and there is a story (which I don’t quite believe) that the French climbers who made the mountain’s first ascent in 1951 celebrated their achievement...

Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest: a writer’s journey to a perfect book cover

I’ve spent a little time recently thinking about book covers as I went through the process of having one designed professionally for the very first time. I really enjoyed the process; it made me think harder about my book, the genre of mountain writing, and the type of readers I am hoping to appeal to.

I love the final cover, and the book is now available to pre-order on Amazon. Readers of this blog have played an important part in shaping my decisions (for which many thanks!), so in the cour...

Why are mountaineering book covers so terribly dull?

If you’ve read more than a handful of posts on this blog you may have noticed that I differ from most writers who are climbers or mountaineers in that I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a rank amateur with no great talent for climbing, and who isn’t even particularly intrepid.

I don’t think this matters, though. You don’t need to be an outstanding climber to write interesting stuff about it, and I believe you’re far more likely to write interesting stuff by being honest and candid than by tryi...

The marvellous story of Boris of Kathmandu

This is part 7 in a series of posts about the history of tourism in Nepal. Here are the previous posts in the series.

In the last post in this series I wrote about Colonel Jimmy Roberts, the grandfather of trekking. In this week’s post I introduce another pivotal figure in the early development of tourism in Nepal, a flamboyant former ballet dancer called Boris Lisanevich, whose colourful life reads like a surreal fairy tale.

If Roberts is the grandfather of trekking in Nepal, the man who mor...

Hell or high water: a Peak Lenin modern pentathlon

“It was raining in the small, mountainous country of Llamedos. It was always raining in Llamedos. Rain was the country’s main export. It had rain mines.”
Terry Pratchett, Soul Music

Peak Lenin in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan has been on my radar for many years. It’s one of those mountains like Aconcagua in Argentina (“the highest mountain you can just walk up”) that is known for being very big, but technically straightforward.

But technically straightforward isn’t the same as easy...

Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest: please give your feedback on my book cover

I’m reaching the final stages of my crusade to publish a book about my ten year journey to the summit of Everest, and am keen to have your feedback about two very different concepts we have in mind for the book cover.

The book will be called Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, and describes the journey I took and the mountains I climbed as I progressed from being an ordinary hill walker to high-altitude mountaineer.

I provided a thorough brief to my designer, Andrew Brown of Design for Write...