Mark Horrell's Blog, page 40

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...

My 5 wettest mountain adventures

(NB. Scotland doesn’t count)

I expect most of us have experienced it at some time in our lives: escaping the office for a few weeks of sunshine, only to end up somewhere wetter than a haddock’s bathing costume.

For those of us who travel to the mountains for enjoyment, it’s not uncommon to spend a full day cowering inside a tent while snow pounds on the roof, but these moments are tempered when we emerge the following morning into a wonderland of white.

Rain is a different matter. Nobody like...

The Corno Grande aperitivo: highest mountain in the Apennines

In previous posts I’ve written about our efforts to climb some peaks in the Apennines earlier this year, including two attempts on the highest mountain in peninsula Italy, 2912m Corno Grande, once from the north side and again from the south, and an attempt on 2348m Monte Sirente.

Although these were enjoyable reconnaissance climbs, we failed to reach the summit of either peak for reasons which can broadly put down to the snow conditions. The Apennines in that part of Italy (Abruzzo) receive...

Sunshine and optimism in the High Pamirs: my attempt on Peak Lenin

If I’d known about the climbing history of 7134m Peak Lenin in the Central Asian Pamirs, then I might have thought twice about going there. But before I go on to describe two of history’s lesser known but biggest mountaineering disasters, I’m going to start with some good news and some background.

Lying on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Peak Lenin was first discovered in 1871 by the Russian naturalist and explorer Alexei Fedchenko, who was to die on Mont Blanc two years later. He di...

Walking the Aran Ridge, another Snowdonia secret

It’s years since I last visited the southern part of Snowdonia, and I was long overdue a return. In 2008 I stood at the far end of the northeast terrace of Cadair Idris, Snowdonia’s most southerly mountain, and gazed across emerald farmland to a range of hills on the eastern horizon that appeared to be higher. At 907m Aran Fawddwy is the highest peak in the United Kingdom south of Snowdon itself. In 2011 I saw these hills again from a distance during a two-day backpacking trip to the Rhinogs....