Mark Horrell Blog
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I am Mark Horrell, an Indie author & mountaineering blogger. My aim is to provide an alternative voice in mountain writing by representing the quiet majority of enthusiastic amateurs who are just happy to get out into the peaks without worrying about being seen to climb in a certain style, with no great talent but heaps of enthusiasm, who believe the mountains should be enjoyed by all people..
Mark Horrell Blog
1w ago
I’m delighted to say that Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers, the thrilling diary of my very first 8,000m peak expedition to the Gasherbrums in Pakistan, is now available as an audiobook. It's the fifth one that I’ve narrated and produced myself and I’m happy to say that they just get better and better ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
3w ago
A few years ago on this blog, I posed the question Where are the humorous mountaineering books?. Towards the end of last year, I discovered a hidden gem of witty mountaineering literature quite by chance: a collection of whimsical short stories that I believe would have had P.G. Wodehouse chuckling appreciatively ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
1M ago
There's been some controversy in mountaineering circles about the noble gas xenon after mountaineering operator Furtenbach Adventures announced that they'll be offering it to their Everest clients. It’s entirely appropriate that somebody has got around to using a noble gas to aid in mountaineering, for reasons I will explain ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
1M ago
Which of us hasn’t spent at least one night of our lives at a party sucking helium from a balloon in the hope of talking like Mickey Mouse? We marvelled how those balloons, containing a gas lighter than air, rose to the ceiling. What we didn’t realise was that what works for a balloon also works for people ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
2M ago
It was the third year in a row that we’d chosen to spend Christmas in Glencoe in the hope of bagging some winter hills. But, as we’ve discovered, hoping for good weather in Glencoe over Christmas is a forlorn hope. Still, you've got to put your chin up and get on with it. With an unpromising weather forecast, would we manage get up any Munros ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
3M ago
I was sad to learn of the death of legendary photographer John Cleare in October this year. He was one of the best known and most respected climbing and mountaineering photographers of the last 50 years. Much to my surprise, he was a reader of this blog for over 10 years ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
3M ago
This is the last of four posts describing our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc in September, a classic 170km circuit of Western Europe’s highest mountain. After starting out from Chamonix and walking the western section through France, we crossed Italy and Switzerland, and arrived back on the French border at Col de Balme. The story continues from there ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
4M ago
This is the third of four posts describing our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc in September, a classic 170km circuit of Western Europe’s highest mountain. After starting out from Chamonix and walking the western section through France, we crossed Italy and arrived on the Swiss border at Grand Col Ferret. The story continues from there ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
4M ago
This is the second of four posts describing our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc in September, a classic 170km circuit of Western Europe’s highest mountain. After starting out from Chamonix and walking the western section through France, we arrived on the Italian border at Col de la Seigne and looked down into a valley rich in history ..read more
Mark Horrell Blog
5M ago
Last year Edita and I hiked the famous GR20 long-distance trail along the spine of mountainous Corsica. It was our first experience of so-called 'self-guided' trips, where an operator books your accommodation and luggage transfers, but you make your own way from point to point. We were keen to do another, and there was an obvious one to try next ..read more