markhorrell.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

🌟 New blog post ✍️ Where are the humorous mountaineering books? 📚 Towards the end of last year, I discovered a hidden gem of witty mountaineering literature: a collection of whimsical short stories that would have had P.G. Wodehouse chuckling appreciatively. 😆 www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/th...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Essential supplies for an ascent of Mont Blanc in 1851. Prunes are the most important item to alleviate a climber's biggest fear... 💩 (from 1865 The Golden Age of Mountaineering by Giles Modica) 📚

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

“With 6 rangers on staff, the situation would likely result in having to leave injured climbers on the hill to succumb to the elements or rely on the goodwill of climbers on the mountain to rescue them.” Mt McKinley looking like a more dangerous peak than Denali 💢 explorersweb.com/denali-rescu...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

He founded mountain rescue teams, wrote books on mountaineering, and invented an all-metal ice axe and a rescue stretcher. No surprise that Hamish didn't die a millionaire, but fitting that what he had will go to the SMT www.bbc.com/news/article...

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

Born on this day, 1962.02.17; Alison Hargreaves, British climber, who ascended Everest and K2 within three months without using supplementary oxygen in 1995. She died on descent of K2, aged 33. Photo ©: Alison Hargreaves Archives.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

"So our worldview is our maunga are ancestors, they're not resources but they are living beings and so the notion of legal personhood fits well with our worldview." 🗿 A great celebration, though I'm glad I wasn't there when the old volcano gave a speech 🌋 www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 New blog post ✍️ There's been some controversy in mountaineering circles about the noble gas xenon 🧪💨 Is it safe? I don't know, but it’s appropriate that somebody has got around to using a noble gas as a mountaineering aid, for reasons I will explain ✅ www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/wh...

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

"I have written a detailed refutation of Tracy’s most egregious allegations, which I will present in eight separate chapters, starting today, with a new chapter posted every day or so going forward." Kendrick vs. Drake it ain't 📣 gripped.com/profiles/jon...

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Good blog posts are "evergreen". They stay relevant years after they were written. This post of mine from 2013 has stood the test of time. 🌲 There's a proposal from Nepal to promote sub-peaks to the status of 8,000ers. All the points in this post remain true 📣 🏔️ www.markhorrell.com/blog/2013/do...

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments

"In the last two years China has launched a pressure campaign to get foreign businesses, publishers, and mapmakers to adopt the name Xizang in place of Tibet." I don't know why they don't just issue an Executive Order. blogs.soas.ac.uk/china-instit...

submitted 32 days ago • 0 comments

"Or in simple English, as my good friend Mark Horrell wrote in 2013, 'Whether they can be considered separate peaks depends on topographic prominence, the amount of re-ascent from the col separating them from their parent peak.'" Why, thank you, Alan 🙏 www.alanarnette.com/blog/2025/02...

submitted 33 days ago • 0 comments

"It’s a proven fact that we have 14 mountains above 8,000 metres. Various studies have confirmed it. We have also produced a map." 🗻 14 just in Nepal, that is; 20 worldwide. 🇳🇵 This is going to drive Reinhold Messner mad 😡 kathmandupost.com/national/202... kathmandupost.com/national/202...

submitted 34 days ago • 0 comments

Go straight to the top of Chomolungma fast without xenon... and talk like Mickey! #SuburbanMountaineer #FakeClimbingNews #Climbing #mountaineering #Everest

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 New blog post ✍️ BREAKING NEWS: The latest aid to acclimatisation: helium. Which of us hasn’t spent at least one night of our lives at a party sucking helium from a balloon?🎈 Who'd have thought it could also help one to climb Everest? ⛰️ www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/br...

submitted 39 days ago • 2 comments

Nice to see that Lewis Hamilton's replacement has just passed his driving test 🚘 ✋🤯 www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formul...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

"It made a difference, helping minimize the incidences of headaches, nausea and overall malaise common. And should the occasion arise, the beer tasted rather good." 🍺 If you're going to take something for altitude, then perhaps diamox over xenon? www.explore7summits.com/the-myths-of...

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

"Alaskans are against changing the name back to McKinley by about a 2-1 margin, despite Alaska being a state overwhelmingly supportive of Republicans." I don't know anyone who calls it McKinley. I can't imagine it'll be too long before it's Denali again. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

"According to current literature, there is no evidence that breathing in xenon improves performance in the mountains." Statement by UIAA (International mountaineering federation)☝️ In other words, it's a big experiment and further research is needed.

submitted 43 days ago • 0 comments

"A rapid increase in red blood cells can cause the blood to thicken... which means that thromboses and pulmonary embolisms are pre-programmed." 💉 Or to put it another way, is xenon safe for high-altitude mountaineering? Lukas Furtenbach's doctor responds 😷 abenteuer-berg.de/en/xenon-use...

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

"Disoriented as I felt, I was comforted knowing that, here in Scotland, I could be lost on someone’s land without worrying about getting shot." The American perspective on Scotland's right to roam 👣 www.backpacker.com/stories/issu...

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

“I was going to find all the expeditions I could, prior to the Everest expeditions of the 20s – someone who either deliberately or by accident set an altitude record or attempted to do so.” Sounds an interesting book, though David Gray fans may be disappointed 📚 www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/j...

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 New blog post ✍️ This was the third year that we chose to spend Christmas in Glencoe hoping to bag some winter hills. It was a wild one, but you have to put your chin up and get on with it. With a dismal weather forecast, would we get up any Munros? ☔ www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/ch...

submitted 53 days ago • 0 comments

Furtenbach: "It's not an organized sport, so there's technically no doping in mountaineering." Ballinger: "There is a safety issue. Banned substances like EPO involve risks and on Everest that risk becomes huge." Everest's two big flashers go head to head on xenon. explorersweb.com/you-can-now-...

submitted 54 days ago • 1 comment

"There can’t be many people who can chop off their undies after s---ting themselves and still regard it as one of the best days they’ve had." This reminded me that Vic and Mick are also one of mountaineering's great comedy double acts 🎤 www.markhorrell.com/blog/2017/an...

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

The Financial Times reported that Furtenbach Adventures will have 4 clients inhale a xenon gas blend upon arrival in Kathmandu to help them climb Everest in just one week. Surely krypton would be better, then they could fly to the summit like Superman? www.alanarnette.com/blog/2025/01...

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

Not just a new route, but possibly the first ever recorded ascent. It never used to be possible to get permission from the local tribes to climb Colombia's two highest mountains. It's exciting indeed if access is now available. explorersweb.com/new-route-on...

submitted 60 days ago • 0 comments

"Local youths... set up flags to block landing zones and issued warnings to pilots. Sagarmatha National Park... had already banned commercial sightseeing flights." Strange things are afoot in the Everest region, where locals are at war with helicopter companies 🚁 www.arthprakash.com/world/detail...

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

"Fowler, now age 68, and Saunders, 74, completed another big new route: the first ascent of a 6,258-meter peak, also in Pakistan." Retirement, what's retirement? Mick Fowler will be moving on to bigger adventures now that he's retired from HMRC. 😉 americanalpineclub.org/news/2024/12...

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

"I’m not interested in breaking any records in the short term. I want to achieve the project in the long term." The project being to climb Everest alone in winter. It's never been done. Only Messner has climbed Everest solo, and that was in the monsoon season. abenteuer-berg.de/en/jost-kobu...

submitted 66 days ago • 0 comments

This is a good move, but a right to roam in England and Wales, like we have in Scotland, would make things a lot simpler🚶 www.bbc.com/news/article...

submitted 73 days ago • 0 comments

What a difference 3 days makes, to paraphrase Dinah Washington. In Monday we were post holing through shin-deep snow to reach the summit of 764m Ben na Caillich. Mild temps and rain meant that today, not a speck of snow on top of 953m Meall Dearg. (pics by @editahorrell.bsky.social)

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 New blog post ✍️ John Cleare, who died in October, was one of the best known mountaineering photographers of the last 50 years 📷 Much to my surprise, he was a reader of my blog for 10 years. Receiving his comments felt like being let into a long-lost secret. www.markhorrell.com/blog/2024/th...

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

William McKinley never visited the mountain and had no “significant historical connection to the mountain or to Alaska.” However: McKinley... raised protective tariffs to promote U.S. industry, according to the White House website on presidents. 🤔🤨🙄 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...

submitted 76 days ago • 0 comments

Bill Bryson is a hero, but on this occasion I'm afraid he's got it wrong. In his defence (n.b. British spelling), I don't think he's ever written about climbing.

submitted 77 days ago • 0 comments

Good question. The answer is definitely no. I own several mountaineering classics, such as Tichy's Cho Oyu, Tenzing's Tiger of the Snows, Shipton's Untravelled World and Whymper's Great Andes, that I had to buy second-hand. 📚 (Some of these are now in print again.)

submitted 80 days ago • 0 comments

"Many have questioned why they went there in the first place. With more than a hint of frustration, she says: 'Some people don’t really understand.'" No, indeed. If you're not into it then you don't understand; if you are, then you do. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

In 2024, 1.5 Sherpas reached the summit of Everest for every non-Sherpa. More Sherpas and Tibetans have summited Everest than non-Sherpa/Tibetans: 6,590 vs. 6,283. And Alan Arnette now has the record for most number of #Everest stats in a single post: 8.848.86 ⛰️ www.alanarnette.com/blog/2024/12...

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

"The sounds [of helicopters] can cause wild animals to leave their habitat and run into the villages... We are taking this unpopular decision to provide justice to wildlife." 🚁 Yet I'm willing to bet a plate of deep fried monos, it will be reversed within a week 🙄 kathmandupost.com/money/2024/1...

submitted 83 days ago • 0 comments

Heartbreaking story in the Guardian today... 🐻 😢

submitted 84 days ago • 0 comments

Glen Coe is famous for its dramatic mountains and the brutal slaying that took place in 1692 when government troops killed 38 members of the MacDonald clan. A new Greenway path has been created, allowing visitors to walk through this iconic landscape. theconversation.com/glen-coe-fre...

submitted 86 days ago • 0 comments

🌟 New blog post ✍️ 4th and last instalment of our trek around the Tour du Mont Blanc. After arriving at the French border we were faced with final thrilling section across the via ferrata of the Grand Balcon Sud. But then the weather took a turn for the worse ☔ www.markhorrell.com/blog/2024/th...

submitted 88 days ago • 0 comments

Tibet has endless possibilities for exploratory alpinism, guided climbing and trekking. ⛰️🚶 But difficulties getting permission mean that since COVID, the only foreign expeditions have been to the three Tibet 8,000ers and Lhakpa Ri. ⛔ explorersweb.com/mission-almo...

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments