Footsteps on the Mountain Diaries

In April 2014 Mark Horrell went on a mountaineering expedition to Nepal, hoping to climb Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world, which shares a base camp and climbing route with Mount Everest. He dreamed of following in the footsteps of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, by climbing through the infamous ice maze of the Khumbu Icefall, and he yearned to sleep in the grand amphitheatre of Everest Base Camp, surrounded by towering peaks. He was also intrigued by the media publicity surrounding commercial expeditions to Everest. He wanted to discover for himself whether it had become the circus that everybody described. But when a devastating avalanche swept across the Khumbu Icefall, he got more than he bargained for. Suddenly he found himself witnessing the greatest natural disaster Everest had ever seen. And that was just the start. Everest Sherpas came out in protest, issuing a list of demands to the Government of Nepal. What happened next left his team confused, bewildered and fearing for their safety.

Sherpa legend told of an enchanted valley with an invisible village, Shangri-La, that was said to be a place of great beauty. The valley became the nemesis of legendary mountaineer Edmund Hillary, who travelled there to climb 7,129m Baruntse, but succumbed to the irresistible draw of Makalu, the great black mountain which towered over the valley. Makalu vanquished him, and he was never the same climber again. Fifty years later, Mark Horrell embarked on a trek up the Barun Valley to follow in Hillary's footsteps – at least some of the way. He hoped to climb Baruntse, but when he arrived, he learned of a terrible accident that had shaken the climbing community and would threaten his plans. Yet one of the virtues of climbing in the Himalayas is that just reaching a mountain can be a great adventure. Join Mark on an entertaining journey across jungle, moorland, hill and valley to the frozen heights of the Barun Plateau.

Two days east of Lukla was a pleasant yak pasture surrounded by high peaks. When Col. Jim Roberts set out to look for it in 1953, he ended up making the first ascent of Mera Peak and sowing the seeds of Himalayan tourism. Mera Peak has become a popular goal for trekkers and novice mountaineers, but few people climb to its true summit, and fewer still travel beyond it to find the secret yak pasture that sparked Roberts' journey. The yak pasture was the Hongu Valley, a hidden sanctuary of grassland, lakes and glaciers linking Mera Peak with the Everest region and Island Peak to the north. Fifty years after Roberts, Mark Horrell embarked on a trek through Nepal's Khumbu region to follow in his footsteps, climb the two trekking peaks at either end of the valley, and resolve a long-standing mystery about Mera Peak's height. Join Mark on a captivating journey through this enchanting region of high mountains and remote valleys.

This is the tale of Mark Horrells not-so-nearly ascent of Gasherbrum in Pakistan, of how one mans boredom and frustration was conquered by a gutsy combination of exhaustion, cowardice, and sheer mountaineering incompetence. He made not one, not two, but three intrepid assaults, some of which got quite a distance beyond Base Camp, and overcame many perilous circumstances along the way. The mountaineer Joe Simpson famously crawled for three days with a broken leg, but did he ever have to read Angels and Demons by Dan Brown while waiting for a weather window? But thats enough about Marks attempt; there were some talented climbers on the mountain as well, and this story is also about them. How did they get on? Heroes, villains, oddballs and madmen 8,000m peaks attract them all, and drama, intrigue and cock-ups aplenty were inevitable.