A short distance south of Everest rises a giant 7,129m whale-back of a mountain called Baruntse, accessed to the south by a vast snow plateau guarded on each side by 6,000m passes.
Mark Horrell had just failed on his third attempt to climb an 8,000m peak, Cho Oyu in Tibet, and returned to Nepal for the consolation of climbing a smaller peak with his friend Mark Dickson.
One of the beauties of climbing in the Himalayas is that there are great adventures to be had just getting to the foot of a mountain. Setting out with a small army of Nepalese staff, the two Marks trekked for a month across jungle, moorland, hill, valley and alpine desert, enduring tropical heat, porter strikes, leeches, rain storms and peculiar lunches.
They hoped to cross both high passes and climb Baruntse, but as they arrived on its slopes they discovered all was not well, so they camped beside an alpine lake, and waited patiently for the mountain gods to grant them their chance at the summit.
(Previously published as The Tomb of Chewang Nima)
About this series
The Footsteps on the Mountain travel diaries are Mark's expedition journals. They are a lightly-edited version of what he scribbles in his tent each evening after a day in the mountains. They are quick reads, self-edited, and available at a budget price.
Mark's first full-length, commercially-edited book, Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, about his journey to becoming an Everest climber, is published in December 2015.
Mark Horrell had just failed on his third attempt to climb an 8,000m peak, Cho Oyu in Tibet, and returned to Nepal for the consolation of climbing a smaller peak with his friend Mark Dickson.
One of the beauties of climbing in the Himalayas is that there are great adventures to be had just getting to the foot of a mountain. Setting out with a small army of Nepalese staff, the two Marks trekked for a month across jungle, moorland, hill, valley and alpine desert, enduring tropical heat, porter strikes, leeches, rain storms and peculiar lunches.
They hoped to cross both high passes and climb Baruntse, but as they arrived on its slopes they discovered all was not well, so they camped beside an alpine lake, and waited patiently for the mountain gods to grant them their chance at the summit.
(Previously published as The Tomb of Chewang Nima)
About this series
The Footsteps on the Mountain travel diaries are Mark's expedition journals. They are a lightly-edited version of what he scribbles in his tent each evening after a day in the mountains. They are quick reads, self-edited, and available at a budget price.
Mark's first full-length, commercially-edited book, Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, about his journey to becoming an Everest climber, is published in December 2015.
