Mark Horrell

Mount Rainier Has Shrunk, and Its Summit Location Has Changed » Explorersweb A new study shows that all five ice-capped peaks in the Lower 48 have shrunk, including Mt. Rainier, which has lost 10 feet in height since the 1950s.

In 1956, Mt Rainier was 4,392m at its highest point, Columbia Crest. Now the summit is a 4,389m rocky outcrop a football field away. Columbia Crest is only 4,386m 🗻

A nightmare scenario for peak baggers, who now have to go back and climb it again 😱
explorersweb.com/mount-rainie...

Everest 2026: Khumbu Icefall Bypass-Real or a Dream? | The Blog on alanarnette.com Mostly, local Nepalese media are promoting a new route bypassing the infamous Khumbu Icefall, claiming it to be shorter, faster, and safer, retracing the original path used by the British 1953 expedit...

French donors have funded a new $400K via ferrata route with a 100m abseil that bypasses the Khumbu Icefall to Camp 1 on Everest 🗻

But why? It's hard to believe that commercial teams will use it? 😕
www.alanarnette.com/blog/2025/11...

Craig y Llyn: zipping up the cliff of the lake A short distance south of Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons is a range of peaks less well known to the outside world. The Rhigos Hills are home to the highest point in the county of…

🌟 New blog post ✍️

A short distance south of Pen y Fan, the highest peak in the Brecon Beacons, is a range of peaks less well known to the outside world 🍟

The Rhigos Hills are home to the highest point in the county of Glamorgan 🗻

My latest County Top ✅
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/cr...

High art: the museum that is only accessible via an eight-hour hike The Frattini Bivouac is part of a Bergamo gallery’s experiment to ‘think like a mountain’. But in the thin air of the Italian alps, curatorial ideas are challenged in more ways than one

"The bivouac can be read simultaneously as an act of love and an act of hubris: a structure that wants to merge with the mountain while also marking it." ⛺

A sentence that wants to merge with my head while going straight over it. 🤯

Looks a good museum though 🏛️
www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...

Do you mean Billi or Eberhard? I know he didn't like Eberhard's research (with good reason) but I didn't know he had a problem with Billi.

Remembering Elizabeth Hawley, the Sherlock Holmes of Himalayan Summits » Explorersweb For over 50 years, Elizabeth Hawley documented Himalayan expeditions. We commemorate her birthday by revisiting some of her important investigations.

"Climbers wanted her approval more than a certificate. Messner called her 'the only authority' on Himalayan records." ✅

Nice tribute to the founder of the Himalayan Database, Elizabeth Hawley 🏔️
explorersweb.com/remembering-...

Hellofresh box with roll of toilet paper

Today's Hellofresh delivery arrived with a complimentary roll of festive toilet paper 🎄🚽

I knew I shouldn't have ordered the curry this week 😦

Amazon launches an AI-powered Kindle Translate service for e-book authors | TechCrunch Kindle Translate, an AI-powered translation service, is designed to broaden the reach of e-book authors.

"Amazon claims its AI translations are 'automatically evaluated for accuracy' before publication, but it doesn’t detail what steps are involved."

A job best done by an editor in their native language. Still, it could provide a good first draft 🤔
techcrunch.com/2025/11/06/a...

Cartoon: two men chatting. One, holding something in his hands says "I've made a model of Mount Everest”. The second asks "To scale?". He replies "No, just to look at".

www.worldofmoose.com/products/eve...

Tour du Mont Blanc, the videos: Part 2 – Switzerland and France Ever since an incident in the Italian Apennines, the promise of ladders on a hiking route has made me nervous. As we approached the 11 ladders of the Grand Balcon Sud on the Tour du Mont Blanc, I w…

🌟 New blog post ✍️

Ever since a hike in the Apennines, the promise of ladders on a route has made me nervous 🪜

As we approached the Grand Balcon Sud, I wondered if they would be like the ones on Corno Piccolo? 😨

You can see for yourself in my latest videos 🎥
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/to...

British mountaineer Henry Todd dies at 80 Henry B Todd, a veteran British mountain outfitter, has died at the age of 80 while undergoing treatment in Kathmandu.

One of the strangest figures in Everest history, Henry Todd, has passed away in a Kathmandu hospital.

The article doesn't mention his earlier career as a manufacturer of LSD (google Operation Julie for more). He later became an Everest expedition pioneer. RIP ➕
thetourismtimes.com/news/t3-spec...

Jim Morrison completes first ski descent of Mount Everest's north face - Adventure Mountain When I close my eyes and think back to the North Face of Mount Everest 20 years ago, I see the so-called Supercouloir in front of me. The Japanese Couloir in the lower section and the Hornbein Couloir...

"The fact that Jim Morrison skied down this combination of two couloirs [Everest’s Supercouloir] yesterday and survived unscathed borders on a minor miracle in my opinion." 😮🪄

It certainly does. Next week Elvis Presley will be free climbing the Second Step 🕺
abenteuer-berg.de/en/jim-morri...

Survival Stories Get It Wrong, Drinking Pee Won’t Save You » Explorersweb By the time you’re dehydrated enough to consider drinking urine, the urine will be so concentrated that it’s just too salty.

Really useful stuff from @ashrouten.com.
Saved me from another disappointing night out 🍺

TL;DR if you're thinking of drinking your own Fosters, do it before you get thirsty.
explorersweb.com/drinking-pee...

Mount Everest: A little less drama, please! - Adventure Mountain It shouldn’t surprise me anymore, because it’s nothing new. And yet I am always astonished at how quickly and comprehensively the media avalanche rolls in as soon as Mount Everest comes into play. Tha...

"I am always astonished at how quickly and comprehensively the media avalanche rolls in as soon as Mount Everest comes into play." 🗻 📰

Well said @springinsfeld.bsky.social, but less drama on Everest? There will be pigs flying to the summit before then 🐖✈️
abenteuer-berg.de/en/mount-eve...

An ascent of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Dominican Republic This is the second of two posts about our recent visit to the mountainous island of Hispaniola. In the first post, I introduced you to the Dominican Republic, and how we came to trek there. In this…

🌟 New blog post ✍️

It was going to be a heck of a day. We had over 2,000m to ascend in tropical heat 🌞

Edita and I couldn’t think of another occasion when we'd ascended so many metres in a single day 👣

My trip report from Pico Duarte, summit of the Caribbean 🌴🇩🇴
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/an...

Better to do it in private 😉

Why I gave the world wide web away for free | Tim Berners-Lee My vision was based on sharing, not exploitation – and here’s why it’s still worth fighting for

This 👉 www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A mission to climb the highest mountains in the Caribbean A few years ago, I wrote a blog post to explain that from that moment on I would aim to climb more obscure mountains that hardly anyone writes about. But how to decide which unusual peaks to climb?…

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The Dominican Republic has 5 mountain ranges, inc. the highest peak in the Caribbean 🇩🇴

I would never have travelled there had Edita not been working in Haiti, but I found a great destination for short multi-day treks 👣

But boy is it humid 😓
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/a-...

Arc’teryx fireworks display in Tibet prompts environmental outcry Outdoor brand says the Rising Dragon promotional event was out of line with its values after public criticism

[Excessively priced outdoor clothing brand] Arc-teryx issued apologies for the event, with the company saying the display “was out of line with Arc’teryx’s values”. 🔥🛢️

Or as Groucho Marx said, if you don't like our values, we have others 🙈
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...

World Stone Skimming Championships Rocked By Cheating Scandal » Explorersweb On a small Scottish island, the World Stone Skimming Championship was rocked by the discovery of doctored stones. Confronted, the perpetrators confessed.

"Competitors approached the adjudicator, sharing their concerns over suspiciously circular skipping stones."

Good grief, they didn't did they? All I can say is, what a bunch of tossers! 😳
explorersweb.com/world-stone-...

What is a Dickson Step? A Dickson Step is a small step around 5 to 10 centimetres high in a hotel bathroom doorway. The step is designed in such a way to be a trip hazard for unsuspecting guests who get up to relieve them…

Thanks for the advice, @markhorrell.bsky.social.
www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/wh...

One upon a time there was a man who climbed both summits of Mera Peak and narrated an audiobook about it The handful of you who are fans of my audiobooks will be delighted to learn that I’ve just released another one. Islands in the Snow, about a trek through the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal, is …

🌟 New blog post ✍️

The handful of people who enjoy my audiobooks will be happy to learn that I’ve just released another one 📚

Islands in the Snow, about a trek through the Solu-Khumbu region of Nepal, is now available on all the main audiobook channels 🎵 🎧

www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/on...

6% of those think their nemesis is Dick Dastardly

Ah, OK, understood. I used to do that too but now I keep the diary on my phone. You don't get fed up typing it all out again?

I would contend that it's difficult to write about camping without the occasional toilet anecdote ⛺

More remarkably, your books are handwritten? 😲

"He lost to Clutterbuck in heartbreaking fashion, as Bellemore was judged not to have drunk all of his beer."

The beer mile equivalent of dropping the baton 🏃

Meet the five-time beer-mile world champion: ‘I knew I could chug from a young age’ Corey Bellemore keeps dominating the Beer Mile World Classic, which involves running after glugging four drinks

"For reference, the fastest ever mile time is 3:43.13, set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999. El Guerrouj did not drink four beers during his run."

4 laps of the track with a beer to start each lap. If only I'd known earlier in life this was a thing 🍺🍺🍺🍺
www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/a...

How selfie parks limit tourism damage to the world’s most ‘Instagrammable’ destinations Travellers have been killed in search of the perfect shot – selfie parks may be controversial but they should at least keep tourists safe.

"Selfie parks provide self-contained spaces that give visitors a curated environment in which to create content (often of themselves)." 🤔

An interesting concept. Will shepherding the selfie hunters into a warehouse help to reduce overtourism? 📷
theconversation.com/how-selfie-p...

What will drone transport on Everest mean for Sherpa mountaineers? Much of the media coverage around Everest this year has focused on a brace of unusual speed ascents that have been framed as a game changer for aspiring Everest climbers. But there was another tech…

What will drone transport on Everest mean for Sherpa mountaineers?

Xenon-assisted climbing may be an unnecessary innovation but this isn’t: it means less gear-hauling and more safety, says @markhorrell.bsky.social

www.markhorrell.com/blog/2025/wh...

This Free Soloist Wants Your Attention » Explorersweb One young free soloist seems to be risking his life for Instagram clicks -- and asking followers to pay him for the entertainment.

“Today is day 11 of free soloing a harder route every day until I fall,” the tousle-haired young rock climber says to the camera.

Interesting form of entertainment. Presumably it all ends quite suddenly...
explorersweb.com/this-free-so...