Mark Horrell – author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion

This time last year, the Easter holiday weekend fell a week later, and we enjoyed a period of blistering spring sunshine in the Lake District. We raced across hilltops around Grasmoor  and Buttermere in conditions as bright as any summer’s day.
A year later and we could be living in another country. It’s been so wet here in the Cotswolds that even the trout have been taking swimming lessons. The river through our garden is still a thundering torrent when it should be a bubbling brook by now...

Yes, folks. It’s time for the next mesmerising instalment of my award-winning video diaries (I awarded myself a bottle of Cotswold Gold Ale after I posted the last set). But before I start, here’s a quick reminder.
Back in August and September 2022, Edita and I embarked on our first (and still our only) Himalayan trek since the COVID pandemic, to Ladakh in northern India. Also known as Little Tibet, Ladakh is a desert region north of the Himalayan divide, comprising...

If you’re a regular reader of this blog then you will know that I hate cycling. Yet – prize-winning fool that I am – three times I’ve embarked upon multi-day cycling adventures across mountainous terrain.
In 2017, Edita had the brilliant idea of quitting our jobs and cycling from sea level to the summit of Chimborazo, the furthest point from the centre of the earth (we didn’t actually cycle all the way – we got off our bikes to climb the last bit). I...

It’s a full three years and more since I last released a series of my trademark shit videos on YouTube. Some of you are doubtless wondering if a yeti got my tongue. Eighteen months have gone by since I trekked in Ladakh, and the hilarious footage that...