The Chomolungma Diaries: Climbing Mount Everest with a commercial expedition (Footsteps on the Mountain Diaries)

In 2012 Mark Horrell takes us along on his trek up Everest with a commercial climbing expedition. Even though he has a significant advantage compared to the early Everest explorers -- such as safety lines all along the route and an experienced Sherpa looking after him -- the grueling ordeal still takes everything he has, and the narration just about left me gasping for oxygen along with him. He does a great job of making the danger of the undertaking very clear and real -- 2012 was a deadly year on Everest and Horrell's encounters with people who don't survive the attempt brings home the tragedy of these failures.My quibbles with the book are minor and easy to work around. Climbing Everest is a much more complex undertaking than “Climb to the top, climb back down,” and Horrell never really explains the plans ahead of time. I highly recommend that you do a quick web search (something such as “Everest north face route”) before getting too far into the book to get a quick overview of what’s ahead. On YouTube you can find a 3D simulation of the entire route, which will give you an excellent appreciation for what Horrell is attempting. I kept a map of the route handy while reading and found it very useful.My other quibble is that Horrell occasionally uses climbing terms without explanation, such as jumar (a rope-climbing device) and serac (a column of glacial ice). This casual use of terms that a non-climber probably won’t know is probably a consequence of the book being written as a diary. The use of these terms without explanation would have been a bit more annoying in a printed book, but thankfully the Kindle dictionary was always there with a definition.A final tip for the reader: The book contains some photos, but it turns out that Horrell’s web site has a large collection of his photos (from his Everest trip and others), and thankfully his Everest photos are organized into sections that parallel the book pretty well. Sadly I didn’t discover this fact until late in the book -- it would have been nice to read about a part of his trek and then check out his photos on his web site. The web site address is in the back of the book, and you want the 2012 Everest photos. They’ll add a lot to your enjoyment of the book.Despite the minor quibbles, this was a very enjoyable and exciting read, and I had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend it. The essence of the book is contained in a line spoken by one of Horrell’s fellow climbers, Ian, beaten and spent after his ordeal: "I don't think I respected Everest enough before," he says, "but I do now."

Mark Horrell writes a very readable account of his successful climb of Mt Everest in 2012. Their teams starts off in Kathmandu and makes the overland journey to Tibet to climb the mountain from the north. From the start, the reader may be misled into thinking that this is some parody of sorts. Horrell is funny and is able to derive humour out of every unpleasant situation in the mountains. However, he soon gets serious with his day to day, blow by blow account of the events. Still, I can't help wondering how much beer their team actually brought to Base Camp.Horrell goes in great detail describing their long and tedious acclimatisation climbs. To his credit, he does so without boring the reader. When the narrow window is found and the team gets ready for the summit push, Horrell seems to forget how to be funny and details his difficult and dangerous struggle up the North Col, First Step, Second Step, Summit Ridge etc.The action doesn't end there. Unlike most books in this genre that merely skims over the descent, Horrells recounts the many dangerous moments he had while trying to get off the mountain alive, under the watchful eye of his personal Sherpa Changba who has climbed the mountain 12 times.There are quite a number of dead bodies the author encountered on his climb. The one that bugs him most is an irrational climber he ran into on his descent. Horrell dedicates this him. Ridden with guilt, he wonders if that climber could have survived if he had advised him to turn around.Overall, it is a highly readable book. However, I skipped chunks at the end as the author described how totally drained and humourless he was when he reached Base Camp.

I really enjoyed reading the travel diary "The Chomolungma Diaries". I have read many mountain climbing adventure books and spent much more on them, but this compares readily with any other expedition novels I have enjoyed. Mark is a very engaging writer: honest, humorous, with wonderful descriptions of the environment and captivating tales of the trails. He lets you feel like you are traveling along with him, going on an adventure with a regular guy (although obviously he is an accomplished climber, hiker and athlete). I plan to buy and read whatever he writes in the future. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good travel story.

Well written down-to-earth journal giving an insight into a seemingly ordinary guy doing an extraordinary thing which serves as an inspiration for those who are living to live their dreams. Thank yoy

A simple description of events (not a real book in term of narrative) about a personal, human great achievement.Exciting because it is transparent, real, not-fiction.

Purchased via kindleWas interested to know about Everest expeditionsThis book gave me a great insight into what it takes to climb mount Everest.Book is divided into 48 bite sized diary entries on day to day events leading upto summit.Authors personalized views on deathzone made an interesting read.His humerous take on difficulties he faced as an amateur climber was funny.Highly recommended for any body interested in mt.everest expeditions.

Das Buch liest sich gut und der Klient als Author führt zu einem interessanten Perspektivwechsel. Die Geschichte ist gut aber eben nichts Außergewöhnliches.

In April/May 2012 Mark went with a commerical outfit to the north side of Everest and the book is basically his diary entries, as-is almost. The writing is fluid and easy going and I soon disappeared into the story, which seemed to be one of the grinding tedium of base camp broken often by outrageous alcohol consumption, or so it seemed. It was a bit of a shock to find out how large these base camp areas are, while up at Advanced Base Camp (ABC) you can't even escape the noise of thumping stereos.But this boredom and frustration is just the necessary backdrop to the eventual summit push, wonderfully written over several chapters and vividly perceptive in that the descent is always in the back of his mind rather than the summit as the end in itself. The characters aren't fleshed out in any detail as it's a fairly short book but this means the action is constant once the summit attempt is underway. Mark's character observation fills in just enough to place himself in context and as I skipped over the fast moving prose each sketch would come back to me as that particular character came and went on the climb and bits clicked into place. Very subtle writing in places that I really enjoyed.What really astounded me was the almost total reliance on others in order to get anywhere. It seemed to be a tale of pay your money, turn up and follow the fixed ropes. The entire north side of Everest was in limbo while the Chinese/Tibet rope fixing crew worked their way up the ridge with all the teams following behind and being allocated their departure time on summit day to leave camp 3 and go for it. Having said that, following fixed ropes is no easy task for anyone and Mark puts this nicely in context at the end of the book with a fitting commentary on the process. One of personal achievement rather than the mountaineering world domination of the big hitters. It's his story, his struggle and his achievment told in his own, inimitable way.The fast pace is no doubt down to the source material coming direct from his diaries but one thing I found a little jarring was the inclusion of photographs. The writing is wonderfully descriptive in just the right amount. None of the gushings of Mallory he quotes when on the north col, just enough for you to paint a picture of the terrain to feed your imagination. For instance, I was gripped reading of the ascent to the 'Ladder of Death', only to be jolted back to the living room by a picture of it. I quickly forgot what it looked like though and continued with my own imaginative version constructed from the vivid writing.There is wry humour aplenty and I laughed out loud quite a few times, almost spilling my cuppa at some of the scenes and characters while the account of the ascent reminded me of the time I climbed the Matterhorn and I came very close to understanding some of the feelings he describes on that day.The book ends with terribly poignant observations of events during summit day. Personal reaction to what occurred and what might have been, if only...This isn't a book for the gung-ho. There are no injections direct into the ganglia on Annapurna to save frostbitten body parts. There are no dragging of severed limbs across jagged rocks or manly chested chisel chinned guides hauling wailing clients to their doom. But there are arse feathers flying, near disaster thawing a frozen pee bottle and a mad Russian trying to drag a six foot cross to the top without the Chinese finding out.This book is an honest account of one bloke's trip to Everest, the hard way, for him and told beautifully. I'm so glad I got it!