The release of a major Hollywood movie about the 1996 Everest tragedy (see my review of it here) means Everest has been generating a lot of interest recently.
Traffic to my blog has virtually doubled in the space of a few days, but the interest is very narrow. I’ve written a great many posts about Everest (some would say too many!) since I started this blog five years ago, but of the 123 posts tagged with “everest” three in particular have been receiving the lion’s share of the traffic:
- 5 media myths about Everest busted. A post I wrote in response to negative media coverage a few days after I returned from my Everest expedition in 2012.
- 5 Everest horror stories. A review of Dark Summit by Nick Heil and High Crimes by Michael Kodas, two books by journalists which focus on the negative aspects of commercial Everest expeditions.
- Don’t be fooled by disaster porn. A post about mountaineering disaster books.
It’s not hard to see what these three posts have in common. Some of the search phrases people have been typing in are equally illuminating:
“how hard is it to climb everest”
“horror stories from everest”
“1996 everest disaster”
“celebrities that have climbed mount everest” (for those of you who came here using this one, sorry to disappoint you)
Everest is an amazing mountain with a rich history stretching back a hundred years (or even longer if you include the stories of its discovery by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India), a history that continues to be written every year. It’s a shame that current interest in the mountain should reflect the obsession with controversy, disaster and the cult of celebrity that’s a strange quirk of the mass media age.
I have no illusions that most of the new people arriving on my blog at the moment are ephemeral visitors, who will lose interest in Everest and move onto the next topic soon enough. There is little I can do to hold onto these readers. I hope they enjoyed what I wrote, but they are probably already gone and will not be reading this.
But there will also be some of you whose interest in Everest, the Himalayas and Nepal has been kindled, and you wish to explore a little further.
It is you this announcement is aimed at, as well as those of you who drop by this blog from time to time, but have not thought of reading any of my ebooks.
The Chomolungma Diaries, the journal of my expedition to climb Everest from the north side in 2012 is currently available COMPLETELY FREE in most of the main online bookstores, including Amazon, iTunes, Kobo and Barnes & Noble. It’s a no-brainer – download it while you can!
Click here to see the book description and list of online bookstores.
Why am I doing this?
The Chomolungma Diaries will give you a fuller picture of what it’s really like to climb Everest on a commercial expedition, one which, like most expeditions to Everest, doesn’t end in disaster.
I will show you the realities of life on an expedition, base camp life, the trekking, the climbing, the tears and the joy. I hope I will make you laugh, and I may even make you cry a little too.
If you enjoy the book, then I hope you will consider spending a dollar or so on one of my other expedition diaries, but more than this, I hope you will consider buying Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest, my first full-length “proper” book, that I have been working on for the last three years, a book that describes my ten-year journey from hill walker to Everest climber, and includes much historical background to teach you more about the rich history of Everest and other popular mountains worldwide.
I also hope that by downloading this little freebie and reading it, it will inspire you to visit more of the mountains I describe and learn about their heritage.
Hi Mark,
Long time lurker here. Thank you for the gift. I just finished reading it – my first mountaineering book – and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I’m firmly convinced I could never do it – I was too tense reading your account!
I’ve never written a review for itunes before but I gave you 5 stars and pre-ordered your new book. Many thanks for the entertainment and education from the blog and the book(s). I hope the new book is a bestseller
Cheers
Nick
That’s great, I’m glad you enjoyed it, Nick. Triple thanks for (1) the kind words, (2) the 5 star review, and (3) especially for ordering the book. I hope you enjoy it even more than this one!
Thanks for the book, Mark! I’m halfway through now and enjoying it very much. I’ve been interested in mountains and mountaineering for a long time, but I admit to finding your blog in the course of an Everest-the-movie-inspired reading binge. The Chomolungma Diaries was just the kind of thing I wanted to find, and I expect I’ll be reading your other work once I’m done!
Great, thanks for the message, Rae. I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
I would like to receive your blog but Iam pretty computer illiterate so please t ell me how to do this
I have been a Everest freak for as far as I can remember. I met Sir Edmund Hillary about 10 years ago when he visited Toronto and got his autograph in my book The Climb.
I went to Nepal 3 years ago to trek to Base Camp but could not get by 16,800 ft because of the altitude. My favorite book The Will to Climb
I will order your book and report back
Thanks
You can download The Chomolungma Diaries from a number of online bookstores. There is a list of them here:
https://www.markhorrell.com/books/diaries/the-chomolungma-diaries/
Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest can be pre-ordered here. It will download to your device as soon as it’s published:
https://www.markhorrell.com/SnowdonToEverest
They are both only available as ebooks currently, so you will need an e-reading device such as a Kindle, or tablet or smartphone equipped with the Kindle app. I intended to publish Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest as a paperback in 2016.
Thanks, I hope you enjoy them!
I just realized to my horror that I’ve been saying Cholomunga instead of Chomolungma…. for weeks! No wonder my google searches were getting such sparse results.
I was wondering why, if you want to give out the diaries free, you didn’t just post them complete as a large blog entry? That would save us net illiterates so much hassle with potentially unsafe Kindle downloads, misplaced files, opening new accounts, finding old passwords and so on. I spent about an hour on it and gave up when an amazon password verification sent me to facebook login. It looked like an attempted password swipe, using a facebook false front, to me.
Aha well, I’m sorry I don’t know why Amazon sent you to Facebook, but sometimes it’s necessary to put in some effort to claim the reward! My motive isn’t entirely selfless, and I hope those who enjoy this one for free will enjoy it enough to buy some of the others 🙂
Some people will continue to buy your books because of the way you write.