Fuya Fuya, the most exciting mountain in Ecuador

October 16, 2019 Trip reports andeanface, andes, ecuador, edita, fuya fuya, mojanda, trekking, volcanoes 1 Comment

According to the Urban Dictionary, the word ‘Fuya’ is a portmanteau whose meaning equates to the popular phrase ‘Fuck, yeah!’ If this is true, then the volcano Fuya Fuya was clearly going to be one of the most exciting climbs in Ecuador.

Quilotoa: the easiest way in Ecuador to look into a volcanic crater?

October 10, 2019 Opinion and advice andes, ecuador, jean-baptiste boussingault, llanganates mountains, quilotoa, volcanoes 0 Comment

Ecuador has some impressive volcanic craters. Some, such as Cotopaxi and Tungurahua — both of which I’m going to talk about later — take a bit of effort to get to. But first, a more relaxing interlude. Not all volcanoes

How to recover from a big altitude misjudgement

October 3, 2019 Expedition dispatches acclimatisation, altitude sickness, andes, cotopaxi, ecuador, fuya fuya, imbabura, llanganates mountains, trekking, tungurahua, volcanoes 3 Comments

Acclimatisation is a funny thing. On the face of it, it seemed like we had a good plan. After a full day acclimatising at 2850m in Quito, we would climb a 4258m volcano followed by a 4640m volcano. Then we

Two volcano hikes in northern Ecuador

September 24, 2019 Expedition dispatches andes, ecuador, fuya fuya, imbabura, trekking, volcanoes 0 Comment

A quick update from the road in Ecuador. Edita and I have finished our first two acclimatisation hikes exploring the northern part of the country. We started with Mojanda, a sprawling massif a 2-3 drive northeast of Quito. Mojanda has

A short escape to Ecuador to climb some of its more obscure peaks

September 18, 2019 Expedition dispatches andes, cerro hermoso, cotopaxi, ecuador, feet and wheels to chimborazo, hamish macinnes, imbabura, joe brown, tungurahua, volcanoes 5 Comments

Life has been hectic in the Horrell household recently and I’ve been finding it hard to keep on top of my writing. It is time for a holiday. We are returning to Ecuador for a couple of weeks to hike and climb some less-frequented peaks.

10 great books about mountains that have nothing to do with climbing

September 11, 2019 Reviews and tributes boardman tasker prize, chris stewart, dervla murphy, eric newby, hamish brown, larrie ferreiro, michael jacobs, mountain literature, nan shepherd, nature writing, nicholas crane, robert macfarlane, tony hawks, william dalrymple 7 Comments

The shortlist for this year’s Boardman Tasker Prize was announced this month, and once again five out of six books on the shortlist are about climbing. You can be certain that the winner will be one of the five. [*]

What the North Coast 500 has in common with Everest

September 4, 2019 Opinion and advice britain, cycling, everest, feet and wheels to chimborazo, media sensationalism, north coast 500, scotland, tourism 1 Comment

Queues of slow moving traffic, people who don’t know how to drive, human faeces by the side of the road – are we talking about Everest again? No, it’s the North Coast 500, a magnificent road trip in north-west Scotland which I once pedalled round.

An ascent of Aukštojas Hill, the highest mountain in Lithuania

August 28, 2019 Trip reports aukstojas hill, edita, juosapine hill, lithuania, peak bagging, vladas vitkauskas 4 Comments

Since 2015, Edita has been gradually ticking off the highest peaks in the UK. First it was the highest mountain in Wales; then the highest mountain in England and then in May the highest mountain in Scotland. It was high time she introduced me to the highest mountain in her own country, Lithuania.

What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered?

August 21, 2019 History aconcagua, alexander von humboldt, andes, charles-marie de la condamine, chimborazo, dhaulagiri, everest, himalayas, joseph barclay pentland, kangchenjunga, pierre bouguer, sajama 2 Comments

Yes, I know that a number of pedants will read the title of this blog post and mutter under their breaths with a shrug of indignation: ‘What was the highest mountain in the world before Everest was discovered? Why, Everest

The Ring of Steall: a Scottish hill walking classic

August 14, 2019 Trip reports am bodach, an gearanach, ben nevis, britain, hill walking, mamores, munros, ring of steall, schiehallion, scotland, scottish highlands, sgurr a mhaim, stob coire a chairn 5 Comments

A short distance south of Ben Nevis is a hidden sanctuary encircled by mountains. This hanging corrie has a single outlet which drains into Britain’s second highest waterfall. A full circuit of the ring of mountains involves 4 Munros and 7 peaks in total.