Product Description
In 1879 the Victorian explorer Edward Whymper set sail across the Atlantic bound for the high Andes of Ecuador, ostensibly to study the effects of high altitude on the human body. His conclusions were dull and tedious, and make lengthy passages of his book about the expedition, Travels amongst the great Andes of the Equator, very boring indeed.
But he had another motive for travelling to Ecuador, and this is where it gets more interesting, for Whymper is best known as a mountaineer. He is famous for making the very first ascent of the Matterhorn, a notorious climb which ended in tragedy when four of his companions fell to their deaths after a rope snapped on descent.
The climbs in Ecuador were more successful; in fact, along with his two faithful employees, the Chamonix guides Jean-Antoine and Louis Carrel, he made first ascents of nearly all of the country's highest mountains.
Yet he was a hard man to impress. He described the peaks he climbed as hilly rather than mountainous, citing the fact that it's possible to get a donkey up one or two of them as evidence of their inferiority over the mountains of the Alps.
But this didn't bother Mark Horrell. Whether heaving himself up with an ice axe or straddling a donkey, to him the views are just as good, so in 2009 he resolved to follow in Whymper's footsteps and have a go at a few of them himself. This is his diary from the adventure, and will be of interest to anyone thinking of climbing Ecuador's volcanoes with a guide, or anyone with a love of the Andes and its varied geography. This ebook is illustrated with many of the author's photographs.
But he had another motive for travelling to Ecuador, and this is where it gets more interesting, for Whymper is best known as a mountaineer. He is famous for making the very first ascent of the Matterhorn, a notorious climb which ended in tragedy when four of his companions fell to their deaths after a rope snapped on descent.
The climbs in Ecuador were more successful; in fact, along with his two faithful employees, the Chamonix guides Jean-Antoine and Louis Carrel, he made first ascents of nearly all of the country's highest mountains.
Yet he was a hard man to impress. He described the peaks he climbed as hilly rather than mountainous, citing the fact that it's possible to get a donkey up one or two of them as evidence of their inferiority over the mountains of the Alps.
But this didn't bother Mark Horrell. Whether heaving himself up with an ice axe or straddling a donkey, to him the views are just as good, so in 2009 he resolved to follow in Whymper's footsteps and have a go at a few of them himself. This is his diary from the adventure, and will be of interest to anyone thinking of climbing Ecuador's volcanoes with a guide, or anyone with a love of the Andes and its varied geography. This ebook is illustrated with many of the author's photographs.
