Seven Steps from Snowdon to Everest: A hill walker's journey to the top of the world Paperback – 27 Jan. 2016

What a book !!! A book that I fancied reading after reading the blurb. At the beginning a thought I'd made a mistake as it was a little slow. As i ventured further into the book I was hooked and found it compelling reading. It is light hearted in places. A thoroughly enjoyable read with a very detailed account of what really happens and the amount of work needed to achieve a dream\goal, the message all the way through to keep going a d not to give up. To reach your goa!l is quite an achievement. I am really inspired. I will keep this book and reread at a later date. I'd recommend this book to anyone who love a good true story.an inspiration to others who are thinking of climbing Everest for a challenging climb, loaded with information

I enjoyed this book a great deal, with one caveat. It's engrossing as it outlines the journey made by someone who starts off as a clogger like me right through the changes in mind and body required to climb Everest. It's a proper eye-opener into the world of high altitude walking and climbing as the person on the street experiences it, and the history rolled into the journey is engaging. The caveat is the author's style: he's a good writer and I enjoyed the book greatly, but the similes he uses would be better off left out in most cases. Simply put, they detract from the experience. I'm tempted to try his more recent published effort but I know I'll need to steel myself first. Anyway, those similes aside it's a very decent read. Recommended.

I've read several of Mark Horell's mountaineering shorts, ad loved them- his enthusiasm is infectious and got me up Ben Nevis earlier this year.This one is a full length account of his mountaineering exploits and is so very readable. He covers both the history of the mountains he climbs, anecdotes and his own thoughts, and is thoroughly entertaining in his descriptions- like the other reviewers have said he has a metaphor for every occasion! His account of climbing Everest is particularly gripping and gave me chills. What I particularly like is that he explains how anyone can achieve what he has- most people would think you have to be sufficiently wealthy to afford all these expeditions and time off work, but, as he clearly explains (and I am delighted to realise) it is within the reach of nearly everyone.Read it and be amused and inspired. The only thing to improve it is to have it out in paperback, I have several friends it would make a perfect present for!

Excellent book for all those interested in adventure, mountaineering or pursuing their dreams in the mountains. Mark’s writing weaves a great balance between his personal experiences, background context, mountaineering history and humour to create a highly enjoyable read.Ben E, UK

Imagine Bill Bryson taking up mountaineering and it will give you a small taste of what to expect here! I have read all of Marks books and this is his first and hopefully not last full length book,It made me laugh out loud on numerous occasions, a great read with lots of interesting information on the areas and mountains he has visited and climbed. Whilst I am sure I would get HACE or HAPE or probably both if I got out of my chair too quickly, reading books like Marks give me an insight into some of the fascinating areas of the world that I would love to visit. I have been following Marks blog for a couple of years and he never fails to make me laugh, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the mountains and who has a sense of humour! Buy it and enjoy it you will not regret it!!

it is an interesting read following the increasing driving force that leads a hill walker to the greatest heights and mountains in the world.

As a non-mountaineer who reads mountaineering books purely out of interest, the primary questions I ask of any Everest book are: 'what's it like?' and 'Why do people do it?' I think the reason Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air was so successful - public appetite for mountaineering disasters aside - was that he very vividly painted a picture of what it is like to climb Everest. In short: it's hard. Mark Horrell repeats that here in a very personal and accessible way, taking us on a journey that not only doesn't suffer for the lack of disaster and drama common to most Everest accounts, but is better off for it. It's a very honest and human account of a man who didn't set out to do something, but ended up doing it anyway.

This book details one man's journey both physically and psychologically from climbing the wonder that is our own Snowdon to the highest point on the planet. Laced with facts from the 'firsts' of our era and compassion for the lives and danger of the Nepalese race in general, this book has some proper lol moments and also recommendation for two of the best guided mountain tour operators across the globe (see what I did there!). This is a must-read for us real people who wonder 'could I ever climb Everest?' If you're looking for in-depth technical know how on how to conquer the big one, this might not be for you. Read it anyway. I loved It!

So fun and relatable, great to see mountain adventures of a regular guy, written in a great style.

An honest , enjoyable,witty account of the ten years to summit Everest .. written from a completely different perspective of someone who loved the mountains and climbed for the love of it . A realistic account of the terror and fear that one would feel 28000 feet above and that’s what makes it so personal and relatable .

El libro de sale de los estereotipos de montañero de éxito que cuenta las grandes hazañas como si fueran fáciles. Este libro refleja la realidad de como una persona normal consigue subir al Everest y el esfuerzo y los pasos que le suponen hasta conseguirlo desde un punto de vista humano y con grandes dotes de realidad.

I have read earlier works by this author, and enjoyed them all. The perspective in this book is a little different. The other Kindle volumes I read were made up of his journals. As you can imagine, that makes for an immediacy in the writing. This is his first full-length book, so it naturally takes a wider view. For example, by sprinkling in sections of mountaineering history here and there. Those sections are usually interesting, written as they are from the point of view of a non-professional climber.In a way this is his best effort, because it is longer and covers his entire trekking and climbing history, but it is a bit weaker, it seems to me because the writing seems a little more forced. For example, I became aware that he uses a lot of metaphors, and some of them seemed to fall flat for me. For example, one of the first ones 's "My pack had been about as heavy as Cliff Richard singing Van Halen numbers during a rain break at Wimbledon." Or the next one: while my stomach rumbled like a pair of toddlers sucking milkshake through a pig's intestine." Obviously they are meant to be exaggeration, a classic form of humor since Twain, but some of them fall flat in my opinion, and there may be just a few too many of them. But this was a minor distraction for me, and perhaps because I am, a writer ,myself.I heartily recommend this book, not just for its own travelogue, mountaineering story telling, but to support the author su that he can climb high and write again.

Gute und nachvollziehbare Geschichte über den langen Aufbau einer Wanderer - Trekker - Bergsteiger - Höhenbergsteiger Laufbahn aus der Sicht eines Normalsterblichen. Der Humor ist sehr 'englisch' und manchmal etwas skurril, aber immer unterhaltsam. Viele - z.T. zu viele - Hintergrundinformationen über frühere und Erstbesteigungen - oft auch aus der englischen Sicht, aber dennoch sehr interessant. Eine erfrischende Abwechslung von der sonst erhältlichen Literatur, in der meist nur Extrembesteigungen und Katastrophen beschrieben werden.Diejenigen, die dieses Buch kritisieren, waren wohl selbst noch nie in den hohen Bergen.Diejenigen, die das 'Pistenbergsteigen' (Messner etc.) kritisieren, sollten mal in sich gehen, denn sie fliegen mit dem Flugzeug dahin und benutzen im Alltag auch die Errungenschaften der Menschheit.