Thieves Liars and Mountaineers

<p>This is the tale of Mark Horrell’s not-so-nearly ascent of Gasherbrum in Pakistan of how one man’s boredom and frustration was conquered by a gutsy combination of exhaustion cowardice and sheer mountaineering incompetence.</p><p>He made not one not two but three intrepid assaults some of which got quite a distance beyond Base Camp and overcame many perilous circumstances along the way. The mountaineer Joe Simpson famously crawled for three days with a broken leg but did he ever have to read <em>Angels and Demons</em> by Dan Brown while waiting for a weather window?</p><p>But that’s enough about Mark’s attempt; there were some talented climbers on the mountain as well and this story is also about them. How did they get on? Heroes villains oddballs and madmen – 8000m peaks attract them all and drama intrigue and cock-ups aplenty were inevitable.</p>