Today's Hellofresh delivery arrived with a complimentary roll of festive toilet paper 🎄🚽

I knew I shouldn't have ordered the curry this week 😦

Essential supplies for an ascent of Mont Blanc in 1851. Prunes are the most important item to alleviate a climber's biggest fear... 💩
(from 1865 The Golden Age of Mountaineering by Giles Modica) 📚

Cheers 🍻

"Local youths... set up flags to block landing zones and issued warnings to pilots. Sagarmatha National Park... had already banned commercial sightseeing flights."

Strange things are afoot in the Everest region, where locals are at war with helicopter companies 🚁
www.arthprakash.com/world/detail...

"Fowler, now age 68, and Saunders, 74, completed another big new route: the first ascent of a 6,258-meter peak, also in Pakistan."

Retirement, what's retirement? Mick Fowler will be moving on to bigger adventures now that he's retired from HMRC. 😉

americanalpineclub.org/news/2024/12...

What a difference 3 days makes, to paraphrase Dinah Washington.

In Monday we were post holing through shin-deep snow to reach the summit of 764m Ben na Caillich.

Mild temps and rain meant that today, not a speck of snow on top of 953m Meall Dearg.

(pics by @editahorrell.bsky.social)

Bill Bryson is a hero, but on this occasion I'm afraid he's got it wrong.

In his defence (n.b. British spelling), I don't think he's ever written about climbing.

Heartbreaking story in the Guardian today... 🐻 😢

Not this, then?

Choose 1 book that has stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 1 day. Be sure to give a damn good reason.

This one. It took me about 10 years to get to the end but it was well worth it, and I had fun along the way
www.markhorrell.com/books/seven-...

#Books
#BookSky
#BookChallenge

Best example of alliteration I've seen for a while. Well done, BBC... 🏏👏

Good morning from the Cotswolds. Well, that was unexpected 🌨️ ❄️

A world in which violence, even well-intentioned sorts, such as... er, ritual murder and cannabalism...

Eric Newby's very advanced sense of humour 😳

Day 2 of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Altogether gentler than yesterday's snowy passes. The sun came out and we followed gentle trails through pine forests, villages and alpine meadows between Les Houches and Les Contamines.

Day 1 of the Tour du Mont Blanc. Fresh snow over the last few days has given the trail from Planpraz above Chamonix a wintry feel.

My first time in Chamonix for 19 years ⏳

I had a chance to study these statues of the 3 people most associated with the early history of Mont Blanc.

Balmat (pointing) guided de Saussure (standing) to the summit in 1787. Paccard (sitting) made the first ascent with Balmat in 1786.