Martin
Martin Hurton Joined: September 17th 2004
Logged in: October 22nd 2009
Logged in: October 22nd 2009
This is my travel journal which will hopefully keep you updated as to my whereabouts as I plod around the world. I hope that you enjoy the site and I look forward to your messages.
Oh, and if you happen to be "in the area" then make sure you drop me a line so that we can meet for a drink - It would be rude not too!
Visited Countries Map
Travel Blog Posts
Hi everyone, Since we arrived home I've had some time to finally get my website built. It's an online gallary where people can buy some of my better photographs from. Please take a look at: Photography by Martin Hurton It's not all my travel pics, although there is a good "Mountain" section from our adventures in Peru. Hope the New Year is off to a good start for you. Keep in-touch, Martin. ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton So in this case we swallowed our pride and headed back down. And in contradiction I am very proud of us. But let´s start from the beginning and where we have been for the last week... We decided that as our trip was sadly nearing an end we should attempt one more summit after our recent success at Pisco. My friend Michael has now earned me the nickname of "Summit Monkey", and there was a 6000+m peak waiting for us to climb. Nevado Chopicalci at 6354m to be precise. Research suggested that this climb would be technically more difficult than the previous, and of course there was the 6354m of altitude to contend with. It might sound strange at first, but we never actually expected to summit this mountain. It would be ... read more
Basecamp
Photography by Martin Hurton Cairn: A pile of rock, wood or both used to mark a route or route junction. Cornice: Wind-sculpted snow overhanging a ridge; a hazard to avoid by not walking on or in the fall line below it. Col: A pass or depression in a mountain range or ridge. Often the start of a climb or the highest point of a pass. Crampons: Spiked metal devices that attach firmly to climbing boots to provide reliable footing on ice and firm snow slopes. Crevasse: A fissure or crack in the glacier. A chasm. Glacier: A huge mass of ice slowly flowing over a land mass, formed from compacted snow in an area where snow accumulation exceeds melting and sublimation. Moraine: A random accumulation of boulders, rocks, scree and sand carried down the mountain and ... read more
A bit of instruction
Photography by Martin Hurton Not too often I´m glad to say, in fact we spent a surprising amount of time on it. Ice climbing...not a sport we are used to seeing in England and the main reason that we decided to try it here. And what fun it was! I know that I´ve gone digital now but the files have been way to big to put on the internet, but we thought that it would be nice to show you a few photo´s of us playing so took some at a smaller file size just for you. We were picked up in a private taxi with our instructor for the day, Whalter. He was a quiet chap and spoke good English but at 7am we were happy that he let us enjoy the 2 hour taxi ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton Hi all, Haven´t heared from quite a few of you in a while, so hope that everyone is well and not bored with reading my blogs. Remember that you can make them more interesting by adding comments yourself. So where were we, are, Huaraz. Well we are still here, or back here, depending on how you look at it. We returned yesterday afternoon from a four day trek in the Santa Cruz valley. I won´t go into the full four day trek on this occassion for several reasons. I guess that there´s only so much trekking you want to read about, and really there isn´t that much to say. We knew before we headed out that this trek was the most popular in the area with tour groups offering you treks from ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton Well, it has been a busy tour north since our time around the Colca Canyon. We felt no need to spend any longer in this region as we were looking forward to spending some time at the beach, chilling out for a while at a nature reserve, heading back to Lima for a new camera lense (yeah, like they´ll have one there) and fuelling ourselves up before heading to the wonderful mountain ranges in the North of Peru. So where are we now? Well, we headed from Arequipa up the Pan American Highway to Nazca (I don´t have to tell you that it was by bus), en route to Pisco. We decided to spend just a day in Nasca and visited the Nasca lines, the archeological museum and a GREAT (read - ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton Day 5 - Summit Amazing I had slept rather badly last night actually. The ground, although suitable for pegs, turned out to be on such a bumpy slope that I couldn´t get comfortable. I also felt headachy and sick most of the night and actually awoke wanting to head back to Choco. But even if my mind disagreed my body felt physically fit and up for the day ahead. As I have felt on many a Sunday morning before heading out on the bike, I knew that once I was out there I would feel better. It´s just getting out there that´s the bloody problem, especially as the ground was frozen below and it was still dark outside. A ration of porridge (I still hate this stuff, even with rasins mixed in) ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton Day 3 - Cow Sick We awoke after a cooler nights sleep just before sunrise. I didn't want another day trekking so close to darkness, the terrain wasn't so far kind enough for that. Toaday was supposed to be a further 1200m ascent, up the Rio Chalza, taking us through the previously unreached village of Mina. We were then going to make our first high pass of 4400m berfore camping by the Rio Achacota, allowing time for acclimatization before tackling the highest pass (and our highest altitude ever) of 5100m. It was suggested that we could do all of this in one day but I didn't think that it was wise or even possible to do so. Perhaps if we weren't carrying our packs, but not with the weight and the altitude ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton As promised here is the first installment of our Colca Canyon trek. We are at the bus station waiting fir a couple of hours to go on to Nasca and Pisco. Should be a chance to chill out, see some wildlife, camp on the beach etc before heading up North for some more ruins and trekking. DAY 1 - The Hills Have Eyes We awoke early (Saturday 5th May) and after a terrible breakfast, you could hardly call it edible, we left Cabanaconde at 7am for the start of our trek. The suggested route was a tough five days but we planned to make it six and take a little more time at what we expected to be the toughest section. More about that later. Carrying 6 days of food and fuel ... read more
Photography by Martin Hurton "What, you mean they don´t call it a quarter pounder with egg?" "No, they call it a ´Royal´ Burger" And so here we are, back in Arequipa after an amazing trek from Cabanaconda to Andagua. The trek lasted 7 days and had pretty much everything, so I´ll write about it in stages and publish them later. But to give you an idea of what is to come... We trekked 60km Climbed a total of 6070m Crossed desert, snow and lava fields Reached our highest point above sea level of 5100m! Trekked through part of the deepest canyon in the world It was tough going but worth loosing your little toe for. More about that later too (don´t worry, I still have it). Before the trek we had a day aclimatizing in Cabanaconde, ... read more
