What is the point of climbing?
Climbing motivations: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Why do we climb? What do we get out if it? People give many different answers to these questions. This essay details eight commonly reported approaches that have led climbers, past and present, to live the way they do.1 Some of them are constructive, some of them are pleasant, and some of them are toxic. You will certainly have been driven by many of these motivations before, even if you haven’t ever described them with words.
By the end of this post you will be better able to discern what’s driving you and your fellow climbers. You might even discover a new perspective and return to climbing with broadened horizons. At the very least, it will help you to notice when you’ve been captured by an unhealthy motivation.
We will proceed one approach at a time, detailing the core features of each one and suggesting well-known climbers who seem to epitomise it. Each section will also explain how that approach views routes, style, bolting and chipping. We’ll start with the good approaches, and gradually descend into the awful.
Climbing as Quest
The quest approach holds that the purpose of climbing is to sculpt the climber into being a more virtuous and wise person.2 A virtuous person is someone who possesses good character traits and other qualities of excellence. Leaving one’s comfort zone, voluntary suffering and exposure to adventure, challenge, risk, fear, uncertainty and the unknown are embraced for their transformative effects.3 Climbing, especially onsight traditional climbing, has the capacity to build courage, self-reliance, tenacity, determination, resilience, creativity, versatility, commitment and confidence, but also acceptance, tolerance, patience and humility. Possession of these virtues increases one’s capability, both in and outside of climbing.4
This approach also views climbing as a vehicle to learn things about yourself, other people, and the world. Adventures and challenges are journeys of self-discovery and exploration.5 As Johnny Dawes famously put it: “what you learn helps you to find out who you are, the rock will show you exactly in what way you're not being you”. John Redhead believes the role of (traditional onsight) climbing is to make you “question who you are and question your will to survive”.6 Franco Cookson contends that rock climbing is about being “in a position of inferiority to an entity that is about to bestow wisdom upon you.”7
Taken together, the aims of this approach are to come to know yourself and, given that, to continuously become who you have the potential to be.8 The most famous articulation of this approach is found in Al Alvarez’ book Feeding the Rat.9 Other advocates for this approach can mostly be found in older climbing literature,10 though a fair number of contemporary climbing philosophers continue to advocate for it.11
Routes are seen as whetstones upon which to sharpen oneself, and as mirrors to see into one’s soul.
Style matters because better style demands the possession of more virtue and wisdom.
Chipping and bolting are opposed because modifying the rock brings it down to our level rather than us having to rise to meet the challenge of the rock.12 Little introspection is required if a bolt is there to catch you.13
Climbing as Craft
The craft approach contends that the point of climbing is to become really good at climbing. The aim is to be the best climber you could possibly be.14 Ned Feehally has expressed affinity for this approach, stating that his “ultimate” reason for climbing is to become a “well-rounded boulderer”.15 Similarly, though a hundred years earlier, George Mallory observed that fellow climber Geoffrey Winthrop Young possessed “a conscious and insistent desire to discover principles where principles are discoverable, to master every aspect of a complicated art”.16
Two variants of this approach are apparent. Firstly, the hi-tech version, which takes a scientific and technological approach to every area of climbing. The aim is to become a master user of the available technology and embrace any and all innovation in order to achieve the true pinnacle of efficiency.17 This approach embraces knee-pads and scientific training for the significant performance gains they yield. Notably, it also embraces all the things that offer fractional gains in performance: over-clocked portable fans, a smörgåsbord of evidence-based dietary supplements, climbing with headphones on, refusing to talk to others while training, and so on. Romance is minimised, rationality is maximised. Alex Barrows, with his PDFs on energy systems and mastery of knee-pad trickery, is a well known free-climbing exemplar of this approach. J. R. Ullman labels aid-climbers with this approach “rock-engineers.”18
The human version of the Craft approach takes an intentional and minimalist approach to technology, carefully selecting what is adopted and what is rejected. The aim is to be maximally reliant on one’s body.19 Just as the Amish reject technology which might weaken their community, followers of this approach reject technology they think would detract from being true masters of the body they were born into.20 Others might reject technology because of its capacity to transform the adventurous into the touristic.21 Charles Albert is a prominent exemplar of approach, though there must be many others who we will simply never hear about.
A debate of the merits of these versions took place during Franco Cookson’s interview with Craig Matheson about his route Hard Cheese.22
Routes are seen as works of craftsmanship and challenges to test the mastery of one’s craft.
Style matters because better style demands a more finely-honed craft.23 Examples of this might be: free climbing a route instead of aid climbing it, climbing a cliff without use of chalk, or ascending a high-altitude mountain without use of supplemental oxygen.24
Chipping and bolting are generally opposed because modifying the rock removes the need for developing certain skills.25 On the other hand, these methods can open new avenues in which to develop one’s hi-tech craft.
Climbing as Worship
The worship approach aims to bear witness to, and express gratitude for, the miraculous wonder of the world. The experience of the rock is understood as an end in itself, and encountering it via climbing is considered to be intrinsically good.26 This approach demands the mindful appreciation of the rock, its surroundings, and the experience of moving on the rock.27 Motivation for this can stem from religious, spiritual or humanistic beliefs, desire to ‘be there’, a desire for harmony with nature, or a romantic aspiration to experience the true, the good, the beautiful and the sublime.28 Some climbers may take an additional step of feeling and expressing gratitude towards God, nature, or to the people who helped them get to where they are.
Dr Eric Brymer has identified several specific variants of this approach. Some climbers seek to ‘dance with nature’,29 and others aim for an ‘intimate and reciprocal relationship with nature’.30 Johnny Dawes likens rock climbing to dancing to the rhythms of millennia of water and wind,31 while Shakespeare wrote that one can find “sermons in stones”.32 Some climbers may even see nature as a living entity and endeavour to relate to it as a ‘thou’ rather than an ‘it’.33
Experiences of transcendence,34 awe35, freedom,36 mystical experiences,37 and feeling truly alive38 are the potential rewards of this approach. The approach may also lead to “deep inner transformations that influence world views and meaningfulness, feelings of coming home and authentic integration as well as freedom beyond the everyday”.39
The sense of home cultivated through this approach can lead to feeling deep affection towards where you live — this feeling has been named oikophilia after the Ancient Greek word for home. This means that even seemingly unremarkable local crags become imbued with powerful sentiment and profound significance.40 An unfortunate consequence, however, is that witnessing the deterioration of these crags can evoke a distressing feeling known as solastalgia.41
Several prominent climbers have expressed affinity for this approach. John Gaskins believes that climbing is a gift from God,42 Franco Cookson frequently references the benevolence of the ‘Spirit of the Moors’,43 and gritstone is affectionately known by enthusiasts as “God’s Own Rock”. Similarly, secular mindfulness and gratitude techniques are widely advocated for by mental climbing coaches.44
Routes are gifts from nature. They also provide a way to come to feel at home in the world. The name given to a route should serve to enhance the poetic significance of climbing it.45
Style is relevant insofar as it contributes to the worship. Certain styles may harmonise better with the rock, and only some may demonstrate the level of reverence and respect the rock is due.46 Styles that denigrate the rock are disapproved of.
Chipping and bolting are generally opposed because these things aren’t organic and as such they contaminate the rock’s rhythmic nature and natural beauty. Furthermore, it is hard not to see them as unmistakable evidence of the selfish human desire to sterilise and control nature.47
Climbing as Fellowship
On one level this approach is about climbing for social connection. You can climb a few wasps at the Climbing Works with your mates in a way not dissimilar to sinking a few pints of ale with them at The Broadfield.
But climbing is a potential vehicle for another, higher form of interpersonal connection: solidarity. This is gained by interrelation and camaraderie but also through interdependence, trust and, most importantly, the possession of shared goals that demand collective action and responsibility.
Climbing with a partner demands most of these.48 However, only some types of climbing demand a shared goal.49 This is illustrated in the difference between “we are going to climb to the top of this sea-cliff together”, compared to “I’m going to give them a belay on their single pitch sport route”.50 The collective goal requires the existence and maintenance of an ‘us’ in order to complete it.51 In contrast, the sport route belayer is there to fill the role of the ‘rope holder’, and risks being seen merely as a widget necessary to facilitate the sport climber’s individual goal.52
The Fellowship approach to climbing is increasingly rare, perhaps reflecting the atomisation and individualism of the modern world meaning it less necessary to ever conceive of social entities as an ‘us’.53 Nonetheless, and against all the odds, some climbing philosophers are still advocating for this approach.54 And rightly so: being part of an ‘us’ is associated with increased performance and cooperation, and greater belonging and well-being.55
Routes are challenges which ideally require a shared goal to be overcome. At their best they are vehicles which demand the formation and strengthening of the ‘kinship of the rope’.
Style matters insofar as it demands and yields fellowship. Solo climbing, usually judged as a good style, admits no room for this.56 Having too large a team can be detrimental to both style and fellowship.57
Chipping and bolting may be disapproved of for many of the same reasons as the Quest approach. However, multipitch sport routes can still demand fellowship if sufficiently hard and committing. Sport crags can provide a relaxed atmosphere for pub-like social interaction.
Climbing as Hedonism
The hedonistic approach to climbing is neatly summarised in Alex Lowe’s famous quote: “the best climber is the one having the most fun”. The aim of the game is to yield fun, pleasure and satisfaction — and avoid pain, suffering and unhappiness.58 If your brain felt nice then the day was a success, if it didn’t then it was a failure.
Routes are vehicles for pleasure or satisfaction.
Style doesn’t matter as long as it’s making you feel good.
Chipping and bolting are arguably justified because modifying the rock can make it so that more people are able to ‘have fun’ on that rock. The logical conclusion of the hedonistic approach is likely to be bolting colourful plastic jugs to every cliff so guides can haul up groups of tourists.59
Climbing as Egotism
The aim of the egotism approach is to make others aware of how brilliant you are.60 You want to compete and win, climb harder routes than everyone else, make as many first ascents as possible, and ideally name those routes after yourself along the way. The signs of success are getting to say that you did a route first, getting to say the route is ‘yours’, and getting to say you’re the ‘best’.61 The desire to ‘conquer’ nature, ostensibly on behalf of mankind, could also be considered a variation of this.62
The most famous example of this is Jerry Moffatt, who admitted in his autobiography that his main motivation for climbing was to be the best, and that he quit climbing entirely when he could no longer consider himself to be among the best in the world.63 Gary Gibson’s maniacal compulsion for new routes, and pride that his “mark is scratched on history for all to see”, can also be seen as examples of this approach.64
A modern version of this is climbing rocks for the sole purpose of posting on social media that you climbed the rocks. A truly sinister variant, sometimes encountered, is trying to climb hard things just so that one appears in the ‘Recent Top Ascents’ on UKClimbing or the high-score lists on Climbing History.
Routes are stamps of one’s ego on the Earth. Akin to carving one’s name into a rock. They are also a means to demonstrate to the world how good you are.
Style is largely irrelevant but should fit with dominant norms because you want your ‘achievement’ to be recognised by other people.
Bolting and chipping are justifiable, especially if you personally wouldn’t be able to climb the rock otherwise.65
Climbing as Consumption
Emblemised by the omnipresent green tick emoji ✅, the aim of the consumer approach to climbing is to ‘get’ climbs. You win if you ‘get’ climbs. A life well-lived is one with many climbs ‘got’.66 ‘Quick ticks’ are the best because they give you the most time in which to ‘get’ other ‘ticks’. The rock is ultimately just a means to ‘the tick’, rather than ‘the tick’ being an unimportant side effect of climbing up the rock.67 People operating according to this approach were famously labelled as ‘puerile tickers’ by Ken Wilson.68
According to this approach several things are nonsensical:
Climbing a route more than once (why do that if you’ve already ‘got’ it?).
If a climb doesn’t have a UKC entry then there is no point in doing it.
The idea of climbing at a crag without first reading the guidebook is unthinkable.69
Not using the fastest approach possible to ‘get’ a climb is utterly irrational. This justifies booting up YouTube to view a problem’s solution before even giving it a go, or speedrunning problems using 3D-printed replicas.
It is likely that people with this approach are suffering from a condition similar to the Tetris Effect from spending too much time on UKClimbing, obsessing over the contents of guidebooks, or are applying a collection mindset developed from playing the Pokémon video game series. Alternatively, the consumer mindset might simply be the default mode of the modern world, and so applying it to climbing just seems natural.70 Some philosophers of climbing have gone as far as to say that people who climb for consumption shouldn’t be considered climbers at all.71
Routes are collectable things, like Pokémon cards or Xbox Achievements.
Style is irrelevant. Use whatever tactics ‘get’ you ‘the tick’ as fast as is possible.
Chipping and bolting are only legitimate insofar as modifying the rock does not affect you ‘getting the tick’.
Climbing as Accountancy
The aim of the accountancy approach is to use climbing in order to make numbers go up.72 These numbers could be the maximum grade climbed, fingerboard metrics, or even the total number of climbs done in a given time period.73 Whatever the numbers are, you win if the numbers do indeed go up. The qualitative aspects of climbing are utterly irrelevant and unimportant.74
We regularly lampoon this approach as being fully explained by the equation Big Number = Good. This approach represents a complete inversion of map-territory relation: the rock becomes the means to acquire the grades, rather than the grades being a means to navigate the rock.
The signature symptoms are of this mindset are 1) grade-chasing75 and 2) the widespread lamentation of the dreaded ‘plateau’: truly hellish periods of life where the numbers don’t go up. The accountant’s mindset was recently extolled by Neil Gresham during the campaign for the eGrader, when he asserted that professional climbers would stop bothering to try cutting-edge trad routes if it wasn’t feasible for grades above E11 to be assigned to them. Other symptoms of this approach can be seen in news article headlines and celebratory Instagram posts that focus heavily on the grade of a route, sometimes even omitting the name of the route in question.
It is likely that people with this approach are suffering from conditions such as metric fixation, data fetishism or have become quantified persons.76 These may result from spending too long trying to turn the irreducible complexity of climbing into something measurable. Many influencers and coaching companies are incentivised to promote a number focussed worldview in their media output, and this can lead unwitting novices to think this is what climbing is all about. Other minor causes are the gamification of climbing by 8a.nu and The Moonboard.
Routes are the means by which the numbers go up.
Style is irrelevant as long as your number is going up.
Chipping and bolting are only legitimate insofar as their use does not affect the status of your numbers.
Conclusion
So why is it important to know about these approaches? Firstly, knowledge of these allows you to be vigilant for accidentally slipping into a bad mindset. Secondly, it is important to know the opportunity costs of following any single approach.
Thirdly, it can be useful to recognise that failing according to one approach may count as success according to another. Failing to climb the big number or ‘get’ the route might actually be yielding knowledge, wisdom, experience, character and skill and thus would be a success according to the Quest or Craft approaches. Knowledge of all the approaches allows for maximum flexibility in reframing whatever ends up happening as a positive thing.77
Fourthly, knowledge of these motivations allows the bridging of empathy gaps between climbers following different approaches. For example, John Gaskins, who was not climbing for accountancy, is scrutinised by modern day climbing-accountants as if he was. Perhaps understanding that he was climbing as form of worship might explain why he didn’t care that much about grades, and doesn’t care if people doubt his ascents — he and his God know what really happened. Similarly, old-school climbing-as-quest hardmen, who chastise modern climbers for being morally feeble sport climbing puerile ticking spiritual deserts with no sense of shame,78 must understand that the entirety of modern mainstream culture exalts pleasure and consumption as the highest ends of human life. It is going to be hard to understand, let alone embody, the ethic of the Quest if raised in such times.79
Fifthly, there is the possibility that the appropriate application of all of these approaches may yield unique dividends. This is beyond the scope of this post, but it is an idea we will likely return to in future.80
Finally, it is important to note that only one of these approaches takes climbing to be intrinsically valuable.81 Do you think you would still climb if you received nothing in return?82
Many writers have previously discussed the various approaches to climbing. In 1935 R. L. G. Irving decried the burgeoning hi-tech Craft, Egotism, Consumption and Accountancy ‘methods of approach’ which he attributes to the ‘Teutonic’ invention of the piton and ‘detachable ring’ (carabiner); he instead advocates for the Quest, Craft and Worship approaches. Frank Smythe identifies the Worship, Craft, Quest and Hedonism approaches — leading him to call for a “a romantic revival” of climbing all the way back in 1941! W. H. Murray identifies the Worship, Craft, Quest, Fellowship, Hedonism and Consumption approaches in the final chapter of Mountaineering in Scotland (1947).
Ian Heywood combines the Quest and Egotism approaches together under the label thumos, and groups the hi-tech and human Craft approaches under the label techne. Simon Bainbridge chronicles the development of these approaches. He suggests the Worship approach came first, followed by Craft and Quest.
An argument for an appropriate balance of the Quest, Craft, Worship, Fellowship and Hedonism approaches, and the rejection of the Egotism, Consumption and Accountancy approaches, can be found in Gunnar Breivik’s article on Arne Næss’ philosophy of sport.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Chapters 8, 10, 11.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapter 3.
Murray, W. H. (1947). Mountaineering in Scotland. J.M. Dent & Sons. Chapter 23.
Reynolds, K. (1978). Because it’s there — and all that. In The Alpine Journal.
Heywood, I. (2006). Climbing Monsters: Excess and Restraint in Contemporary Rock Climbing. In Leisure Studies.
Bainbridge, S. (2013). Writing from ‘the perilous ridge’: Romanticism and the Invention of Rock Climbing. In Romanticism.
Breivik, G. (2019). What would a deep ecological sport look like? The example of Arne Naess. In Journal of the Philosophy of Sport.
The separation of Quest and Craft approaches is partly due to Iain McGilchrist’s contention that virtue and wisdom cannot be fully acquired if pursued for instrumental reasons — i.e. just to make you better at climbing. Virtue and wisdom can only be truly achieved if you consider them intrinsically valuable goods-in-themselves.
A second reason for separating these is that an inherent tension exists between the Quest and hi-tech Craft approaches, which risks being concealed if they are grouped together. The rationalising force of technology reduces the need for moral virtues and thus inhibits their cultivation. This tension was discussed long ago by Geoffrey Winthrop Young but has more recently been discussed by Ian Heywood and Neil Lewis.
Young, G. W. (1940). Should the Mountain be Brought to Mahomet? In The Alpine Journal. Page 193.
Heywood, I. (1993). Culture Made, Found and Lost: the cases of climbing and art. In Cultural Reproduction.
Heywood, I. (1994). Urgent dreams: climbing, rationalization and ambivalence. In Leisure Studies.
Lewis, N. (2004). Sustainable Adventure: Embodied experiences and ecological practices within British climbing. In Understanding Lifestyle Sport.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press. Page 160-1.
Brymer, E. & Schweitzer, R. (2020). Phenomenology and the Extreme Sport Experience. Routledge. Chapters 8 and 9.
Wu, X., Kaminga, A. C., Dai, W., Deng, J., Wang, Z., Pan, X., & Liu, A. (2019). The prevalence of moderate-to-high posttraumatic growth: A systematic review and meta-analysis. In Journal of Affective Disorders.
Russo-Netzer, P. & G. L. Cohen (2023) ‘If you’re uncomfortable, go outside your comfort zone’: A novel behavioral ‘stretch’ intervention supports the well-being of unhappy people. In The Journal of Positive Psychology.
The torch of a life more abundant than mere existence is passed on by those who risk death to prove that there are lessons to be learned in the school of danger which are never mastered in sheltered secuirty.
Lunn, A. (1943). Mountain Jubilee. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Page 100.
Murray, W. H. (1947). Mountaineering in Scotland. J.M. Dent & Sons. Chapter 23.
Perrin, J. (1973/2007). A Valediction. In The Climbing Essays.
Sylvester, N. (1976/1983). A Clandestine Plea. In Mirrors in the Cliffs. Baton Wicks.
Javier, F. (2014). The Sport for All Ideal: A Tool for Enhancing Human Capabilities and Dignity. In Physical Culture and Sport. Studies and Research.
Of the undergraduates that I come into touch with the best find their way to the mountains or the sea. Some get killed, but it’s the hard sports which breed men.
Lunn, A. (1943). Mountain Jubilee. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Page 23.
Fawcett, R. (1987). Fawcett on Rock. Unwin Hyman. Page 144.
Onsight traditional climbing has the potential to force you into a conscious awareness of being-towards-death. For an argument that this can be a bad thing, see Irving (1935).
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Chapter 8.
Twight, M. (1989/2001). The Abattoir. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books.
Twight, M. (2001). A Lifetime Before Death. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books.
Ilgner, A. (2003). The Rock Warrior’s Way. Desiderata Institute. Page 112.
Sanzaro, F. (2013). The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering. Stone Country. Page 121.
Brymer, E. & Schweitzer, R. (2020). Phenomenology and the Extreme Sport Experience. Routledge. Chapters 7 and 8.
Cookson, F., personal communication, 14th April 2023.
The maxim “know thyself” was inscribed on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, and dates back as far as the 5th century BC. Coach Eric Hörst referenced the maxim in his book Training for Climbing (2002), but then again so did Bear Grylls.
Mallory (1918) raises the idea that there is a law of the universe according to which true understanding neccesitates struggle.
Mallory, G. (1918). Mont Blanc from the Col Du Geant by the Eastern Buttress of Mont Maudit. In The Alpine Journal.
See also: Sanzaro, F. (2023). The Zen of Climbing. Saraband. Page 69—70.
The rat is you, really. It’s the other you, and it’s being fed by the you that you think you are. And they are often different people. But when they come close to each other, that’s smashing, that is. Then the rat’s had a good meal and you come away feeling terrific. It’s a fairly rare thing, but you have to keep feeding the brute, just for your own peace of mind. And even if you did blow it, at least there wouldn’t be that great unknown. But to snuff it without knowing who you are and what you are capable of, I can’t think of anything sadder than that.
Alvarez, A. (1988/2003). Feeding the Rat. Bloomsbury. Page 152.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Page 311.
Edwards, J. M. (1937/1983). End of a Climb. In Mirrors in the Cliffs. Baton Wicks.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapter 4.
Murray, W. H. (1947). Mountaineering in Scotland. J.M. Dent & Sons. Chapter 23.
Noyce, W. (1950). Scholar Mountaineers. Dobson. Chapter 10.
Perrin, J. (1971/1978). Style is the Man. In The Games Climbers Play. Baton Wicks.
Randall, G. (1981/1983). The Final Game. In Mirrors in the Cliffs. Baton Wicks.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 10.
Kurtyka, V. (1988). The Path of the Mountain. In Alpinism.
Kurtyka, V. (1988). The Art of Suffering. In Mountain Magazine.
Twight, M. (1989/2001). The Abattoir. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books.
Jones, D. B. A. (1991). John Redhead. In The Power of Climbing. Vision.
Twight, M. (1996/2001). Twitching with Twight. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books.
Perrin, J. (1992/2007). Eating Bear Meat. In The Climbing Essays.
Vause, M. (1993). Woodrow Wilson Sayre: The Paradox of Aloneness. In On Mountains and Mountaineers. Mountain N’Air Books.
Vause, M. (1993). A. F. Mummery: Climbing as Education. In On Mountains and Mountaineers. Mountain N’Air Books.
Redhead, J. (1996). And One for the Crow. Serious Clowning. Pages 3, 68
Drasdo, H. (1997). The Uses of Adversity. In The Ordinary Route. The Ernest Press.
Twight, M. (1999). Attitude and Character. In Extreme Alpinism. The Mountaineers.
Lewis, N. (2004). Sustainable Adventure: Embodied experiences and ecological practices within British climbing. In Understanding Lifestyle Sport.
Levey, B. (2010). It Ain’t Fast Food: An Authentic Climbing Experience. In Climbing ‐ Philosophy for Everyone.
Treanor, B. (2010). High Aspirations: Climbing and Self-Cultivation. In Climbing ‐ Philosophy for Everyone.
Ebert, P. A., & Robertson, S. (2013). A Plea for Risk. In Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement.
Climber, M. (2023). Storm of Steel [Fingers]. In UFCK Magazine.
Climber, M. (2023). The Mirror. In UFCK Magazine.
O’Connell, N. (1993). Wolfgang Gullich. In Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers. Diadem. Page 226.
Messner, R. (1971/1978). The Murder of the Impossible. In The Games Climbers Play. Baton Wicks.
Redhead, J. (1996). And One for the Crow. Serious Clowning. Page 96.
Lewis, N. (2004). Sustainable Adventure: Embodied experiences and ecological practices within British climbing. In Understanding Lifestyle Sport.
Ebert, P. & Robertson, S. (2007). Adventure, Climbing Excellence and the Practice of ‘Bolting’. In Philosophy, Risk and Adventure Sports.
It is important to note that this is not the same thing as climbing harder and harder grades, though not uncorrelated with this either.
Feehally, N. (2021). Beastmaking. Vertebrate Publishing. Page 2.
Feehally reiterates this at the start of this video.
Mallory, G. (1920). Review of Geoffrey Winthrop Young’s Mountain Craft. In Climbers’ Club Journal.
This is what Ellul calls the Roman approach to sport.
Sport is linked with the technical world because sport itself is a technique. The enormous contrast between the athletes of Greece and those of Rome is well known. For the Greeks, physical exercise was an ethic for developing freely and harmoniously the form and strength of the human body. For the Romans, it was a technique for increasing the legionnaire’s efficiency. The Roman conception prevails today.
Ellul, J. (1954/1964). The Technological Society. (J. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage Books. Page 382—3.
Ullman, J. R. (1942). High Conquest: The Story of Mountaineering. The Travel Book Club. Page 68.
Frank Smythe contends the hi-tech craft approach was initiated by Nazi-era German climbers seeking to compensate for their sense of grievence and inferiority by demonstrating that they were “the best” by brute-forcing their way up rock faces by use of pitons.
Smythe, F. S. (1942). British Mountaineers. William Collins of London. Pages 47—8.
This is what Ellul calls the Greek approach to sport.
An argument for an intentional approach to the use of technology in natural environments can be found in:
Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. University of Chicago Press. Chapter 22.
Twight, M. (2001). Justification for an Elitist Attitude. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books. Page 200.
Dawes, J. (2011). Full of Myself. Johnny Dawes Books. Page 9.
Sanzaro, F. (2013). The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering. Stone Country. Pages 64—6; 70—3.
Parry, D. (2023). Back to Simplicity: Stuff. In Pennine Lines.
Others might reject the hi-tech version due to perceiving it as the tendrils of techno-capitalism extending its methods into the sporting domain.
Sport carries on without deviation the mechanical tradition of furnishing relief and distraction to the worker after he has finished his work proper so that he is at no time independent of one technique or another. In sport the citizen of the technical society finds the same spirit, criteria, morality, actions and objectives—in short, all the technical laws and customs—which he encounters in office or factory.
Ellul, J. (1954/1964). The Technological Society. (J. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage Books. Page 384.
See also: Lasch, C. (1979). The Degradation of Sport. In The Culture of Narcissism.
The most blatant example of this is the literal train track up to the summit of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa. Also see footnotes #2 and #11.
For a more general account of the unintended effects of technology see:
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Knopf.
Matheson readily admits that he has been ‘enframed’ — in the Heideggerian sense — by his time working with spreadsheets.
At its two extremes the controversy can easily be reduced to absurdity. The conservative viewpoint, carried all the way, would outlaw rope, axe and nailed boots as “artificial aids”; the radicals’ programme could be ever extended to include the use of motor-driven pulleys or even dynamite.
Ullman, J. R. (1942). High Conquest: The Story of Mountaineering. The Travel Book Club. Page 69. See also: Page 272.
See also: Chouinard, Y. (1972/1978). Coonyard Mouths Off. In The Games Climbers Play. Baton Wicks.
Perrin, J. (2002/2007). In Praise of Competence. In The Climbing Essays.
Lewis, N. (2004). Sustainable Adventure: Embodied experiences and ecological practices within British climbing. In Understanding Lifestyle Sport.
Climber, M. (2023). Welcome to the Machine: Part 1. In UFCK Magazine.
Tejada-Flores, L. (1967). The Games Climbers Play. In Ascent.
Perrin, J. (1996/2007). On Three Historical Images: Strapadictomy. In The Climbing Essays.
Smythe, F. S. (1942). British Mountaineers. William Collins of London. Page 48.
Neil Lewis contends that adventure (traditional) rock climbing is defined as “natural climbing for organic man”.
Lewis, N. (2000). The Climbing Body, Nature and the Experience of Modernity. In Body & Society.
John Elster argues that things such as virtue, wisdom and appreciation of the sacred can only be attained as by-products of actions taken for other reasons. Attempting to grasp them directly merely serves to drive them further away. It may be that climbing has to be considered intrinsically valuable for it to yield virtue, wisdom and experience of the sacred.
Elster, J. (1983). States That Are Essentially By-Products. In Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality.
Whall, A. (2013). The Problem of Representing the ‘Bouldering’ Experience as it Exceeds Conventional Forms of Representation. PhD Thesis. Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Whall, A. (2023). Today's Climbing Media Output Rarely Conveys Depth of Experience. In UKClimbing.
Mallory, G. (1914). The Mountaineer as Artist. In Climbers’ Club Journal.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Chapters 13, 14.
Smythe, F. S. (1935). The Spirit of the Hills. Hodder and Stoughton.
Younghusband, F. E. (1936). Everest: The Challenge. T. Nelson. Chapters 9—12.
Irving, R. L. G. (1938). The Mountain Way. J. M. Dent and Sons.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapters 1, 2, 9, 15.
Lunn, A. (1943). Mountain Jubilee. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Pages 174, 240, 274, 286—7.
Noyce, W. (1950). Scholar Mountaineers. Dobson. Chapters 2, 5, 9, 11.
Vandeleur, C. R. P. (1952). The Love of Mountains. In The Alpine Journal.
Robinson, D. (1969). The Climber as Visionary. In Ascent.
Earhart, H. B. (1979). Sacred Mountains in Japan: Shugendō as “Mountain Religion”. In The Mountain Spirit.
Kurtyka, V. (1988). The Path of the Mountain. In Alpinism.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 19.
Rossiter, P. (2007). Rock Climbing: On Humans, Nature and Other Nonhumans. In Space and Culture.
Karlsen, G. (2010). The Beauty of a Climb. In Climbing - Philosophy for Everyone.
For a cynical view see: Howard, G. E. (1949). Alpine Uplift. In The Alpine Journal.
And rejoinder: Lunn, A. (1950). Alpine Puritanism. In The Alpine Journal.
Brymer, E., & Gray, T. (2009). Dancing with nature: rhythm and harmony in extreme sport participation. In Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning.
Brymer, E., & Gray, T. (2010). Developing an intimate “relationship” with nature through extreme sports participation. In Leisure/Loisir.
A man burdened with care or sorrow may find peace on a hill. The sun, the moon, the stars fill him with their music; he will hear a hill, not only the wind, the stream, the avalanche and the thunder, but in finer and more delicate vibrations. He will discover that he is not a wandering solitary mote, but a part of a well-ordered and perfect scheme. He is a part of the hill and the hill is a part of him.
Smythe, F. S. (1935). The Spirit of the Hills. Hodder and Stoughton. Page 199.
See also: Sanzaro, F. (2013). The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering. Stone Country. Page 147.
Some have suggested that Shakespeare might have got up to a bit of rock climbing in his time.
Rossiter, A. P. (1948). On Climbing Alone. In The Journal of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club.
Bourdillon, F. W. (1906/1908). Another Way of (Mountain) Love. In The Alpine Journal.
Buber, M. (1923/1937). I and Thou (R. G. Smith, Trans.). T. & T. Clark.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Chapter 13.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Page 9.
Scruton, R. (2009). Why Beauty Matters. BBC.
Santmire, H. P. (2018). Behold the lilies: Martin Buber and the contemplation of nature. In Dialog.
Vause, M. (1993). Sir Leslie Stephen: The Intrinsic Reward. In On Mountains and Mountaineers. Mountain N’Air Books.
Brymer, E., & Schweitzer, R. D. (2017). Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. In Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice.
Brymer, E. & Schweitzer, R. (2020). Phenomenology and the Extreme Sport Experience. Routledge. Chapter 10.
Brymer, E. (2009). Extreme Sports as a facilitator of ecocentricity and positive life changes. In World Leisure Journal.
Brymer, E., & Schweitzer, R. (2013). The search for freedom in extreme sports: A phenomenological exploration. In Psychology of Sport and Exercise.
Parry, D. (2023). Survival. In Pennine Lines.
Lunn, A. (1939). Alpine Mysticism and Cold Philosophy. In The Alpine Journal.
Lunn, A. (1943). Mountain Jubilee. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Chapter 8.
Gill, J. (1979). Bouldering: A Mystical Art Form. In The Mountain Sprit.
Ardohain, C. (2000). Mystical Experience and Sacred Landscape. In The Poetry of Life in Literature.
Arzy, S., Idel, M., Landis, T., & Blanke, O. (2005). Why revelations have occurred on mountains? In Medical Hypotheses.
Watson, N. J., & Parker, A. (2015). The Mystical and Sublime in Extreme Sports: Experiences of Psychological Well-Being or Christian Revelation? In Studies in World Christianity.
Brymer, E. & Schweitzer, R. (2020). Phenomenology and the Extreme Sport Experience. Routledge. Chapter 11.
Dimmitt, S. (Host). (2023, March 6). EP 159: Tom Randall & Sam Van Boxtel. In The Climbing Nugget Podcast. The relevant section is at 16 minutes in.
Climber, M. (2023). Finding God There. In UFCK Magazine.
Mystical experiences have the potential to yield second-order benefits, such as increased pro-social, pro-environmental and sustainable behaviours. The positive effects on well-being and behaviour last for many months after an experience. Mystical experiences also help with smoking cessation and reducing alcohol consumption. Some academics even contend they hold the key to saving the Earth from destruction.
Fawcett, R. (1987). Fawcett on Rock. Unwin Hyman. Page 148.
Brymer, E. & Schweitzer, R. (2020). Phenomenology and the Extreme Sport Experience. Routledge. Page i.
An account of a literal homecoming, in addition to a metaphorical one, is given by W. H. Murray in Mountaineering in Scotland (1947). Murray was a prisoner of war of the Germans for three years. He wrote the first draft of the book while in captivity on the only material he had available, toilet paper. It was found and destroyed by the Gestapo. The final chapter of the book is a masterpiece.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapter 9.
Murray, W. H. (1947). Mountaineering in Scotland. J.M. Dent & Sons. Chapter 23.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 1.
Stainforth, G. (1988). The Peak: Past and Present. Constable.
Borgmann, A. (1984). Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. University of Chicago Press. Pages 44—5.
Smith, R. (Ed.). (1998). A Sense of Place: The Best of British Outdoor Writing. Michael Joseph.
Wierciński, H. (2021). Climbing heritage: The lines and aesthetics of rock climbing. In Anthropology Today.
Albrecht, G., Sartore, G.-M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., Stain, H., Tonna, A., & Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The Distress Caused by Environmental Change. In Australasian Psychiatry.
Geldard, J. (2009). Gritstone: Loving it to Death? In UKClimbing.
Miller, D. (2023). How Climbing Gyms Lost Their Soul. In Climbing Magazine.
Several chapters of the Bible indicate this, here are a few examples. Old Testament: Psalm 104, Job 39, Isaiah 40, and, of course, Genesis 1. New Testament: The Parable of the Talents and Ephesians 2:10.
Lee, A. (2021). Fall Theory. In Brit Rock: Season III.
These things do actually work for improving happiness and other aspects of well-being.
Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., Wade, N., Varjas, K., Gifford, A., Quinn, A., Hook, J. N., Van Tongeren, D. R., Griffin, B. J., & Worthington, E. L. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. In Journal of Counseling Psychology.
Bühlmayer, L., Birrer, D., Röthlin, P., Faude, O., & Donath, L. (2017). Effects of Mindfulness Practice on Performance-Relevant Parameters and Performance Outcomes in Sports: A Meta-Analytical Review. In Sports Medicine.
Portocarrero, F. F., Gonzalez, K., & Ekema-Agbaw, M. (2020). A meta-analytic review of the relationship between dispositional gratitude and well-being. In Personality and Individual Differences.
Myall, K., Montero-Marin, J., Gorczynski, P., Kajee, N., Syed Sheriff, R., Bernard, R., Harriss, E., & Kuyken, W. (2022). Effect of mindfulness-based programmes on elite athlete mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. In British Journal of Sports Medicine.
In practise this isn’t always the case, obviously.
Nicholson, N. (1943/1983). The Poetry and Humour of Mountaineering. In Mirrors in the Cliffs. Baton Wicks.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 20.
Some might say that with good style comes grace.
Longland, J. (1977). Valedictory address. In The Alpine Journal.
As Johnny Dawes put it, it's better to climb rock that doesn’t have “bullshit painted all over it”. Pat Littlejohn famously argued “in wild places, bolts are litter.” David Craig contends that the widespread desire to ‘civilise’ the rock in this way is the legacy of being a colonial power. Craig also cites an example of a truely purist climber who refused to clean vegetation out of cracks on his first ascents.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Pages 96, 183.
Littlejohn, P. (1997). The Great Alpine Theme Park. In The Alpine Journal.
Priest, S. (1995). The Effect of Belaying and Belayer Type on the Development of Interpersonal Partnership Trust in Rock Climbing. In Journal of Experiential Education.
Evin, A., Sève, C., & Saury, J. (2012). Construction of trust judgments within cooperative dyads. In Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy.
Young, G. W. (1924, June 8). Tribute to the fallen of the Fell and Rock Climbing Club.
Smythe, F. S. (1935). The Spirit of the Hills. Hodder and Stoughton. Chapter 18.
Meier, K. V. (1976). The Kinship of The Rope and The Loving Struggle: A Philosophic Analysis of Communication in Mountain Climbing. In Journal of the Philosophy of Sport.
Williams, T., & Donnelly, P. (1985). Subcultural Production, Reproduction and Transformation in Climbing. In International Review for the Sociology of Sport.
Kiewa, J. (2001). Rewriting the heroic script: Relationship in rockclimbing. In World Leisure Journal.
Individual goals risks that the I merely relates to the other as an other, and risks being transactional rather than an act of solidarity. This is the difference between joint- and we-intentionality.
Salice, A., & Henriksen, M. G. (2021). Disturbances of Shared Intentionality in Schizophrenia and Autism. In Frontiers in Psychiatry.
An account of climbing bringing about an ‘us’ and associated we-intentionality is quoted below. This is an ‘us’ in a real sense, not in the imagined sense in which The Climbing Community exists.
All the time I thought of us as a single unit. Although we were not roped together, we felt like a roped party. We were a self-created entity. There was something synchronous about the way we thought, the way we did things. A short glance was enough to ascertain the other’s intention and frame of mind, to know and do what the other wanted. It wasn’t just shared exploits in the past that gave us this heightened mutual understanding; it was also the extreme tension we were sharing now. And our feeling of one-ness grew, along with our concentration, the nearer we drew to the summit. Peter kept saying the same thing that I had thought a moment before. But it was not even necessary to speak to feel the communication flow between us. Even 20 or 40 paces apart, the one sensed what the other did, saw or thought. And always the one climbing ahead had the responsibility for finding the best passage, the second following unconditionally, behind. The change of lead, whilst not precise, took place around every 200 meters.
Messner, R. (1977). The Challenge. (N. Bowman & A. Salkeld, Trans.). Oxford University Press. Page 185.
An example is commonly known phenomenon of sensing the presence of an additional person, physically non-existent. It can be percieved simultaneously by both partners on the rope and can be so persuasive that both partners take the presence of this imaginary person into account in some decisions.
Kurtyka, V. (1988). The Path of the Mountain. In Alpinism.
For the rope’s significance extends far beyond its mere physical function of tying several climbers together; it ties them as well into a mental and spiritual unit and makes mountaineering, in the deepest sense, a collective rather than an individual enterprise.
Ullman, J. R. (1942). High Conquest: The Story of Mountaineering. The Travel Book Club. Page 262.
Jones, D. B. A. (1991). Ken Wilson. In The Power of Climbing. Vision.
See Kashima et al (2005) for evidence that groups are seen as less entitative, relative to individuals, in ‘the West’ compared to ‘the East’.
Schizophrenia interferes with the ability to engage in we-intentionality, and autism interferes with both joint- and we-intentionality. There is some indication that the nature of the modern Western world means we rarely have to engage in joint- or we-intentionality. As such, we exercise these abilities less and less, and our behaviour thus becomes more similar to those with autism and schizophrenia. Relatedly, Iain McGilchrist has persuasively argued that our modern ecology is causing autistic and schizophrenic traits to become more and more prevalent, perhaps to the point of them being the norm.
Kashima, Y., Kashima, E., Chiu, C.-Y., Farsides, T., Gelfand, M., Hong, Y.-Y., Kim, U., Strack, F., Werth, L., Yuki, M., & Yzerbyt, V. (2005). Culture, essentialism, and agency: are individuals universally believed to be more real entities than groups? In European Journal of Social Psychology.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press. Pages 403—8.
McGilchrist, I. (2021). The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. Perspectiva Press. Chapter 9.
Fiebich, A. (2020). Minimal cooperation: insights from autism. In Adaptive Behavior.
Salice, A., & Henriksen, M. G. (2021). Disturbances of Shared Intentionality in Schizophrenia and Autism. In Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Page 308.
Murray, W. H. (1947). Mountaineering in Scotland. J.M. Dent & Sons. Chapter 23.
Perrin, J. (1981/2007). Trains, Cafés and Conversations. In The Climbing Essays.
Perrin, J. (1984/1986). Partners. In On and Off the Rocks. Victor Gollancz.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 28.
Vause, M. (1993). Sir John Hunt: The Quest Metaphor. In On Mountains and Mountaineers. Mountain N’Air Books.
Climber, M. (Forthcoming). The Rope-Holder. In Modern Climber.
Cropley, C. J. (2004). The Effect of Couple Entitativity on Attributions, Nonverbal Communication, and Relational Satisfaction. University of Santa Barbara. PhD Thesis.
Walsh, C. M., & Neff, L. A. (2018). We’re better when we blend: The benefits of couple identity fusion. In Self and Identity.
Xu, Q. (2019). Entitativity in Romantic Couples: What It Means, How Partners Report It, and Its Implications. New York University. PhD Thesis.
Klein, J. W., & Bastian, B. (2022). The Fusion-Secure Base Hypothesis. In Personality and Social Psychology Review.
Blanchard, A. L., McBride, A. G., & Ernst, B. A. (2023). How Are We Similar? Group Level Entitativity in Work and Social Groups. In Small Group Research.
Irving argues that it is not possible to relate to mountains as a ‘thou’ while in the presence of other human beings; though once sufficient time has been spent alone with the mountains the ‘thou’ will always remain despite the presence of others. Similarly, John Gill contends that solitary climbing is necessary in order to truly achieve the kinesthetic awareness necessary to experience the mystical.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Chapter 13.
Gill, J. (1979). Bouldering: A Mystical Art Form. In The Mountain Sprit.
Shipton, E. (1943/1945). Upon That Mountain. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapter 8.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Chapter 10.
Lunn, A. (1943). Mountain Jubilee. Eyre & Spottiswoode. Page 55.
O’Connell, N. (1993). Lynn Hill. In Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers. Diadem. Page 256.
Various philosophers have held that desirable mental states are the ultimate end of human life. The most famous counter-argument to this is Robert Nozick’s “experience machine”. If you think Alex Lowe is right then consider this scenario. If you could plug yourself into a machine that provided you with a simulated reality of endless pleasure and happiness, would you plug in? If no, then why not? Could it be that things other than mental states do matter after all?
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Basic Books. Pages 42—5.
Jones, D. B. A. (1991). Ken Wilson. In The Power of Climbing. Vision.
Littlejohn, P. (1997). The Great Alpine Theme Park. In The Alpine Journal.
James, A. (1991). Bleedin’ Bivi Ledge. In On The Edge.
Mark Twight argues that the Egotism approach compromises one’s ability to engage in the Quest and Worship approaches.
Twight, M. (2001). Voice of Dissent — Competition Ruins the Free-For-All. In Kiss or Kill. The Mountaineers Books.
We all know some gardeners whose great desire is to grow some flower, say a daffodil, bigger or smaller than any of their neighbours and seem to have little use for the common or garden variety; and we know others who, without any pretensions to being poets, just in the way they look at a daffodil, pay a minute tribute to the miracle of its creation and growth. So it is with many mountaineers.
Irving, R. L. G. (1957). Trends in Mountaineering. In Canadian Alpine Journal.
Younghusband, F. E. (1926). The Epic of Mount Everest. Page 314.
Somervell, T. H. (1936). After Everest. Hodder & Stoughton. Page 138.
Macintyre, N. (1936). Attack on Everest. Methuen & Co. Ltd. Pages 11, 165.
Moffatt, J. & Grimes, N. (2009). Revelations. Vertebrate Publishing. Pages 211-2.
Gibson, G. (2019). Blood, Sweat and Smears. 2QT. Page 12.
It soon struck me as I bolted my way directly up towards Kilnsey Main Overhang that all I was doing was making my mark via the use of bolts — not as a ‘climber’. It was completely unadventurous and also very boring.
Scott, D. (2007). Resisting the Appeasers. In The Alpine Journal.
See also: Littlejohn, P. (1997). The Great Alpine Theme Park. In The Alpine Journal.
Irving, R. L. G. (1957). Trends in Mountaineering. In Canadian Alpine Journal.
Illich, I. (1973/2009). Tools for Conviviality. Marion Boyars. Page 90.
If you want to climb up the left arête of this boulder because it is a stunning geological feature with a great history, you’re doing climbing as Worship. If you want to climb up it because the challenge will demand much from you, and force you to grow, then you’re doing climbing as Quest. If you want to climb up it because it looks like it will test your abilities, then you’re doing climbing as Craft. If you want to climb up it because it will demand a combined problem solving effort of a psyched group of people, then you’re doing climbing as Fellowship. If you want to climb up it because it will be fun then you’re doing climbing as Hedonism. If you want to climb it so you can tell other people that you’ve climbed it, you’re doing climbing as Egotism. If you want to climb up it because you want to ‘tick’ Careless Torque 8A, then you’re doing climbing as Consumption. If you want to climb up it because it’s 8A then you’re doing climbing as Accountancy.
Walker, D. (2000). Hard Rock or 40 Years of Puerile Ticking. In Climbers’ Club Journal.
For a critique of this mindset see:
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. Chapter 10.
Smythe, F. R. (1941). The Mountain Vision. Hodder & Stoughton. Page 9.
Craig, D. (1987). Native Stones. Flamingo. Chapter 15.
Baudrillard, J. (1970/1998). The Consumer Society. Sage.
Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid Modernity. Polity Press.
Holyfield, L., Jonas, L., & Zajicek, A. (2004). Adventure Without Risk Is Like Disneyland. In Edgework.
Keinan, A., & Kivetz, R. (2010). Productivity Orientation and the Consumption of Collectable Experiences. In Journal of Consumer Research.
Sailors, P. R. (2010). More than Meets the “I.”: Values of Dangerous Sport. In Climbing ‐ Philosophy for Everyone.
Firestone, J. (2022). You Are Not Your Max Hang.
Porter, J. (2023). Climbing has Succumbed to Numbers. In UKClimbing.
Gibson, G. (2019). Blood, Sweat and Smears. 2QT. Pages 225—6.
A measure of a thing replacing the thing it is supposed to measure is known as surrogation.
An exclusive focus on quantity is known as McNamara’s Fallacy.
The Accountancy approach also violates Goodhart’s Law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure”.
Kurtyka, V. (1988). The Art of Suffering. In Mountain Magazine.
In the appreciation of mountaineering, or any other sport, let us bear in mind the principle on which its value must be judged in any large community from a great country down to a university or school; what matters is not single individual performances or records, but the proportion of its members who have felt in themselves the delight in intelligent effort that sport affords, who have assimilated the spirit of fair play which finds no value in victory won by unsporting methods, and who see in the ultimate purpose pursued something that cannot be measured by any numerical standard.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Page 190.
See also: Ellul, J. (1954/1964). The Technological Society. (J. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage Books. Page 18.
See also: Perrin, J. (2005/2007). Grade Drift. In The Climbing Essays.
To a man with a pencil, everything looks like a list. To a man with a camera, everything looks like an image. To a man with a computer, everything looks like data. And to a man with a grade sheet, everything looks like a number.
Postman, N. (1992). Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Knopf. Page 14.
This is one of the key skills taught in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.
Geoffrey Withthrop Young observes that the approaches taken by a climber tend to change over the span of his or her life.
Young, G. W. (1940). Should the Mountain be Brought to Mahomet? In The Alpine Journal. Page 193—4.
Patey, T. (1971/1978). The Art of Climbing Down Gracefully. In The Games Climbers Play. Baton Wicks. Ploy #16.
Redhead, J. (1996). And One for the Crow. Serious Clowning. Page 68.
Climber, M. (2023). UFCK Magazine. Issue 8.
Nietzsche, F. (1883/1917). Thus Spake Zarathustra. (T. Common, Trans.). The Modern Library. Pages 11—13.
Lewis, C. S. (1947). Men Without Chests. In The Abolition of Man.
Marcuse, H. (1964). The Conquest of the Unhappy Consciousness: Repressive Desublimation. In One Dimensional Man.
Glubb, J. B. (1976). The Fate of Empires. William Blackwood & Sons Ltd.
Maslow, A. H. (1962). Lessons from the Peak-Experiences. In Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
McGilchrist, I. (2009). The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Yale University Press. Page 160.
Sanzaro, F. (2013). The Boulder: A Philosophy of Bouldering. Stone Country. Pages 148—9.
Climber, M. (Forthcoming). Sprezzatura. In Modern Climber.
Competition, scientific and artistic ends, the thirst for knowledge, even that old stand-by, character-building — all these, too, have at one time or another been advanced as the motive and justification for climbing. At about this stage of the discussion, however, the true mountaineer — if he is also an honest one — closes his psychology manual and gets to work on the more essential business of oiling his boots.
Ullman, J. R. (1942). High Conquest: The Story of Mountaineering. The Travel Book Club. Page 14.
“It is the nature of mysteries”, wrote Hugh Rose Pope shortly before his solitary death on the Pic de Midi d’Ossau, “that they cannot be interpreted to those who do not know.” Justification must be implicit in our conduct.
Busk, D. (1946). The Delectable Mountains. Hodder & Stougton. Page 10.
See also: Sanzaro, F. (2023). The Zen of Climbing. Saraband. Page 57.
Thanks to Thrill House Cycling, Chris Shawarma, Esq., and Modern Climber for their comments on draft versions of this essay.
I am grateful to Dr Rebecca Williams for introducing me to the work of Dr Eric Brymer, which informed a great deal of the Climbing as Worship section.
The cover image is View from the Bänisegg over the Lower Grindelwald Glacier (1778) by Caspar Wolf.
Three approaches identified by others are omitted here. One is Climbing as “Job-of-Work-to-be-Done”, which Mike Thompson associates with Don Whillans. This is likely also the attitude of many of the very earliest climbers, mountain guides, and perhaps also some modern professional climbers too. Another is Climbing as Patriotism, associated with 20th century nationalism and attempts on alpine faces and high-altitude mountains. Finally, Climbing as Rebellion, which authors like Ian Heywood and Martin Lewis identify as a means of sticking two fingers up to the rationalising forces of American McDisneyWorld. John Redhead’s And One for the Crow fits here. These approaches may be returned to in future posts.
Smythe, F. S. (1942). British Mountaineers. William Collins of London. Pages 47—8.
Thompson, M. (1980/1983). The Aesthetics of Risk. In Mirrors in the Cliffs. Baton Wicks.
O’Connell, N. (1993). Riccardo Cassin. In Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers. Diadem. Pages 40—1.
Heywood, I. (1994). Urgent dreams: climbing, rationalization and ambivalence. In Leisure Studies.
Redhead, J. (1996). And One for the Crow. Serious Clowning. Pages 3, 52—7, 87, 119, 150—4.
Lewis, N. (2000). The Climbing Body, Nature and the Experience of Modernity. In Body & Society.
Lewis, N. (2004). Sustainable Adventure: Embodied experiences and ecological practices within British climbing. In Understanding Lifestyle Sport.
It is my one regret for being such an ordinary man, that I bring so little credit to the mountains that have done so much for me. Only one man knows the creature I should have been without them; it is in gratitude for his escape from that existence that he has tried to add something to the knowledge and affection with which men may regard them.
Irving, R. L. G. (1935). The Romance of Mountaineering. J. M. Dent and Sons. Page 316.
I’m thoroughly impressed with the quality of the content that CC has published, and this post might be my favourite so far. Such an interesting topic and I’m pleased to see it approached from several angles. Thanks!
Very thought-provoking, as usual. One logical conclusion from your hierarchy of virtues is that bolt clippers will never do better than hedonism. Seems fair but odd that using other forms of inorganic assistance does not have the same deleterious effect on one's virtuousness. How much aid is too much?