Sarah

Climbing books are written in such a way to make people want more and more disaster and injury and they don’t really have anything to do with the actual joy of climbing that drove many of the early people to put themselves in the death zones of the highest mountains

I have been trying to get to the bottom of the psychology of why they put themselves at such risk. There is a huge difference between naturally gifted climbers and those who pay £70k to be guided up and then write a book about how terrible it was, so consequently the books which have been published since the 1990s are vastly different from those written in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s when people were really discovering routes and had something to write about. They don’t dwell on the fact that 3 fingers just fell off due to frostbite because that can happen when climbing at altitude in below freezing conditions.

This is by far the best extract I have read from Five Miles High, written by Charles S. Houstin and Robert H Bates in 1938. They were on K2, with the aim of finding a route to the sumit. They never really expected to make it but were in it purely for the mapping.

“For an exhausting half hour we kicked steps up the narrowing gulley and were finally forced to traverse out to the right onto perilous-looking slopes. More pitons were used, their protection being very welcome. A slip on the slopes would have landed us in Camp 1 after a rapid but by no means comfortable journey. Shortly after the noon we shook hands at the top of the black Pyramid at an altitude of approximately 24,500 feet. Abruzzi ridge had been conquered and we had found a route to the snow fields of the 25,000-foot shoulder.

After a restful cigarette, which seemed especially welcome at these high altitudes, we turned again to our task.”