Mountain Climbing an Adventure Tourist Activity, Extreme Sport, or Both

Introduction

Since the very first ascent of Mont Blanc concurred by Jacques Balmat and Michel G. Paccard in 1786 the thought of climbing a mountain's great mystique, wonder, and popularity has steadily grown up and through to today’s modern date. Although this is true, the way mountaineering has been perceived by the general population has changed gradually since its inception, but over the past 50 years mountaineering has changed drastically through developments of technology and media advancements. Mountaineering is defined as the climbing of a mountain regardless of length. A new section of mountaineering has emerged since the late 1950s  in the tourism sector. Tourists are travelling all across the world to different locations attempting to climb mountains gigantic or small in stature. This new sector of mountaineering has been in general conflict since its origin with the faithful mountaineers that consider it an extremely difficult sport only for the few that are willing to take on these ferocious structures. Although the strong faithful’s voice may be loud in the eyes of the mountain community, organizations associated with alpine touring such as the French Touring Club (TCF) and the Paris-Lyon- Me ́diterrane ́e (PLM) emerged and not only encouraged the growth of recreational mountaineering, but also provided the sanctioning of mountain guides to provide tourists with a more safe and fun experience.

Whether both sides are right in their own view or just plain refuse to hear the arguments of the other, we will be investigating the points made by both sides and how they impact mountaineering as a whole. The final argument of this paper is that mountaineering is neither side, and that it is truly a complex mixture of both.

Adventure Tourist Activity

The technological advances made over the past 70 years such as climbing equipment, clothing warmth, the internet, the experience of traditionalist guides, and airplane travel have enabled this new booming tourist attraction of mountaineering. The origins of mountaineering as a tourist activity was stated in a journal article titled Sport as a Major Player in the Development of Tourism: The History of Mountaineering in the Pelvoux Massif, France, from 1861 to 1914 introduces how mountaineering became a tourist activity in itself in France. In this journal article, the authors break up into stages of how an extreme activity done by the thrill-seeking few became an economic machine benefitting local populations. The first step all the way up to 1877, is characterized by the discovery of the territory. “The first to climb, especially the English, built up the picture of an attractive place in the eyes of an expectant public of followers.”. The individual discoveries of this (3946m) mountain were soon relayed into the literature and presented an invitation to travel addressed first to mountaineers, and then to tourists in general. The second step of building this tourism boom was the infrastructure. Tourism societies, especially the previously stated TCF and PLM invested in the territory, focused on transport, road construction, and the building of public transportation. The third and final step was the boom for physical activity at the time. The synonymous relationship made between physical activity and tourism played a powerful role in economic development and aided in further growth of this new form of tourism.

The argument made by the tourism side of mountaineering is that it is more of a sight-seeing activity for the wealthy and not a full-fledged sport is exemplified by a paper called A guided Adventure Tourism Experience: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Mountaineering in Bolivia. They introduce this form of tourism as active adventure tourism in which individuals seek “paradoxical desires for risk and safety in adventure tourism and emotional and motivational fluctuations.”. They also state in the study that by developing personal skills, confidence in the guides, and equipment the individuals may reduce psychological risks and allow physical risks to be experienced securely and excitingly. These guides also enable tourists to only focus on climbing and not navigating. The argument being made that this tourist activity is no longer an extreme sport is because the experience of these guides doing most of the difficult work enables the tourists to strictly walk and follow their guide thus, removing most of the challenging portions of mountaineering. Also stated in the study rather than fear or thrills, the individuals in this study desired a challenging, but safe experience in which there was minimal risk. This statement by the authors is a valid argument that mountaineering cannot be an extreme sport if these individuals are not seeking thrill or risk.

Based on infrastructures being built around everyday people getting access to mountaineering, and the guides for these active adventures doing most of the grit work, there is a valid argument to be made that mountaineering in its most popular form is no longer a sport.

Extreme Sport

The argument that mountaineering is an extreme sport is a very strong one and has many aspects for its reasoning. The first argument is a branch of mountaineering called ice climbing in which, originally people would climb frozen waterfalls as quickly as they can and is now a worldwide sport. In a paper called Analysis of Ice Climber Sport Performance During Competition by Manovski and colleagues, they looked at the astounding speed that these climbers would climb at. The Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) World Cup finalists in Beijing had a mean climbing time of (224.52 ± 98.81) seconds. This activity takes an incredible feat of strength and the speed that the participants would climb at is unworldly. Although this is not directly mountaineering, it is an aspect of mountaineering and is utilized if certain mountains are only climbable through ice walls.

If this tiny aspect of mountaineering in ice climbing was not already challenging enough, a journal article titled Mount Rainier outlined a case study that examined the conditions that two mountaineers faced on the (4392m) Mount Rainier and why they perished. These experienced mountaineers had climbed many mountains before and were seen as great professionals. But this case study was a great example that even the best mountaineers cannot foresee all outcomes and that one should never climb alone. During these individuals’ respective ascents both had an unforeseen change in extreme weather resulting in both of their deaths. One climber fell 91 meters and the other 250 m respectively.

In another form of mountaineering called ski mountaineering, a paper found a 600m race for senior men had each participants mean power output exerted at (3.40 ± 0.34 W/kg, equal to 79.0 ± 3.5% of max). Working at a mean of 79% of max is incredible for an entire 600m race and is further reasoning on why any form of mountaineering should be considered as an extreme sport.

In a journal article titled “Is Mountaineering a Sport?”, the author looked directly into if mountaineering should be entered in as an Olympic sport as many traditionalist mountaineers would like. The author's main point in the article is that mountaineering is a sport, but not of Olympic variety. The author states that in his definition a sport is amusement, diversion, and fun, and mountaineering is surely that.

Looking at different subsets of mountaineering such as ice climbing and ski mountaineering, and the dangers of mountaineering itself, it is clear that there is a valid argument that mountaineering should still and always will be an extreme sport.

The Merge

After looking at both sides, this papers argument is that neither are correct thus, not making mountaineering an adventure tourist activity nor an extreme sport, but rather a mixture of both. The argument that mountaineering is strictly a tourist activity and not a sport is preposterous based on the fact that the conventional definition of a sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another, oneself, or others for entertainment. This argument is continued by a journal article called Mountain Guiding and Adventure tourism: Reflections on the Choreography of the Experience. In this article, an argument is made that as the tourist industry continues to grow, it is possible that adventure tourism might become a more clearly defined route for individuals to become mountaineers.

The argument that mountaineering is an extreme sport only and should not be attempted by tourists is also an absurd one based on the fact that it can be done safely if smart guides and careful planning is used. Although this lessens the mountaineering “raw experience” it is still mountaineering, nonetheless. Another article by Beedie and Hudsom provided the insight that social boundaries separating mountaineers from tourists are becoming blurred. Adventure tourism has accelerated a discernible move towards the commodification of mountains even if it is missing the subtleties of an experienced mountaineer. This aids in the argument that although it is not as extreme as climbing with experienced friends or partners, climbing with a guide as a tourist is still a sport nonetheless that requires some physical ability. An article titled “Get Shorty” is a great example of this. It is a review of the author's insights on his travel with his friends on attempting to summit Agrihan island in the Northern Mariana Islands. This article goes into detail of climbing the island and the challenges they faced in doing so even with a guide. Thus, it can be concluded that this tourist destination provided the author and his team a chance to experience mountaineering even if it is not done in its most extreme form.

Mountaineering can also have tourism that is influenced by politics. In an article titled Canada’s Everest? Rethinking the Accent of Mount Logan and the Politics of Nationhood, 1925 the author takes a deep dive into the discovery and brutal ascent of Mount Logan (5959m) in Yukon Canada. The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) refused to let American climbers be the first to ascend Canadas largest mountain in 1925. Once the mountain was ascended lead by Canadian H. Fred Lambart, the conquest was a huge story around the world and thus, gave Canadians a sense of pride and provided a voice for themselves on the world stage. This further led to mountaineering’s popularity and led to growth in Canada’s tourism and immigration. This is a clear example of how from the opposing side of extreme sport that it can too have implications on tourism. Thus, every mountain that is concurred by a brave mountaineer leads to further tourism of that region and growth of the sport itself.

Conclusion

After looking into each non-sport versus extreme sport arguments for mountaineering, it is clear that these two sides cannot be separated from one another. The way they have merged from the side of tourism and its argument that mountaineering is only an active adventure and not a true sport must be false due to the realization of what a sport is, and that even with a guide mountaineering is still greatly difficult.

From the side of mountaineering being strictly an extreme sport. While this can be the case with subsections like ice climbing, mountaineering does not necessarily have to be defined as an extreme sport with less thrill-seeking options available. It is now clear that these two sides have merged into one where tourism aids in the growth of this past-time and sport, while the extreme few continuously concurring new mountains like Mount Logan has led to further growth of adventure tourism. Thus, the debate for conflicting sides of mountaineering can finally be put to rest.

References

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