Chapter nine of Fallen Giants was a very interesting chapter and one that I found very easy to follow and it also caught my attention. The shift from a “pure” and isolated experience free from real world scenarios and stressors such as politics and the possibility of war did not seem exist within the high altitudes of Everest, K2, or Annapurna; there was very little room to think of much else besides a successful ascent and descent. There were instances where hard feelings appeared as a result of war, but throughout the climb and when mountaineers were faced with challenging and life-threatening situations, banded together to survive. This seemed to change throughout the 1960’s as a result of the Cold War.

As mountaineers traveled back to their homelands after an expedition, their experiences seemed to be that of self-discovery and a very pure and ethereal experience; this experience shifted largely in part due to CIA interference and countries using mountains for political and military purposes. Personal experiences were replaced with political agendas and the loyalties that a climber had to his government and country now took precedence over individual pursuits and individual gain. As government interference became the norm throughout high-altitude peaks, slogans such as “the New Frontier” began encouraging America to support the efforts of containing communism. The political agendas of America were surprising to me largely because I had never associated the Cold War with mountaineering and I’ve been aware of sporting events such as the Olympics having been used as a political tool or representation of a country’s nationalism due to the platform that they were presented on, but mountaineering and their importance within a very scary time in history and their importance in aiding the country in their push to stop communism was very shocking as well.

Mountains always seemed to have a certain mythological allure to them because they were thought to be a home for monsters, beasts, and yetis but as America entered the “arena” of mountaineering, it also shifted the ideology and scope of mountaineering. Mountaineers felt that climbing the Himalaya should remain purely idealistic and non-political but that changed when the Americans successfully completed an ascent of Everest and also found a new ascent route, allowing them to claim a first of something that they had never before been apart of.

The shift, I felt, was only intensified due to Americas involvement with the American Everest Expedition as it was mentioned that America didn’t really seem to care about climbing huge peaks but that feeling seemed to change when the government and highly-respected magazines such as National Geographic became sponsors of an expedition; it gave the government and public a sense of ownership and say in the dynamics of alpinism and mountaineering as they were aiding in the cost. The depiction in literature, journals, and interviews from mountaineers who had successfully climbed a mountain had always been one of individual experiences and now it once again shifted to a militaristic and political experience for each respective country and I think that tends to happen when war is on the horizon, is happening, or has recently happened.

Romanticism in literature was now replaced with magazine articles telling of government spies and secret missions within the pages of magazines like Outside and National Geographic, who had ties with the CIA. It seems to me, that after this particular time in history, mountaineering adapts and evolves such as the world and its inhabitants adapt and evolve with the changes in societies and governments.