Monthly Archives: April 2016

Final Paper topic and Sources

My final paper topic is going to be the environmental impacts on mountains from mountaineering. One of my most useful sources for this essay with be Thin Ice by Mark Bowen, which will hit on the changing ice caps and its clues to the changing climate in reference to high altitude and the mountains. It…

Sharp End

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/ALP51/11-sharp-end-katie-ives This article focuses on the misunderstanding on an international scale regarding places like Tibet and Nepal, and the people who live there. The article points out how a lot of literature and film about Himalayan mountaineering will describe the region like an icy desert, where the Sherpa people were viewed as servants and now…

The Final Paper

My final paper topic is going to be about the many effects of tourism on mountaineering and mountains themselves. The final paper is going to touch briefly on variety of ramifications that have been caused and from several viewpoints from the perspective of guides, support staff (i.e. Sherpas) and adventure tourists themselves. My sources include:…

Mixtresses

http://www.outsideonline.com/2057971/why-you-should-know-women-mixed-climbing This particular article is a fun tidbit about women in mixed climbing. I chose it because it really gripped me by stating that unlike a lot of other areas of mountaineering and climbing mixed climbing is actually really balanced evenly between the two sexes. Furthermore women are able to keep up with the men,…

Loving our mountains to death

http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web14x/wfeature-sustainable-summits-aac   I picked an alpinist article this week that has to do with waste and the environmental implications of climbing our favorite mountains maybe a bit too much. The article basically just talked about the issues that surround mountaineering, and a meeting in Colorado that was held between experts on the issues, and asked…

Final Paper Topic

My paper topic is going to be a history of pollution and the growth of tourism on Mount Everest from mid 1900’s to now. From what I was finding pollution on Everest is improving but was major concern during the 1980s. My most useful article to make a lot of major points will be Vanity, Pollution and…

Week 15: Vanity, Pollution and Death on Mt. Everest

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/vanity-pollution-and-death-on-mt-everest This article from 2013 talks about tourism, pollution, policies, commodification, and some economics of Sagarmatha National Park, and covers a lot of what came up during discussions. The author shows how the government of Nepal is stuck capitalizing on the National Park and its tourists. Catering to the demands of tourists has helped the economy…

The Disposable Man

We have talked about the importance of Everest climbing commercialization and how it has benefited the sherpa community of Nepal. However, this article explores the very real and problematic issues that surround the incredibly dangerous work that Sherpas undertake while working on Everest. Faced with the very real possibility of death, or serious injury these…

First Female Ascents

This week I wanted to follow up on some of our earlier discussion about gender in the mountains. While this article is not focused on the Himalaya, I feel that the same dialogue exists there. Andrew Bisharat (of Rock and Ice fame) provides an easily digested and interesting investigation of this highly charged subject, even…

Eiger Dreams

The subtitle of Eiger Dreams is far more descriptive of the book than the main title is: Ventures Among Men and Mountains. That is really what Jon Krakauer’s book is about. The book Eiger Dreams is really a collection of different articles written by Jon Krakauer that he compiled together, covering the broad subject of mountaineering, and…