The Mess On Top of the World In 1963, Barry Bishop, a member of the first American team to summit Mount Everest, claimed the camp at the South Col to be, “the world’s highest junk yard” (Bishop and Naumann, 2). Fifty years later, his exact words started to become headlines in newspapers. There are two…
Uncategorized
Final Paper Topic
by Matt •
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…
Links
Week 15: Vanity, Pollution and Death on Mt. Everest
by Matt •
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…
Reading Response
Postcolonialism in the Culture of Ascent
by Matt •
I may be going off on a slight tangent in this response, but I think Stephen Slemon makes a lot of interesting observations that can be driven a little deeper especially relating to colonialism. I think Slemon also comes very close to answer the question of why people choose to climb the tallest peaks and…
Reading Response
True Summit
by Matt •
Herzog was not lying when he wrote there are other Annapurnas in the lives of men. Especially in the eyes of Lachenal, Terrey, and Rebuffat. Roberts’s purpose of True Summit was not just to show how Herzog might be completely full of it, but to give Lachenal, Terrey, and Rebuffat the credit they deserve. At first…
Book Review
Book Review – Aconcagua and Tierra Del Fuego
by Matt •
Reading Response
Life and Death on Mt. Everest
by Matt •
Sherry Ortner discusses just about all the generalizations and subjects about mountaineering we have talked about in class. Throughout the book you can tell she is being extremely cautious but honest with her arguments. Doing so she does a great job of examining and making clear the root of how Sherpas are portrayed. I like how she…
Reading Response
Into Thin Air
by Matt •
At first I was wondering how Into Thin Air would have been different if Krakauer took peoples advice to wait a few years after the accident and then write the book, but after reading it, I doubt it would have been much different. I enjoyed Krakauer’s writing on the history of Everest in the beginning of the…
Final Papers, Uncategorized
Final Paper Topics
by Matt •
I’m going to focus on mountaineering and the environment. Particularly using Mount Everest as a case study and how it received its nickname “the world highest junkyard.” I’d like to not go down the dark hole of being pessimistic and negative, but rather make it as positive and optimistic as I can focusing on mountaineering expedition…
Reading Response, Week 9
K2, The Savage Mountain
by Matt •
What a disaster. I enjoyed the first three chapters and the appendix of the book because they were so detailed. I think this is the first book we have read that went into that much depth about the history and geography of the mountain and the planning before the expedition in one book. Though it quickly…