The U.S.A. emerged from W.W.II as a technological and economic power on the rise, and it wasn’t long before some of this momentum shifted to the high alpine. A first major feather in America’s cap was to be K2; not quite the biggest but definitely the baddest of the 8,000 meter peaks. By this point in…
Final Papers
Evolution of Risk
by The Crooked Spoke •
This class has philosophized circles around mountains and the folks who climb them. The concept of risk (and mountaineers’ penchant for exposing themselves to it) has been vilified, romanticized, and dramatized in the literature we’ve read as a class. For my term-paper I’d like to focus on the objective risks of mountaineering, and how the…
Reading Response, Uncategorized
Cliffhangers and White Spider
by The Crooked Spoke •
Cliffhangers starts right off by quickly pointing out that there is “an absence of actual regret.” among mountaineers who have survived catastrophes such as the 1996 massacre on Mt. Everest. While I thought that the proceeding analogue between mountain climbing and stage acting was very limited, I did see the merit in the observation that excitement in…
Uncategorized
Mountains: not just for men
by The Crooked Spoke •
“To pursue, always higher, toward the summit. Fate is thus made.” – Claude Kogan Claude Kogan was the proverbial wrench in the spokes of those traditional gender mechanics that had ruled the alpine world for half a century or more. She and her contemporaries were as determined, hardened and enraptured as any man they climbed beside, and but for…
Reading Response, Week 4
The Mountain of Dancing Lamas
by The Crooked Spoke •
While I enjoyed the history and nostalgia of Fallen Legends, I want to focus on the two accessory readings. These pieces complemented the theme of exploration that spoke to me in the opening chapters of Weaver’s and Isserman’s work and shed interesting non-climbing historical lights on the mountain realm. ‘The Mountain: A Political History…
Reading Response, Week 3
Mountains and Minds, Gloom and Glory…Imperial Eyes?
by The Crooked Spoke •
Mary Louise Pratt’s somewhat disparaging description of the political and scientific atmosphere during explorations like the La Condamine expedition sound alarmingly similar to more recent expansions of knowledge. The space race provides a pertinent example of how nationalism and the quest for scientific supremacy in a modern world can drive a wedge between potential collaborators…
Reading Response, Week 2
Metaphor
by The Crooked Spoke •
Let’s start with Monte Veritas. It struck me as though du Maurier used the symbol of Monte Veritas to shed light on the sublime and primitive magnetism of mountains. A force not to be underestimated. The mountain generates an atmosphere that can be intoxicating at the very least, and at most truly enlightening. This eden would be…
Introduction
A quick hello.
by The Crooked Spoke •
Hello all! I’m Noah Bosworth. I’ll be finishing up a degree in Conservation Biology and Ecology (focus in endangered species policy and fisheries ecology) next fall after six long years. I’m a transplant to Montana from the beautiful state of Maine, having made the move after my first attempt at school went up in smoke.…