The beginning of Fallen Giants began very slow, with a lot of information regarding mountains, a goddess, and elevations that I found quite hard to keep track of. I did however find it very interesting and thoughtful that explorers such as Adolf Schlagintweit gave offerings before venturing into the Traill’s Pass as a sign of…

The discussion for this class has centered much around the cause behind mountaineering, the draw to the sport, and what attracts mountaineers to the thrill of the dangerous endeavor. Fallen Giants, while dense and packed with great historical detail, contains insight into the question of why mountaineering is loved by many despite its danger. Isserman…

It is interesting drawing the parallels of the effects of the World Wars and the history of climbing and conquering the Himalayas in Fallen Giants.  Of course there could be many other reasons, but perhaps the aftermath of the first World War was the driving force that led so many veterans to start conquering peaks…

The exploration and mapping of the Greater Ranges on earth was a large reason for people to start climbing in the greater ranges with higher altitudes. Fallen Giants, by Maurice Isserman and Stewart Weaver, is a great historical text showing how remote, and absolutely huge the great ranges are. Over 400 miles in width at…

Through reading in Fallen Giants, it is very clear that much of the early history of mountaineering in the Himalaya was carried out in large part due to imperialism and national competition. From the very get go it seems, with the Great Trigonometrical Survey, the British were attempting to stake claims to this land. And…

Reading Fallen Giants resulted in many late nights reading long dense material. The book was sporadically interesting. The book was a sea of uninteresting passages, but peppered with useful knowledge. I would not categorize this book as a “page-turner”, at least not until chapter three; the story of “Mallory of Everest”. Mallory, as a person,…

With the reading of Fallen Giants the history part of Mountaineering comes into sharp focus. No doubt an angle change from looking at metaphorical mountains and no longer are we studying the mountains of English and Petrarchan poems and works but actual concrete mountains in all of their glory. The angle of time is now…

The Dancing Lamas of Everest: Cinema, Orientalism, and Anglo-Tibetan Relations in the 1920s gave a typical account of how Europeans, the West in general, and the British use Orientalism, consciously and unconsciously, to the detriment of Asian cultures. One of the parts I found most interesting about this story is the backdrop on which it…

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…

My first impressions after reading Mountains of Minds is that Robert Macfarlane truly understands the sport of mountaineering and that he holds a pure passion for what mountains and the sport represent for not only himself but for people throughout history. I can honestly say that his imagery that he creates within his writing is powerful…