Well this sure felt academic following last week’s read, huh? I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of Jon Krakauer’s form in Into Thin Air, but it was a page turner. Sherry Ortner’s work could appear bland, even *gasp* scientific compared to Krakauer’s rant/trip report. This is where a realization struck me. Ortner’s style and presentation reminded me…

One thing I really enjoy about Sherry Ortner’s monograph is how well she considers the Sherpa culture, as one of the key factors of their role in high-altitude mountaineering. I think she does an excellent job of making it clear that Sherpa culture and mountaineering are very related, and have that unique dyanmic which at…

It was nice to read a book that finally dove head on into the topic we’ve been touching on every class- the cultural aspect of the Sherpas. I really enjoyed this book, because so much of it came as a surprise. I expected Sherpa life to much different than how it was portrayed. I expected…

Sherry Ortner’s account of the climbing on Mount Everest is the first book we have read that is specifically concerning the Sherpa’s point of view of mountaineering in the Himalaya. Although Ortner is not a Sherpa herself, she is seen in the Western world as the absolute authority on their culture. This simple fact makes…