For whatever reason, most people don’t have ambitions to be thrown into committing and terrifying tussle with a Himalayan mountain, battling upwards into thin air in the unwavering pursuit of its incredibly lofty summit. Living these kinds of adventures vicariously is much safer and somewhat more comfortable, if perhaps less rewarding. And so, it’s certain that many, many times more people have read about summiting Everest, K2, the Eiger or Denali than people have actually climbed them. This popular pastime is called armchair mountaineering.
The exploits of mountaineers have long fascinated the general public. Ever since the Golden Age of Alpinism saw the great peaks of the Alps chalked off in the mid 19th century, onlookers have far outnumbered those who’ve risked their lives in Earth’s wilder places. Unlike soccer or basketball, mountaineering is not a spectator sport and the closest many of us will get to experiencing the great summits of the world is through the best climbing films or by reading a jolly good mountaineering book.
