The most shocking first page in mountaineering literature

One of the things that sometimes annoys me about quite a lot of mountaineering writing is machismo: the equating of various attributes such as physical strength and endurance, single-mindedness and willingness to take risks, with virtue.

I’ve lost count of the number of expedition accounts I’ve read where the hardest route to the top is the only one worth considering, or those where a big argument happens between members of a team and the stronger members are invariably cast as heroes while the ...