GLOBAL CULTURE AND SPORT SERIES

Gender, Politics and

Change in Mountaineering
Moving Mountains
Edited by Jenny Hall
Emma Boocock · Zoë Avner
Global Culture and Sport Series

Series Editor
David Andrews
Kinesiology
University of Maryland
Baltimore, MD, USA
Series Editors: Stephen Wagg, Leeds Beckett University, UK, and David
Andrews, University of Maryland, USA.
The Global Culture and Sport series aims to contribute to and advance
the debate about sport and globalization by engaging with various aspects
of sport culture as a vehicle for critically excavating the tensions between
the global and the local, transformation and tradition and sameness and
difference. With studies ranging from snowboarding bodies, the global-
ization of rugby and the Olympics, to sport and migration, issues of racism
and gender, and sport in the Arab world, this series showcases the range of
exciting, pioneering research being developed in the field of sport
sociology.
Jenny Hall • Emma Boocock • Zoë Avner
Editors

Gender, Politics and

Change in
Mountaineering
Moving Mountains
Editors
Jenny Hall Emma Boocock
York St John University Northumbria University
York, UK Newcastle, UK

Zoë Avner
Deakin University
Victoria, Australia

ISSN 2662-3404     ISSN 2662-3412 (electronic)

Global Culture and Sport Series
ISBN 978-3-031-29944-5    ISBN 978-3-031-29945-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2

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 Foreword

In 1999, as I hung upside-down, wedged in a crevasse formed from a

bergschrund at the foot of Pinnacle Mountain in the Canadian Rockies, I
made a couple of important decisions about my life as a woman and as a
female climber. First decision: no one had seen me fall in, and so it was
going to be up to me to rescue myself. Second decision: I was never going
to go on an all-male climbing trip ever again. I pulled one leg out from
under the other, ripping my left knee’s ACL tendon in the process, and
got myself right-side up so that I could climb out of the crevasse. Once I
got out, I found my husband out on the ice and told him that I was done
for the day. I had to walk out.
“Is your knee okay,” he said.
“No,” I replied. My knee was hurting and already starting to swell up.
I couldn’t walk very well on it. I told him that I thought I could get down,
and I just wanted to get out of there.
“Okay, here’s the keys,” he said, handing them over. “I’ll catch a ride
back with John and I’ll see you back at Jan’s.” Then he turned to go on
with the climb.
And that was it. No one else came to talk to me about how or why I
could have fallen. No one, including my husband, offered to go with me
as I hobbled back down the Sentinel Pass trail to the parking lot and then,
with my knee aching, drove our car back to my friend’s house near Calgary.
Pinnacle Mountain had a route that the 1999 edition of Selected Alpine
Climbs in the Canadian Rockies guidebook called grade II because

v
vi FOREWORD

climbers could have the aid of an old hemp rope that had been put in at
the crux of the route. The rope was supposed to make things easy. The
passage for the climb says this: “In keeping with tradition, batman up the
rope to a small ledge. Alternatively, 5.5 rock climbing attains the same
ledge–boo!” (Dougherty, 1999, p. 126). Of course, real climbers would
have to act like the Batman and use the rope, but the route turned out to
be a 17-hour ordeal for the other four climbers who went on after I fell
because the old rope had broken off, leaving only the difficult climb to the
ridge over dangerous, crumbly rocks.
So what had happened when I fell? I figured that out as I limped down-
hill, leaning on my trekking pole. I ventured into the crevasse in the first
place because I had, as Katherine O’Brien discusses in her chapter for this
collection about traditional mountaineering training programs, been “fol-
lowing a man up a mountain.” Chris, the guy I had been following, was
more than six feet tall, and he wore climbing clothes from the 1970s. He
was a very traditional climber, and he liked a challenge. When we got to
the bergschrund, Chris had gone into it to climb along the rock wall
exposed by the melting snow. I had climbed after him thinking he was on
a safer route than the one on the ice, making my way up a crumbling,
near-vertical rock wall with the snow wall of the “shrund” behind me. But
because Chris was such a tall man, he could reach holds I couldn’t. At one
point as I stretched for one of those holds, I slipped, twisted around, and
fell head-first. Luckily the crevasse narrowed as I fell, so I didn’t hit the
bottom. That’s how I ended up stuck upside-down. Later, Chris told me
that he was just climbing the wall “for fun” and he didn’t know that I was
behind him. It hadn’t occurred to him to look back as he went, and so he
neither saw nor heard me fall. The handholds he found suited him, but
were too big for me. I fell because I was doing something too hard for me
to do. There was no communication on my team, so I thought I was sup-
posed to climb that wall. Worst of all, I was literally trying to imitate what
a tall male climber was doing and trying to do it his way. That proved to
be impossible.
And so, I changed how I climbed after that and who I climbed with. A
bit later, I changed other things in my life too, including who my life part-
ner would be. My experience at the foot of Pinnacle Mountain had taught
me something important about climbing and gender that I would later
revisit as I wrote False Summit, my book about high-altitude
 FOREWORD vii

mountaineering and gender politics. The world of mountain climbing, as

all the essays in Moving Mountains: Gender, Politics and Change in
Mountaineering point out, is shot through with relatively narrow ideas
about mountaineering as the preserve of a very specific kind of body, usu-
ally the body of a white, western, abled-bodied man with dreams of sum-
miting (or conquering) a peak in a certain style. The logic of proper
climbing style is substitutional: it is widely assumed that a climber either
can do exactly what that particular type of man can do, or they are not a
climber. There is never a discussion about the fairness of the playing field
or in this case, the rock wall. I literally had the wrong body for the climb
I was doing. What is more, the guidebook required us to “batman” up
that hemp rope on Pinnacle Mountain and even mocked any readers who
were too afraid to use the rope. I was not a male superhero. None of us
were. But the lure of potential heroism and the threat of that “boo!” in
the guidebook kept the men in my group going upward, while this style
of climbing injured me and sent me back down, on quite a different path.
The effect of that injury was to get me thinking about mountaineering,
sexism and other forms of injustice, and it eventually sent my life up a dif-
ferent, more interesting route than the one I had been on. That is true
too, increasingly so, for scholars committed to thinking about the culture
of mountain climbing, including who that culture has served in the past
and how to widen our ideas about climbing in the mountains for the
future. When I was writing False Summit, there were no other books I
could consult about gender and mountaineering where gender, widely
conceived, was the primary focus, with the exception of Sherri B. Ortner’s
Life and Death on Mount Everest. Other intersectional studies of moun-
taineering were few and far between. There were good books available
about the history and politics of masculinity and climbing, and there were
histories of climbing that sometimes added women to them. There were a
few, but only a few, feminist studies that addressed some of the problems
with the cultures of sexism and racism in mountaineering and rock climb-
ing. And there was a growing discourse in mountaineering journalism
about the need for climbing to become more inclusive and more interest-
ing. But as I worked on my book, I often wondered if there would ever be
a thorough, progressive and wide-ranging discussion in scholarly circles
about the gender, race, sexuality, disability and neocolonialism in climb-
ing. And I dreamed that one day, there would be.
viii FOREWORD

That day is now here. New scholarship about mountain climbing and
its history and culture is beginning to appear, and I already feel that False
Summit is becoming part of a new way to think about mountain climbing,
its limits and its possibilities. In particular, Moving Mountains, with its
dedication to feminist and intersectional approaches to mountaineering,
hill climbing and rock climbing, is at the forefront of such thinking. Its
contribution to the discussion of intersectionality in mountaineering is
much more solid than those crumbly handholds on Pinnacle Mountain in
1999. The chapters here are from many disciplines, including leisure stud-
ies, sociology, history and anthropology, and the locations range from
Mexico, to Japan, to England’s Lake District. There is work here about
masculinity and hegemony that I wish I had known about when I was
writing False Summit. The emphasis on transformation in each section
allows for studies of the past, accompanied by a critique of sexism and rac-
ism in mountaineering, but also the emphasis on transformation allows for
a more expansive idea of what mountain climbing is and who in the pres-
ent and future can be a climber. There has been a tendency in mainstream
discourse about climbing to assume that, for climbers who belong to
equity-deserving groups, all problems are solved. The contributors of
Moving Mountains show in detail how those problems are still with us, but
some contributions look to developments in leadership and pedagogy as a
way to see how change is possible, whether we are thinking about Junko
Tabei’s place in climbing history, Erin Parisi’s project to become the first
trans* climber to complete the Seven Summits, or the work to change
how mountaineering leadership and education characterise climbing suc-
cess. Moving Mountains tackles the challenging questions of climbing cul-
ture and moves the study of climbing and a need for justice in
mountaineering forward in the process. I for one welcome that develop-
ment and can’t wait to see the work to come from its intervention in
mountaineering and gender studies, moving us all from “following a man”
to climbing—and thinking—as ourselves.
Julie Rak, FRSC, holds the Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the
Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta,
Canada. Her latest book is False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering
Nonfiction (2021). She has written extensively on nonfiction, including
the books Boom! Manufacturing Memoir for the Popular Market (2013)
and Negotiated Memory: Doukhobor Autobiographical Discourse (2004).
 FOREWORD ix

Her latest edited collection is the Identities volume of the Oxford

Encyclopedia of Literary Theory (2022), and with Sonia Boon, Candida
Rifkind, and Laurie McNeill the forthcoming textbook The Routledge
Introduction to Auto/biography in Canada (2022). jrak@ualberta.ca

Edmonton, AB, Canada  Julie Rak

2022

Reference
Dougherty, S. (1999). Selected Alpine Climbs in the Canadian Rockies. Rocky
Mountain Books.
 Acknowledgements

Nan Shepherd wisely expressed that aiming for the highest point is not the
only way to climb the mountain (N. Shepherd, 2011). This sentiment
flows throughout the collection of essays within this book and threads
together some key messages. It would not have been possible to compile
these chapters without the help of the contributing authors. Without your
continued dedication to extending our knowledge of women in the moun-
tains, we would not have been able to complete this, so thank you. We
extend our thanks also to the reviewers, who provided useful comments to
create a high-quality edited collection. Finally, we would like to thank the
series editors Stephen Wagg and David Andrews and our series editors,
who believed in the scope of this title and have provided support for its
completion. Finally, to the readers of this book, we thank you for choosing
to engage with these chapters, and hope that it encourages, illuminates
and inspires you to move mountains.

Reference
Shepherd, N. (2011). The Living Mountain (2nd Ed.). Canongate Books.

xi
 Contents

1 Introduction:
 Contextualising Gender and
Transformational Spaces in Mountaineering Adventure
Sports and Leisure  1
Jenny Hall, Emma Boocock, and Zoë Avner

Part I Transforming the Past: Intersecting Mountaineering

Histories  13

2 ‘That
 is the Lady I saw Ascending Snowdon, Alone’:
Pioneering Women Mountaineers of the Nineteenth
Century 15
Kerri Andrews

3 Troubling
 the Silences of Adventure Legacies: Junko
Tabei and the Intersectional Politics of Mountaineering 31
Jenny Hall and Maggie Miller

4 “There
 is no manlier sport in the world”. How
Hegemonic Masculinity Became Constitutive of
Excellence in Mountaineering 51
Delphine Moraldo

xiii
xiv Contents

Part II Transforming Experience: Intersectionality in

Mountain Spaces and Places  71

5 Reflexive
 Duoethnography: A Dialogic Exploration of
Disability and Participation in Outdoor Adventure
Activities and a Mountain Climber Academic 73
T. A. Loeffler and Kim White

6 “The
 whole trip I basically had to hide”: A Goffmanian
Analysis of Erin Parisi and Negotiating the Gendered
Mountaineering Space 89
Thomas M. Leeder, Kate Russell, Lee C. Beaumont,
and Lois Ferguson

7 Exploring
 the Gendered and Racialised Experiences of
Mexican Mestiza: Women Mountaineers Through the
Rhizomatic Body107
Isis Arlene Díaz-Carrión

8 (Re)naming
 Routes: A Tale of Transformation in the
Outdoor Rock Climbing Community129
Jennifer Wigglesworth

Part III Transforming Leadership, Participation and Praxis:

Climbing the Mountain of Equity 151

9 Climbing
 Mountains Together: Developing Gender Parity
Pathways in Mountaineering Leadership and the Role
of Men153
Cressida Allwood and Linda Allin

10 A
 Critical Postfeminist Lens as a Tool for Praxis169
Emily Ankers
 Contents  xv

11 Leave
 Tracks: Gender, Discrimination, and Resistance in
Mountaineering187
Kate Evans, Dorothy L. Schmalz, and Sasha C. Mader

Part IV Transformational Pedagogies: Creating New Spaces

to Mountaineer 207

12 Into
 the Mountain: Challenging Hegemonic Discourses
of Mountaineering and Expanding the Relational Field209
Simone Kenyon and Margaret Kerr

13 Transformational
 Learning on the Journey to Mountain
Leadership237
Katherine O’Brien

14 An
 Autoethnographic Writing of Mountain Skill Courses257
Emma Boocock

Index273
 Notes on Contributors

Linda Allin is an associate professor in the Department of Sport, Exercise

and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University where she has worked for
over 20 years. She is still active in the outdoors and used to run the depart-
ment outdoor field programme. Her main research interests lie in gender,
inclusivity, leadership and learning in relation to sport, physical activity
and the outdoors, and her PhD in 2003 was entitled ‘Challenging careers
for women?: Negotiating identities in outdoor education’. Linda has pub-
lished consistently in relation to women’s experiences in the outdoor
industry, with a key aim to bridge the gap between theory and practice and
support positive change.
Cressida Allwood is the former Chair of the British Mountaineering
Council’s (BMC) Equity Steering Group and currently works as a senior
project manager for the Youth Hostal Association (YHA). An intrepid
global traveller, Cressida has led overseas expeditions for 20 years, in addi-
tion to an 18-month, solo, round-the-world cycling adventure. A former
Head of Girls’ PE at a London secondary school, she has been active in
developing research in gender and leadership in the outdoor sector, with
published professional articles on this topic. Cressida devised the BMC’s
‘Finding Our Way’ podcast series, to encourage greater equality and
diversity of outdoor voices. (https://thebmc.co.uk/finding-­our-­way-­
bmc-­new-­diverse-­outdoor-­voices-­podcast)
Kerri Andrews is Reader in Women’s Literature and Textual Editing at
Edge Hill University. Her book, Wanderers: A History of Women Walking,

xvii
xviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

was published by Reaktion in 2020. She is the editor of the first-ever edi-
tion of Nan Shepherd’s correspondence, to be published by Edinburgh
University Press in 2023. She has written about women’s walking and
mountaineering for a number of publications, including Trail Magazine,
The Guardian, and Wordsworth Circle. She is Co-Director, with Rachel
Hewitt (Newcastle) and Jo Taylor (Manchester), of the Arts & Humanities
Research Council (AHRC)-funded network, Women In The Hills, which
is looking to understand and improve women’s experiences of being in
upland landscapes.
Emily Ankers (she/her) is a doctoral researcher at Brunel University
London funded by the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership. Her
PhD research is around women’s experiences of climbing and wellbeing.
Prior to her PhD, she completed a Masters by Research, ‘Everyday’
Women’s Experiences of Rock Climbing (1970–2020). As a result of find-
ing that women tended not to engage with climbing media, Emily
Co-Founded Beta Magazine, an online climbing and outdoors magazine
focused on the female experience but inclusive of all. Emily is also a volun-
teer member of the British Mountaineering Council’s Equity Steering
Group. She is a climber, hill walker and more recently a beginner moun-
tain biker.
Zoë Avner is a lecturer in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences
at Deakin University, Australia. Her research draws on poststructuralist
and feminist methodologies to explore athlete and coach learning, power
and coaching, and coaching ethics. Her work seeks to support the devel-
opment of more ethical coaching practices and more diverse, equitable,
and inclusive physical cultures both within traditional mainstream and
emerging alternative lifestyle sporting contexts. Zoë is an avid rock
climber, mountain biker, and fell runner.
Lee C. Beaumont is Associate Professor of Physical Education in the
School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East
Anglia, Norwich, UK. His research interests lie in the areas of physical
education and sport pedagogy, with a particular emphasis on health-
related policy and practice within physical education, the promotion of
healthy active lifestyles in young people, sports coaching, outdoor educa-
tion, and lifestyle sports.
Emma Boocock is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sport, Exercise
and Rehabilitation at Northumbria University, UK. Her main research
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xix

interests have become tied to her personal hobbies by documenting

embodied experiences of women in outdoor adventure contexts. This
work has allowed Emma to work with National Governing Bodies and
charitable organisations across the UK. More recently Emma has started
to use mobile video techniques to support her work in both green and
blue spaces. Emma is an active mountain biker, fell runner and open water
swimmer.
Isis Arlene Díaz-Carrión is an associate professor at Facultad de Turismo
y Mercadotecnia, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (Mexico).
She holds a PhD in Human Geography from the Universidad Complutense
de Madrid (Spain). Her research focuses on gender and tourism, as well as
the impact of the sustainability agenda on tourism. She conducted her
fieldwork in Mexico, actually in the US-Mexican borderlands of Baja
California (British Council-Newton Fund Grant-­Conacyt Mexico). Her
recent work has been published in Gender, Place & Culture, Annals of
Leisure Research, Tourism Geographies, Región y Sociedad, El Periplo
Sustentable, among others.
Kate Evans is an associate professor in the Department of Recreation
Management and Therapeutic Recreation at the University of Wisconsin-La
Crosse. Her research focuses primarily on issues of social justice in recre-
ation. More specifically, she has focused on women’s participation in out-
door adventure recreation and their gendered experiences in those spaces.
Additionally, her work focuses on violence against women in the leisure
realm and the role the leisure field can play in the effort to end violence
against women.
Lois Ferguson is a postgraduate researcher in Education in the School of
Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her
research interests centre on gender and sexuality in sports and education
contexts. Utilising trans and critical social theory, her doctoral research
explores gender diversity in Physical Education (PE), employing a qualita-
tive methodology to gain insight into the experiences of PE teachers
alongside trans and gender-diverse young people.
Jenny Hall is a senior lecturer at York St John University, United
Kingdom, and a cultural geographer interested in tourism, adventure
sports and heritage. Her research explores embodiment, gender and emo-
tional experiences in adventure environments from a feminist social justice
perspective. More recently she has been exploring sustainability and spatial
xx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

justice in historic cities. Jen is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

and Treasurer of the Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group.
Jen is a mountaineer, ultra-mountain runner and member of her local
mountain rescue team.
Simone Kenyon is a transdisciplinary artist, Feldenkrais practitioner,
mountain leader (in training) and academic based in Scotland. For 20+
years Simone has worked across art forms to explore the complex interre-
lationships of movement, people and place. She works with notions of
expanded choreographies, encompassing walking arts, dance (including
Body Weather dance practices), ecologies and cultural geographies to cre-
ate participatory and performance events. She is currently a PhD researcher
at the University of Leeds, exploring the intersections of embodied knowl-
edge, site-relational performance making and mountaineering practices.
Project Website: www.intothemountain.co.uk
Margaret Kerr graduated with an MFA in Art and Humanities from
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD). She is now
doing a practice-led PhD at DJCAD, investigating Scottish history from a
decolonial perspective and exploring a sense of place through the lens of
indigenous and non-Western ontologies and contemporary art practice.
Alongside her PhD, she works as a psychotherapist and mountain leader.
She runs outdoor retreats which focus on deepening a sense of connection
with the rest of nature.
Thomas M. Leeder is Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Pedagogy in the
School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences at the University of
Essex, UK. His research interests primarily centre on understanding coach
learning and development, coach education and mentoring, and sport
coaching pedagogy. His research utilises qualitative methodologies while
drawing upon sociological frameworks to explore issues within sporting
contexts.
T. A. Loeffler brings over 35 years of expertise leading people through
significant life-changing experiences to every facet of their work. TA’s
adventures have taken them to 52 different countries and all 7 continents.
TA has completed 6 and 4/5 of “The Seven Summits,” the highest peak on
all seven continents. In 2020, TA was named to the “Canada’s 90 Greatest
Explorers List” by Canadian Geographic. As Professor of Outdoor
Education and Recreation at Memorial University, TA has developed a
reputation for excellence in experiential education because their students
are more likely to be outside chasing icebergs than sitting in a classroom.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxi

TA has received recognition for innovative experiential teaching. TA was

named a 3M National Teaching Fellow in 2008. From Association of
Experiential Education (AEE), TA received the Karl Rhonke Creativity
Award (2007), the Outstanding Experiential Teacher of the Year (1999),
and was selected to deliver the Kurt Hahn/Marina Ewald Address in 2018.
Sasha Mader is a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant at
the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in the Department of Recreation
and Therapeutic Recreation. She is currently working on research focused
on violence against women and girls in the outdoors and hopes to con-
tinue her education focusing on leisure, recreation, and social justice.
Maggie Miller is a senior lecturer at Swansea University, United
Kingdom. Much of her current work focuses on the sociocultural dimen-
sions of sustainability, as she takes up research to understand, enhance, and
advocate for social justice and equity in tourism and recreation contexts. A
critical qualitative scholar, Maggie’s work is informed by relational ways of
knowing and draws on diverse methodologies (e.g., narrative, visual, and
sensorial) and community-based research practices. Since joining Swansea’s
School of Management in 2018, Maggie has worked collaboratively and
creatively with colleagues on a range of projects—one of her most recent
projects has led her to Dhorpatan, Nepal, to assess viable livelihood
options and tourism enterprise opportunities.
Delphine Moraldo is a sociologist and member of the Centre Max
Weber (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France). She worked on the
historical and social construction of excellence in mountaineering in her
book L’esprit de l’alpinisme. Une sociologie de l’excellence, XIXe-XXIe siècle
(ENS Editions, 2021). On the same subject, she published several articles
in English, among them Moraldo, D. (2020). ‘Women and excellence in
mountaineering from the 19th century to the Present.’ The International
Journal of the History of Sport, 37(9), 727–747, and Moraldo, D. (2022).
‘Using autobiographies for a sociology of mountaineering.’ Primerjalna
književnost, 45(1). She also recently translated Norbert Elias into French.
Kate O’Brien studied Outdoor Education in the Community where her
research focus was on women developing a career in outdoor leadership.
She has since spent over 15 years working on outdoor programmes pre-
dominantly in mountainous environments. Pursuing a Masters in Applied
Positive Psychology has allowed Kate to combine her love of outdoor
adventure with a deeper understanding of the human mind, supporting
xxii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

people to reach their potential. More recently Kate has developed, deliv-
ered and evaluated Outward Bound’s first Women’s Specific Outdoor
Leadership Course, which includes a focus on mountain leadership.
Kate Russell is Associate Professor in PE and Sport in the School of
Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia, UK. Her
research interests lie in exploring gender and sexualities in sport, health,
and other education settings including teacher training. Her work also
focuses on mental health and wellbeing in teacher training and higher edu-
cation. She practices and teaches mindfulness.
Dorothy Schmalz is an associate professor and Interim Chair of the
Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah.
Her research focus is on the relationships between recreation and leisure
on health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on the social psychology
of stigma and prejudice as they affect access to and engagement in nature-
based recreation. She and some colleagues recently launched Nature and
Human Health-Utah, a research and practice collaborative designed to
increase equity and access to nature and outdoor recreation and to better
understand the links between nature exposure and human health.
Kim White is from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
Kim has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education from the Memorial
University of Newfoundland. Her diverse career spans literacy, adult edu-
cation, prior learning assessment, career and employment services, poverty
reduction and community development as well as accessibility and inclu-
sion. She has worked in both the private and public sectors, but most of
her career has been in the community-based sector which she is very pas-
sionate about. Kim has lived with a physical disability since age three and
uses braces and crutches as well as a manual wheelchair for mobility. Kim
worked in the public sector supporting the development of the Provincial
Strategy for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities—Newfoundland
and Labrador, which led to her advocacy work around inclusion and acces-
sibility. It was, however, Kim’s own lived experience with ageing with a
disability and recent health changes that kickstarted her focus on inclusion
in recreation, sport and physical activities. With support from Dr TA
Loeffler, Professor at the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation,
Memorial University of Newfoundland, Kim is exploring the world of
adaptive physical activities for her own health and well-­being. Her goal in
sharing these explorations with others is to support more opportunities
 Notes on Contributors  xxiii

for persons with disabilities to live full and active lives. Kim has been
involved in many facets of inclusion including the accessibility of perfor-
mance arts and integrated dance as well as providing support to the Deaf
community in Newfoundland and Labrador. Kim received the 2018
Newfoundland and Labrador Human Rights Award for her work in the
community-based sector and as a disability rights advocate.
Jennifer Wigglesworth is an assistant professor in the Outdoor Recreation
and Tourism Management Program at the University of Northern British
Columbia. Her research program grows out of her passion for social justice
in the outdoors. Jennifer is interested in asking questions about justice,
equity, and inclusion across the contexts of outdoor recreation, sport, tour-
ism, and education. Her doctoral project explored rock climbing through
feminist perspectives. She studies climbing experiences with respect to dif-
ferent categories of identity and structures of power. She also analyzes the
cultural politics of naming practices in outdoor communities.
 List of Figures

Fig. 7.1 The rhizomatic Mexican-mestiza women mountaineer body.

(Source: Author) 120
Fig. 12.1 Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw) 221
Fig. 12.2 Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw) 222
Fig. 12.3 Education pack example. Into the Mountain. 2019. (Design
Maeve Redmond) 224
Fig. 12.4 Saffy Setohy (group facilitator) reading extract from
Shephers’s prose. Into The Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity
Crawshaw)225
Fig. 12.5 Margaret Kerr and Kathy Grindrod (group facilitator and
mountain leader). Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity
Crawshaw)226
Fig. 12.6 Participants during the walk explored ecological details. Into
the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw) 226
Fig. 12.7 The choir in rehearsals. Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image
Felicity Crawshaw) 228
Fig. 12.8 Audience and dancers Keren Smail, Caroline Reagh, Petra
Söör, Claricia Parinussa, Jo Hellier. Into The
Mountain.2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw) 229
Fig. 12.9 Claricia Parinussa, Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity
Crawshaw)231
Fig. 12.10 Dancers: Keren Smail, Caroline Reagh, Petra Söör, Claricia
Parinussa, Jo Hellier. Into The Mountain. 2019. (Image
Felicity Crawshaw) 232

xxv
 List of Tables

Table 7.1 Participant demographics 114

Table 7.2 The rhizomatic body: Mexican-mestiza women
mountaineering115

xxvii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Contextualising Gender

and Transformational Spaces
in Mountaineering Adventure Sports
and Leisure

Jenny Hall, Emma Boocock, and Zoë Avner

This book is the first edited collection to offer an intersectional account of

gender in mountaineering adventure sports and leisure. It provides origi-
nal theoretical, methodological and empirical insights into mountain
spaces as sites of socio-cultural production and transformation. The popu-
lar perception of sporting adventure is saturated with notions of European

J. Hall (*)
York St John University, York, UK
e-mail: j.hall@yorksj.ac.uk
E. Boocock
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
e-mail: e.boocock@northumbria.ac.uk
Z. Avner
Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
e-mail: z.avner@deakin.edu.au

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_1
2 J. HALL ET AL.

exploration and colonisation that have been prolifically relayed and roman-
ticised through adventure stories. Adventure is part of who we are and has
its origins in exploration, science and war (Kirk, 2021). Simply put, adven-
ture is different from everyday life and entails a sensory knowledge formed
of risk, exclusivity and elitism (Cater, 2013). Yet, as Cater (2013, p. 9)
notes “adventure has an underlying masculinist imperative that is cultur-
ally constructed” and thus gendered. Moreover, adventure as an object of
knowledge is materialised within adventurous masculinised bodies as
semiotic generative nodes that symbolise, and are sedimented in adventure
environments (Ahmed, 2013). As such, the familiar trope of mountaineer-
ing heroism is embodied in the suffering, bravery, strength, speed and
risk-taking that are characteristic of this masculinist pursuit. Adventure
sports and leisure are inescapably part of a hegemonic global society that
works to justify the subordination of those outside dominant norms
(Connell, 2005). Accordingly, we treat gender as a broad spectrum where
identity is not tied to nature/culture, mind/body and male/female bina-
ries, while recognising the importance of embodiment (Eger et al., 2021).
Indeed, historically assigned gender identity continues to have significant
consequences, in the worst case by essentialising bodies as having fixed
traits (Eger et al., 2021). For example, bodies can be ‘inscribed’ with gen-
dered meanings in relation to the masculine norm in adventure settings
that privileges heroic characteristics such as aggression, competition and
unwillingness to admit weakness or dependency (after Connell, 2005).
Yet, the codification of mountaineering has changed little since the
conjoining of Victorian notions of adventure, modernity and manliness
evolved in the 1850s as a leisure and nation-building sport (Logan, 2006).
This hypermasculine mountaineering legacy based on male institutions
and styles of interaction (white middle-class males from the West) has
silenced the achievements of those outside the dominant norm (Frohlick,
2006; Hall & Brown 2022; Ortner, 1999; Rak, 2021). Mountaineering is
largely a monoculture that excludes those of ethnicity, dis/ability, gender,
sexuality and age leading to significant underrepresentation (Frohlick,
1999/2000; Miller & Mair, 2019). Topographically and geographically,
femininity is virtually absent in the classification of mountains as sporting
adventure and leisure spaces and places. This is indicative of how far cur-
rent governance structures must go to mainstream gender and address
inequality. Women and those of difference are significantly underrepre-
sented in general participation and leadership roles in mountaineering and
face discrimination when they do (Allin & West, 2013; Avner et al., 2021;
 1 INTRODUCTION: CONTEXTUALISING GENDER… 3

Hall, 2018; Hall & Brown, 2022; O’Brien & Allin, 2022). Such inequali-
ties are compounded by a lack of role models, access to appropriate out-
door clothing, poor media representation and the challenges of securing
leadership and governance roles and employment in the outdoor adven-
ture industry (Frohlick, 2006; Gray & Mitten, 2018; Morton, 2018; Rak,
2021; Rickly, 2016; Sharp, 2001). Despite these challenges, those of dif-
ference are using mountaineering to resist, rather than submit to, these
constraints by employing a broad range of strategies that enables their
participation (Evans & Anderson, 2018). In doing so, they challenge tra-
ditionally gendered discourses in mountaineering and promote alternative
mountaineering practices and ways of being in the mountains (Dilley &
Scraton, 2010).
Although scholarship on gender and inequality in mainstream tradi-
tional sports is well-developed (LaVoi & Baeth, 2018; Norman, 2010,
2018; Norman et al., 2018), only a small number of studies have explored
gendered inequalities in mountaineering (Evans & Anderson, 2018; Rak,
2021; Warren et al., 2018; Wigglesworth, 2021). And even fewer consider
how women and those of diverse backgrounds have sought to actively
reshape and extend the narrow material-discursive boundaries of moun-
tain adventure participation and leadership. Rak (2007, p. 115) attributes
the lack of research exploring the experiences of those of difference in
mountaineering to an emphasis on masculinity in the gender politics of
high-altitude mountaineering [which] “has meant that feminist studies of
women climbers and women centred expeditions are still rare”. Echoing
Rak (2007), Dilley and Scraton’s study on female lifestyle climbers called
for scholars researching “serious leisure to take gender seriously” (2010,
p. 137). This volume aims to problematise gender in mountaineering
adventure sports and leisure by mapping strategies for transformation and
social change. Through focusing on the gendered nature of mountain
adventure, we first provide a deep analysis of the impact inequalities have
on various (intersecting) minority groups before discussing new ways of
understanding and practising mountain adventure informed by the inter-
sectional experiences presented in this volume. We are encouraged by
MacDonald and Colleagues’ (2016, p. 86) view that sport and leisure
scholarship has the potential, through “intersectional sensibilities”, to
consider how “intersectional engagements can generate possibilities for
feminist thought in movements towards justice”. By exposing the pro-
cesses that produce discrimination and oppression we aim to appreciate
4 J. HALL ET AL.

how inequalities are historically situated while recognising the heteroge-

neity of gendered experiences and identities (Watson, 2018).
This international collection features contributions from leading and
emerging researchers, many of whom are mountaineers. We apply a broad
definition to who a mountaineer is, to include mountaineering, climbing,
alpinism and mountain walking. Common to all these activities is the
embodied nature of performing and making bodily connections between
the human and non-human worlds of snow, rock and ice. The volume is
interdisciplinary, representing scholars from theoretical as well as applied
perspectives across adventure, tourism, sport science, sports coaching,
psychology, geography, sociology and outdoor studies. In addition, it
offers theoretical and empirical insights across feminist, intersectional,
poststructural, humanistic, affective and material adventure sporting per-
spectives. Ultimately, we aim to appreciate how gender matters in the
twenty-first century, and the need for greater efforts to mainstream differ-
ence in representations and governance structures if we are to improve
equality in adventure sporting and leisure spaces (after Alarcón &
Cole, 2019).
The volume is organised into four interconnected sections that provide
an in-depth analysis of the historical development, experiences and trans-
forming nature of gendered encounters in mountain adventure.

Part I: Transforming the Past: Intersecting

Mountaineering Histories
Looking back at how women have pioneered and transformed spaces to be
mountaineers helps us to understand how women innovated and devel-
oped strategies to navigate this hypermasculine environment. In contrast,
it also shows how women have been silenced through masculinist gover-
nance structures and a paucity of literary and media representations. Kerri
Andrews looks back on the pioneering women in the nineteenth century
such as Dorothy Wordsworth, who not only transcended social norms and
risked social shaming, but also provided rare literary insights into women’s
experiences of mountain places. Popularised by the Victorians, mountain
adventure and mountaineering led to Europe being coined “The play-
ground of Europe” by writer and mountaineer Lesley Stephen. Delphine
Moraldo shows us how masculinities in mountaineering “come about”,
impact, and are reproduced through the pervasive culture of manliness
 1 INTRODUCTION: CONTEXTUALISING GENDER… 5

founded in Victorian sporting traditions. Through Raewyn Connell’s con-

cept of hegemonic masculinity, Moraldo helps us to appreciate how the
pattern of gender relations became embodied and reproduced through
Victorian ideologies of sporting excellence. The ideological notion of the
mountaineering hero, grounded in formal and informal governance struc-
tures, has received relatively little explicit examination of the pursuit’s evo-
lution. Following the recent translation of Junko Tabei’s autobiography
Jenny Hall and Maggie Miller critically appraise how Junko navigated the
gendered landscape of mountaineering to create transformational spaces
for herself and a global community of women mountaineers. In doing so,
they offer insights into how women craft risk spaces at the intersection of
difference and what this can teach us in terms of taking issues of inclusion
in spaces of adventure seriously. The authors raise an important point that
not only do women and girls belong in the mountains right now, but they
have always been there, paving the way!

Part II: Transforming Experience: Intersectionality

in Mountain Spaces and Places

The impact of gendered, racialised, classist, ableist and heteronormative

discourses are explored to illuminate how participants from intersecting
excluded groups negotiate and challenge normative discourses in moun-
taineering. This body of contemporary research begins to conceptualise
and redefine mountain adventure participation and leadership and moves
us to think how race, gender, dis/ability and sexuality intersect across
multi-dimensional axes while problematising how mountain adventure
spaces are constructed, performed and reproduced. Thomas Leeder, Kate
Russell, Lee Beaumont and Lois Ferguson critically analyse Erin Parisi’s
experiences as she attempts to become the first transgender person to
summit the seven highest mountains on each continent through her
ground-breaking TranSending7 project. The authors explore how Erin
negotiates hypermasculinity through performances of ‘stealth’ to maintain
some invisibility in mountain spaces. Yet, in contrast, Erin is realising a
voice and raising awareness of transgender athletes in mountain adventure
that challenges heteronormative discourses. Similarly, Isis Arlene Díaz-­
Carrión draws on Deleuze’s “rhizomatic body” to explore “otherness” in
mountaineering and the gendered and racialised experiences of mestiza-­
women mountaineers in Mexico. Díaz-Carrión argues that the rhizomatic
6 J. HALL ET AL.

body episteme can contribute new insights into mountaineering practices

in the Global South, particularly in relation to gender and ethnicity.
Moreover, Díaz-Carrión demonstrates the role of solidarity and sorority as
a mechanism to open mountaineering to women. Through duoethnogra-
phy, TA Loeffler and Kim White offer a reflective dialogue of being a
woman with disability seeking to participate in outdoor activities, and that
of a mountain climber academic helping to facilitate those experiences.
Through the juxtaposition of their voices, they explore mountaineering
through the lens of equitable and inclusive access to mountains and out-
door spaces and share narratives of the sexism and ableism that they have
experienced in their life journeys towards access and summits. Drawing
from the heated debate about misogynistic, racist and homophobic names
assigned to mountains, cliffs and crags that ripped through the climbing
community in Canada and the USA in 2020, Jennifer Wigglesworth illu-
minates a powerful lesson that came from these debates, which is that
names can change, and people and organisations can reclaim, decolonise
and transform climbing spaces. Through her analysis informed by femi-
nism, anti-racism and anti-colonialism, she discusses the implications of
naming practices within a shifting cultural terrain and settler-­colonial state.
In doing so, these chapters highlight how alternative discourses can sup-
port different, more ethical, inclusive and sustainable ways of being in the
mountains and practising mountain adventure sports and leisure.

Part III: Transforming Leadership, Participation

and Praxis: Climbing the Mountain of Equity

The contemporary adventure mountain guiding industry is founded on

structural and institutional inequalities foregrounded in part I of this vol-
ume. Indeed, while women have forged successful careers in outdoor
spaces, they remain dramatically underrepresented in leadership roles and
in terms of their visibility, academic footprint and appreciation of their
continued contribution (Gray, 2016). Through an exploration of the
structural inequalities experienced in leadership and praxis, this section
contextualises how representation within the mountaineering community
is constructed and gendered assumptions challenged. Importantly, strate-
gies for overcoming and creating spaces of transformation are offered.
Kate Evans, Dorothy Schmalz and Sasha Mader show how women moun-
tain guides are still perceived as intruders in the masculine space of
 1 INTRODUCTION: CONTEXTUALISING GENDER… 7

mountaineering and are significantly underrepresented. They explore how

inequalities are socially constructed and how women navigate the realities
of discrimination. They question the role women play in the production of
gender in mountain adventure spaces through performing masculinities.
Emily Ankers argues that postfeminism offers a useful critical lens to
understand women’s lived experiences and a helpful heuristic towards a
sustained and meaningful engagement with women’s multifaceted, messy
and, at times, contradictory experiences of gender inequality in these set-
tings. To achieve gender parity in outdoor leadership Cressida Allwood
and Linda Allin consider the role of men in actively addressing balanced
representation in mountaineering leadership contexts in the United
Kingdom. They contextualise common issues and suggest responsive gen-
der parity strategies to narrow the paucity of women leaders. In sum,
Allwood and Allin offer critical insights into the complexities of working
towards bridging the gender gap for women mountain leaders and achiev-
ing effective future pathways that not only address numbers but also
approaches to diversity and inclusion.

Part IV: Transformational Pedagogies: Creating New

Spaces to Mountaineer
The benefits of outdoor adventure sports participation have been well-­
established; these include an augmented sense of competence (Laurendeau,
2006) and belonging (Brown, 2016), a sense of escapism from the “trap-
pings of modernity” (Atkinson, 2010; Wood & Brown, 2011), and an
enhanced connection with nature and “eco-conscientization” (Brymer &
Gray, 2009; Cottrell & Cottrell, 2020). Simone Kenyon and Margaret
Kerr describe their collaborative work on “Into the Mountain”, a site-­
relational performance in the Scottish Cairngorm mountains, the area that
inspired author Nan Shepherd’s work “Into the Mountain”. Their work
draws on interdisciplinary art practices, haptic and somatic-based facilita-
tion from dance and performance contexts, ecopsychology and outdoor
education and calls for a relational field that expands more widely not only
to include performers and audience, but also to include the more-than-­
human. Kenyon and Kerr’s chapter addresses how women working with
people and mountain environments might contribute to emerging deco-
lonial and less anthropocentric narratives. Following on from early pio-
neers such as Junko Tabei who innovated women-only spaces to
8 J. HALL ET AL.

mountaineer, this section goes on to consider how gender-specific spaces

in teaching and learning mountaineering skills can be transformational for
aspirant female mountaineers. Through innovating new forms of engage-
ment authors illuminate what, why and how these spaces produce. In
doing so, this scholarship moves us forward towards new pedagogical
approaches that de-gender and decolonise teaching and learning in moun-
taineering. Katherine O’Brien explores the experiences of women taking
part in the first Women’s Outdoor Leadership Course within the Outward
Bound Trust, United Kingdom. Importantly, it considers women’s narra-
tives and experiences on their journey to Mountain Leadership. Through
Mezirow’s (1978) Transformational Learning Theory, O’Brien asks us to
appreciate the benefits and challenges single-gender courses produce, and
the transformational affects women-specific spaces create. The steady
growth in girls and women’s participation in adventure sports over the last
decade (Breivik, 2010; Morton, 2018) is a welcome development.
However, despite this positive increase in participation, feminist research
continues to highlight “a gender problem” and enduring social issues and
inequalities in adventure sporting contexts (Allin & West, 2013; Hall &
Brown, 2022). Emma Boocock uses an autoethnographic approach to
critically analyse her experiences of participating in various adventure sport
skills courses in the United Kingdom and offers broader reflections on the
affordances and limitations of women-specific spaces as a strategy for
change. Boocock highlights some common narratives around physical and
emotional labour often experienced by women in masculine spaces. She
also raises the impact of intended and unintended sexism of instructors
and encourages instructors to be more aware of their unconscious bias and
assumptions of individuals. Finally, Boocock concludes that although
women-specific spaces do not offer a panacea to offset the gender conver-
sation within mountaineering, it does offer the capacity for new affective
intensities, experiences and embodiments to support women’s continua-
tion in the outdoors (Avner et al., 2021).

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 PART I

Transforming the Past: Intersecting

Mountaineering Histories
 CHAPTER 2

‘That is the Lady I saw Ascending Snowdon,

Alone’: Pioneering Women Mountaineers
of the Nineteenth Century

Kerri Andrews

Before 1802, mountaineering did not exist. By this I don’t mean there was
no such activity, but that there was no such concept. Until Samuel Taylor
Coleridge invented it in a letter to his brother-in-law Robert Southey,
there was no word to capture the idea of going up a mountain for fun.
This should not surprise us because, after all, until quite late into the eigh-
teenth century no one in their right mind did that. As Robert Macfarlane
notes in his popular history of mountain-love, mountains, until the mid to
late eighteenth century, were considered “aesthetically repellent”
(Macfarlane, 2008, p. 15). In one of the most influential books of the
eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson had written of his travels in Scotland’s
Highlands, that “an eye accustomed to flowery pastures and waving har-
vests is astonished and repelled by this wide extent of hopeless sterility”

K. Andrews (*)
Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK
e-mail: kerri.andrews@edgehill.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 15

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_2
16 K. ANDREWS

(Johnson, 1775, p. 84). Nor was Johnson alone in his opinions of moun-
tains as ugly, bare, bleak, unpleasant places—many shared these views.
Moreover, mountains were dangerous. The last place that the paths and
drove roads, coffin routes and commercial tracks criss-crossing upland
landscapes went were to the summits. Instead, routes sought out low
passes, efficient lines and the safest ways from place to place. People died
in the mountains. One of the most famous cases of this period was that of
Sarah and George Green of Grasmere who became lost travelling back
from Langdale in 1808. Their bodies were found a week later, their chil-
dren having been left to fend for themselves in the meantime (Wordsworth,
2002). Dorothy Wordsworth, William Wordsworth’s sister and a keen fre-
quenter of the Lakeland hills, wrote about their story to raise money for
the destitute orphans (see Wordsworth, 2002).
Mountains, then, were to be avoided on practical as well as aesthetic
grounds. It is an irony of the history of mountaineering that the circum-
stances that gave rise to the coining of the term itself should demonstrate
quite so clearly why mountains were viewed with such hostility. In August
1802 Samuel Taylor Coleridge undertook a solo “Circumcursion” of the
Lake District over a period of nine days (Coleridge, 1802, p. 848). During
that time he ascended Scafell, the second highest mountain in England,
alone. As Alan Vardy has noted, “Other than local shepherds, Coleridge
was one of the first people to stand on the summit of Scafell, and almost
certainly the first ‘tourist’” (Vardy, 2012). It was a pioneering ascent, and
Coleridge’s subsequent translation of his experiences into poetry helped
transform the moment into mountaineering myth. But while the ascent
was sublime, the descent was ridiculous. With no apparent plan—and cer-
tainly no accurate map to help him—Coleridge attempted to walk from
Scafell towards Scafell Pike, unaware of the great rifts between the two
mountains. Heedlessly attempting to drop down the steep sides of one
chasm, Coleridge found himself on Broad Stand, now familiar to Lakeland
hillgoers as a place best avoided: Wasdale Mountain Rescue’s current
advice is that the area is “extremely dangerous”: it has seen “a number of
fatalities” (Wasdale Mountain Rescue, 2021). Coleridge in 1802 was very
fortunate not to have become an early casualty. Instead, he got lucky, and
found a way down that avoided broken limbs and death. Elated at his
improbable survival Coleridge wrote to fellow poet Robert Southey—who
lived next door to Coleridge’s young family—that he had “Spent the
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 17

greater part of the next Day mountaineering” (Coleridge, 1802, p. 846).

This was, as Simon Bainbridge notes, “the first recorded use of the word”
(Bainbridge, 2020, p. 3). It was an ignominious beginning.
Rather less drama—and a great deal less danger—attended Dorothy
Wordsworth’s similarly pioneering, but much less celebrated, mountain
climbing in 1818. On 7 October Wordsworth undertook an ascent of the
peak Coleridge had been attempting to reach in 1802, Scafell Pike.
Wordsworth and her party reached the top of the mountain almost by
accident, but despite this Wordsworth’s account of her experiences was, as
Joanna Taylor and Christopher Donaldson (2021) observe, “one of the
earliest known records of a recreational ascent of England’s highest moun-
tain” (p. 126). Dorothy Wordsworth’s account, which she included in
letters to her friends sent shortly after her climb, was the first known to
have been written by a woman. Wordsworth, though, did not publish the
account herself. Instead, it was taken by her brother William and included
in his Guide to the District of the Lakes in 1822 where, stripped of its origi-
nal author’s name, its full significance to mountaineering history was lost.
In appropriating his sister’s experiences William Wordsworth likely did not
intend to erase her achievements from the nascent history of mountaineer-
ing, but this is effectively what he did.
William Wordsworth’s decision to ‘borrow’ his sister’s account seems,
in retrospect, loaded with portent, because the history of mountaineering
since its beginnings in 1802 has tended to erase, or at best ignore, wom-
en’s contributions. Accompanying Dorothy Wordsworth that day in 1818
was Mary Barker, herself a capable walker and climber, but whose name is
barely remembered in the history of mountaineering. Around the time
that Dorothy Wordsworth was climbing not only Scafell but Helvellyn and
other Lakeland peaks, Ellen Weeton, a governess who had worked for a
time in the Lake District, was undertaking a solo climb of Snowdon. And
in the mid-nineteenth century, the social reformer and writer Harriet
Martineau began climbing throughout the Lake District to ‘learn’ the
ways of its mountains. In what follows, I will outline the contributions
made to the history of mountaineering by Wordsworth, Weeton and
Martineau in the sport’s infancy. It is the contention of this chapter that to
bring about transformational change in the perceived ‘manliness’ of con-
temporary mountaineering, we need first to know that women have been
present in the mountains from the sport’s beginning.
18 K. ANDREWS

Dorothy Wordsworth
Climbing Scafell Pike in 1818 was a significant achievement in mountain-
eering history, but it was by no means the first or only in Dorothy
Wordsworth’s mountain-going life. As Simon Bainbridge has noted,
Wordsworth’s walking was varied; she was often contented to haunt the
lakes and valley bottoms, but she also relished climbing local hills, and
came also to enjoy tackling the mountains that loomed above her home in
Grasmere (Bainbridge, 2020, pp. 231–2). In 1799 she climbed Helvellyn
for the first time, describing the experience in her journal afterwards:

Sunday 25th. Rode to Legberthwaite with Tom—expecting Mary—sweet

day—went upon Helvellyn, glorious glorious sights—The sea at Cartmel—
The Scotch mountains beyond the sea to the right—Whiteside large &
round & very soft & green beneath us. Mists above & below & close to us,
with the Sun amongst them—they shot down to the coves. Left John
Stanley’s at 10 minutes past 12 returned thither ¼ past 4—drank tea heart-
ily—before we went on Helvellyn we got bread & cheese—paid 4/—for the
whole—reached home at 9 o’clock a soft grey evening—the light of the
moon but she did not shine on us. (Wordsworth, 2002, p. 36)

Wordsworth’s sense of exhilaration at the top of the mountain is pal-

pable, with the repeated ‘glorious’ suggestive of an experience large
enough to overwhelm ordered thought. The words whirl us round the
whole panorama, barely stopping for breath, and the dashes capture some-
thing of the rapidly shifting weather that so often strikes on Lakeland’s
summits. Characteristic too of Dorothy Wordsworth’s walking and moun-
taineering is the documentation of the practicalities. Though here she
omits the distance travelled (she usually kept a note of the ground covered
on exceptional walks) she records the start and finish time, and the provi-
sions taken. Her account serves, then, not only as the record of an impor-
tant moment in the early history of mountaineering but also of how early
mountaineering tended to be done.
When Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to friends about her climb of Scafell
Pike in 1818, she was similarly attentive to the detail of how the climb was
performed, noting everything from how they travelled to the mountain to
how they kept themselves nourished:

I must tell you of a feat that she and I performed on Wednesday the 7th of
this month […] We left our cart at Seathwaite and proceeded, with a man to
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 19

carry our provisions, and a kind neighbour of Miss Barker’s, a statesman

shepherd of the vale, as our companion and guide. We found ourselves at
the top of Ash Course without a weary limb, having had the fresh air of
autumn to help us up by its invigorating power, and the sweet warmth of the
unclouded sun to tempt us to sit and rest by the way […] We had attained
the object of our journey; but our ambition mounted higher. We saw the
summit of Scaw Fell, as it seemed, very near to us; we were indeed, three
parts up that mountain, and thither we determined to go. We found the
distance greater than it had appeared to us, but our courage did not fail;
however, when we came nearer we perceived that in order to attain that
summit we must make a great dip, and that the ascent afterwards would be
exceedingly steep and difficult, so that we might have been benighted if we
had attempted it; therefore, unwillingly, we gave it up, and resolved, instead,
to ascend another point of the same mountain, called the Pikes, and which,
I have since found, the measurers of the mountains estimate as higher than
the larger summit which bears the name of Scaw Fell, and where the Stone
Man is built which we, at the time, considered as the point of highest honour.

Simon Bainbridge has drawn attention to what he terms Dorothy

Wordsworth’s use of “chivalric language” to describe the ascent of Scafell
Pike, pointing out how she frames her achievement as possible because of
“the desire and qualities shared by herself and [Mary] Barker”, indicated
by the repeated use of “our” (Bainbridge, 2020, p. 237). For Bainbridge,
this kind of heroic description is “normally associated with a masculine
tradition of climbing”, but I think it is important to recognise here the
evidence that women, at the very beginning of mountaineering as a sport,
were also using the language of bravery, accomplishment and daring.
Of particular interest in Dorothy Wordsworth’s account, though, is
how she blends what we would now consider to be masculine tropes of
heroic mountaineering literature (but which her own writing suggests is
actually just mountaineering), with much more intimate, homely detail.
She notes, for instance, how “at the summit of the Pike there was not a
breath of air to stir even the papers which we spread out containing our
food. There we ate our dinner in summer warmth; and the stillness seemed
to be not of this world” (Wordsworth, 1818, pp. 499–501). It is an idyllic,
comfortable scene, with the participants of the climb enjoying an other-­
worldly pause while they eat and take their rest. It is a brief moment
because shortly afterwards the party’s guide spots an approaching storm,
and urges the women to continue. As the storm breaks, they find shelter,
but even the weather is powerless to dim the sense of comfort and
20 K. ANDREWS

belonging on this, the highest ground in the country. The squall passes
“almost as rapidly as it had come”, leaving the group “free to observe the
goings-­on of storm and sunshine in other quarters” (Wordsworth, 1818,
p. 501). Watching the weather as it continues northwards, Dorothy is
prompted by her elevated position not to consider her own bravery or
endurance, but the circumstances of her friends who have chosen another
mountain for their day’s pleasure:

Skiddaw also had its own rainbows, but we were glad to see them and the
clouds disappear from that mountain, as we knew that Mr. and Mrs.
Wilberforce and the family (if they kept the intention which they had formed
when they parted from us the night before) must certainly be upon Skiddaw
at that very time—and so it was. They were there. (Wordsworth,
1818, p. 501)

It is a moment of connection and companionship, with friendship

extending over several miles of Lakeland terrain to form a sympathetic
bond between mountaineering parties. It is also a lovely description of the
squall’s aftermath, with rainbows sparkling on the mountainside, bringing
dazzling colour to the fells. While Bainbridge is surely right to note
Dorothy Wordsworth’s use of the chivalric, hers is no tale of mere con-
quest. Instead, mountaineering for Dorothy is a complex blend of per-
sonal and joint accomplishment, physical effort, deep-seated friendship
and attentiveness to loveliness on multiple scales.

Ellen Weeton
In June 1825 Ellen Weeton, a governess from West Lancashire, climbed
Mount Snowdon alone. She was already an accomplished and capable
walker who, as a young woman, had harboured ambitions to walk the
length of Wales solo. The demands of caring for others’ children, and her
fear that overnighting at strangers’ homes would not be considered
‘proper’ for a woman, prevented her from achieving this early goal. Later
in life, though, Weeton found ways to walk and retain respectability.
Now able to pay for proper accommodation, thereby removing the dan-
gers of being seen as an itinerant woman, Weeton toured comfortably
around Wales until arriving at Llanberis, determined on reaching
Snowdon’s summit.
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 21

By this point, 20 years after the term was coined, mountaineering had
gained sufficiently in popularity that a cottage industry of local guides had
formed near favoured peaks and routes, along with increasing levels of
local infrastructure to support the new tourists. When Weeton climbed the
mountain in 1825 she was by no means the first to reach the top, but the
way she chose to ascend is worthy of some attention. Writing in the jour-
nal she kept throughout much of her adult life—but which was only pub-
lished several decades after her death—she noted:

I saw a gentleman descending with his guide, at a short distance. They

espied me. I had already left the regular path a little, merely to quench my
thirst; and now deviated a little more, purposely that they might not distin-
guish my dress or features, lest, seeing me at any other time, they should
know where they had seen me; and I should dread the being pointed at in
the road or the street as—‘That is the lady I saw ascending Snowdon, alone!’
The guide, seeing I was out of the path (only because he was in it, if he had
but known), called out to me, but I was quite deaf. He continued shouting,
and I was forced to hear; he was telling me to keep in the copper path, &c.
I knew the way perfectly well, for my Map and my Guide had been well
studied at home. I could find from what the gentleman said, that he imag-
ined I had called for the guide at his dwelling, and finding him engaged
upon the mountain, had gone so far to meet him; for he intreated the man
to leave him […] I never turned my face towards them, but walked as fast as
I could […] the Guide again giving me some directions—with the best
intentions, I am sure. (Weeton, 1969, p. 388)

It is an extraordinary account of a most peculiar encounter. Weeton’s

choice of language—that she was forced to hear the guide’s speech—reori-
ents the much-worn trope that women were too fearful of sexual assault to
venture outdoors. Here it is Weeton’s independence that is violated, and
not by a male body but by the penetration of unsolicited advice—an early
example of ‘mansplaining’. Self-sufficient, confident and assured, Weeton’s
prowess as a mountaineer was quite sufficient to see her easily to the
mountain top, though it was not enough to fully resist the authority pre-
sumptuously inhabited by the guide and his client. In a parting shot
(aimed, admittedly, only within her own mind and private journal),
Weeton imagined the guide descending the hillside “vexed […] that it
should be seen that anybody could ascend without him,—and a woman,
too!” (Weeton, 1969, p. 388). Climbing a mountain alone in these early
22 K. ANDREWS

years of mountaineering was, Weeton’s account would suggest, unusual

for anybody to do. Her ascent that day, therefore, merits closer examination.
It seems from Weeton’s account that, in addition to ascending without
a guide, she took neither water nor map nor guide. Instead, she apparently
relied on happenstance and a good memory to see her to the top (and
back again). The thought is chilling to the modern mountaineer, schooled
in the importance of map and GPS, compass and route finding, as well as
the need for sufficient water and food. From comparing other women’s
early accounts of mountaineering, though, it seems this was not atypical.
Sarah Stoddart Hazlitt, walking in Scotland a couple of years previously,
undertook walks and climbs of many miles in length with little more than
a slice of bread and an apple in her pocket, with water obtained—or not—
from streams happened on by chance. Such choices, though, enhanced
these women’s sense of freedom and independence as they climbed—there
was no one to tell them where to go or, perhaps more importantly,
what to do.
Away at last from the importunities of the two unwelcome men, Weeton
followed her own plan, which was to “ascend” Snowdon “on the Bettws
side, to cross over the summit if practicable, and descend at Llanberris”
(Weeton, 1969, p. 389). Such a route added considerably to the difficulty,
as Weeton was aware, but she “wished to have an entire range and view
down every side” (Weeton, 1969, p. 389). It was an ambitious plan, one
that emphasised the mountain’s expansiveness, and which perhaps offered
Weeton the greatest opportunity to feel truly free. Indeed, as she climbed
she discovered a glorious sense of isolation, writing that “Here I stood,
perched on a ridge like a crow on the point of a pinnacle; not a human
creature could I see anywhere; for aught I knew, I had the whole moun-
tain to myself” (Weeton, 1969, p. 389). This is not an example of the
mountain as a terrifying space, far removed from human concerns and
safety and a place to be avoided at all costs—as it might have been thought
of in the early eighteenth century. Instead, for Weeton the isolation
afforded by the mountain is precious, to be treasured and savoured. Away
from human concerns, she is free to be who and what she pleases—and in
this moment she pleases to be a crow. Consequently, Weeton can fully
inhabit the mountain, to become part of its ecology: to belong.
This precious feeling does not, unfortunately, endure. Atop one of
Snowdon’s many ridges, the exposure causes something approaching ver-
tigo, which rises to a panic that threatens to overwhelm her:
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 23

Not far before me, the path wound along a most awful precipice. Now I was
startled! For the first time. This was wholly unexpected […] I hesitated
some time; there was no crossing lower down. I must either return home as
I had come, or climb the only way there was […] I had taken the precaution,
on coming to Carnarvon, to write my address on a card, both to my lodg-
ings there and my dwelling at Prescot, and wore it in my pocket, so that if
any accident should befall me, whoever found me would discover where to
apply […] Strange feelings and ideas mingle! The next moment I raised a
thought aloft to Him who is the Highest. (Weeton, 1969, pp. 390–1)

Faced with an appalling drop on either side of the ridge, a “road” which
goes unmentioned in either of the guides Weeton had read before her
ascent (Weeton, 1969, p. 390), her mind wanders to consider what might
become of her body should she fall. That she had contemplated the pos-
sibility of dying on the mountain before she undertook the climb indicates
an impressive matter-of-factness about the realities of mountaineering, but
such thoughts were of little practical help in the moment of crisis.
Combining bravery with foolhardiness, Weeton pressed forward onto the
ridge, though details fall victim to adrenaline:

Whilst crossing the ridge, perhaps 100 yds., perhaps 200, or even more, for
I was too terrified to ascertain—the precipice on my right and left both, was
too much for my head to bear; on my right, if I slipped ever so little, nothing
could save me, and Oh! it looked like an eternity of falling; it seemed to my
giddy head, half a mile down. (Weeton, 1969, p. 391)

Apparently on the cusp of becoming crag-fast, as Samuel Taylor

Coleridge had on Broad Stand, Weeton adopted a novel solution. It was
one most unlikely to have been available to Coleridge, and an example of
women’s clothing proving helpful to a mountaineer: to draw her “bonnet
close over my right cheek, to hoodwink me on that side” (Weeton, 1969,
p. 391). Prevented from seeing that which terrified her, Weeton was able
to proceed across the ridge and eventually off the mountain. The experi-
ence did not result in the appearance of a historic neologism, as it had for
Coleridge, but it gave Weeton an enormous sense of personal accomplish-
ment and achievement which she would carry with her for the rest of
her life.
For all the dangers and difficulties Weeton experienced ascending
Snowdon, she still managed to take enormous pleasure from her day of
mountaineering. With 12 miles back to her accommodation still to walk in
24 K. ANDREWS

the early evening, she “could not help playing truant” from her intended
route (Weeton, 1969, p. 392), choosing instead to follow her nose into
Snowdon’s many nooks and crannies. This behaviour was typical to
Weeton, who loved to explore every aspect of the peaks she climbed, and
it had the effect of bringing Weeton back to herself. So comfortable did
Weeton feel on the mountain during her descent that she “was very little
fatigued” and even “forgot to be frightened, I was so much pleased with
the various views, and with the vale and lakes of Llanberis” (Weeton,
1969, pp. 392–3). Looking back up at Snowdon’s heights, Weeton
declared herself the “soaring Queen of the Mountains”, arrived at last
“amongst my own species again, and on a level with my fellow creatures”
(Weeton, 1969, p. 393).

Harriet Martineau
By the mid-nineteenth century, tourism to mountainous parts of the
British Isles was firmly established, and very popular. High ground was no
longer viewed as terrifying, but as spectacular, and people from all walks of
life around the country were increasingly drawn to view sublime land-
scapes, particularly those of the Lake District and Pennines which lay
handily close to new industrial cities like Manchester, Sheffield and
Liverpool. An expanding network of trains helped bring people from
urban centres to the mountains, further increasing the popularity of these
places, and making them cheaper. With attitudes towards Britain’s moun-
tains transforming rapidly, there was an increasing demand for guides,
maps and other paraphernalia to enable visitors to see the uplands for
themselves. Harriet Martineau, a prominent author of various genres—
though not previously guidebooks—wrote one of the most popular of the
new guides. Appearing in 1855, Martineau’s A Complete Guide to the
English Lakes would prove an enormous success, becoming one of the
bestselling books in an increasingly crowded market. What makes
Martineau’s Guide even more significant than its popularity, though, is
that it was based on the author’s own experiences as a Lakeland
mountaineer.
Harriet Martineau moved to the Lake District in 1845. In the 20 years
before this, she had achieved fame as a sociologist, securing the friendship
of several prominent American writers in the process, and gained experi-
ence in long-distance walking around Scotland and the West Midlands. In
the late 1830s, she had also been bedbound for five years by a mysterious
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 25

illness, and it was on the abrupt, and apparently total, easing of this condi-
tion that Martineau decided to move to the Lake District from Newcastle.
It was a life-changing decision for many reasons, but not least because of
how it led to Martineau’s reinvention as a determined mountaineer.
Shortly after arriving in the village of Ambleside, where she set about
building a home for herself at The Knoll, she wrote to the American essay-
ist and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson—with whom she had become
friends while touring the United States ten years previously. She was
breathlessly excited about the possibilities her new life in the Lakes would
afford her:

For the first time in my life I am free to live as I please; & I please to live
here. My life is now (in this season) one of wild roving, after my years of
helpless sickness. I ride like a Borderer,—walk like a pedlar,—climb like a
Mountaineer,—sometimes on excursions with kind & merry neighbours,—
sometimes all alone for the day on the mountain. (Martineau, 1845, p. 19)

It is a wild and wonderful life that Martineau describes to Emerson, one

lived at the very edge of the bounds of civilised society. Wandering the
land like a Border reiver, Martineau seems to exist between states, crossing
and recrossing the borders between countries, legality and danger.
Borderers, pedlars and mountaineers all share, though, great physical
endurance and strength, and Martineau’s letter bristles with energy. And
while Martineau’s ‘roving’ is at times highly sociable—like Dorothy
Wordsworth’s companionable climb of Scafell Pike in 1818—it is also
deeply personal, having rather more in common with Ellen Weeton’s
determined individualism.
Martineau loved the low ground around her home, and rambled for
miles between the nearby villages along old routes and rivers, but the sum-
mits held a particular significance for her. In later life, after her physical
health had once again begun to decline—this time permanently—
Martineau wrote in her Autobiography (1877, p. 513) how she approached
her walking and climbing in Lakeland:

Now, on my recovery, I set myself to learn the Lake District, which was still
a terra incognita, veiled in bright mists before my mind’s eye: and by the
close of a year from the purchase of my field, I knew every lake (I think) but
two, and almost every mountain pass […] Of these joyous labours, none has
been sweeter than that of my first recovered health, when Lakeland became
26 K. ANDREWS

gradually disclosed before my exploration, till it lay before me, map-like, as

if seen from a mountain top

Martineau’s language is of the explorer, of the discoverer of remote

lands. It is also the language of the cartographer, keen to chart and mea-
sure and quantify, scientifically and systematically. Yet it is also that of the
humble student, eager to ‘learn the Lake District’—not its geography, or
its history—but as a subject worthy of intense study and effort. And with
its closing image, of Martineau stands upon a peak looking down on a
land mapped with her body and imagined into totality in her mind. Hers
is the view of the experienced climber positioned, perhaps, near the centre
of the Lake District near Scafell Pike, around which the rest of the high
country appears to revolve. There are similarities with Dorothy
Wordsworth’s wheeling, dizzying description, though Martineau’s eye is
more focused, and perhaps more commanding. Martineau’s is the more
typical ‘summit view’, though unlike other examples of mountain litera-
ture, it is not conquest that is achieved here, but revelation.
The knowledge that enabled Martineau to experience a sense of revela-
tion atop Lakeland’s mountains was hard-won and detailed at some length
in her 1855 Guide. Martineau’s book serves as a guide to the whole of the
Lake District, from the lake edges via the best roads to the choicest inns,
and eventually to the mountain tops themselves. It is in her descriptions of
the highest ground, though, that Martineau reveals her full command of
Lakeland. Skiddaw is offered early as a mountain worth climbing, though
Martineau cautions about the need to take a guide in language suggestive
of long experience:

Travellers who know what mountain climbing is, among loose stones, shak-
ing bog, and slippery rushes or grass, with the alternative of a hot sun or a
strong wind, and perpetual liability to mist, will not dispute the benefit of
having a guide: and novices ought to defer their judgement. If we have
seemed to dwell long on this point, it is because warning is grievously
wanted. It will probably not be taken by those who need it most; but it
ought to be offered. (Martineau, 1855, pp. 91–2)

It is hardly a romantic—as in charming, or Romantic—of the late

eighteenth-­century—image of mountaineering, though many will recog-
nise in Martineau’s writing their own experiences of adventures on higher
ground. This is a pragmatic view of the mountains, with Martineau
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 27

tailoring her writing to suit the city-dwelling novices most likely to have
purchased her book. Martineau was skilled both at mountain climbing and
at mountain writing.
Similar caution and pragmatism are on display in Martineau’s thorough
account of the numerous possible climbs up Helvellyn, what she suspects
is the most climbed mountain “in the district” (Martineau, 1855, p. 165).
Here, Martineau gives an exhaustive list of the options available to the
touring climber, suggestive of the frequency with which Martineau herself
ascended this popular summit. There are, she writes, “three modes of
ascent from the Grasmere side”, though from Grisedale it “is possible to
go on ponies to within half an hour’s walk of the summit”. From Grasmere
the more discerning (and hard-working) climber may choose to travel via
Grisedale Tarn, Wythburn or Legburthwaite, though the ascent from
Wythburn, Martineau writes, while being the shortest, “is much the steep-
est”. The views from Helvellyn’s summit are more than worth the effort,
though, and Martineau (1855) lists them exhaustively. Her eye lingers
particularly on the high ground as it moves from “the Scotch mountains”
southwards to the Langdale Pikes, which eventually “lead the eye round
to the superior summits” standing ‘at the head of Wasdale and Buttermere’
(p. 166). It is a grand view, with Martineau’s detailed prose indicative of a
long acquaintance with that higher ground, and a deep love.
Martineau’s passion for the mountains is perhaps most clearly demon-
strated, though, when she undertakes in her Guide to identify the perfect
walk for the time-pressed Lakeland tourist to best experience all that
mountaineering has to offer. Having offered detailed descriptions of hikes
up Skiddaw, Blencathra, the Langdale Pikes (complete with options for
descending into Easedale or Borrowdale), ‘Scawfell’, the Kentmere round,
as well as Helvellyn, Martineau turns to Fairfield, situated high above
Grasmere. In a chapter dedicated to considering “A Day on the
Mountains”, she informs the reader that before he leaves the old county
of Westmoreland “He must spend a day on the Mountains: and if alone,
so much the better”, because “If he knows what it is to spend a day so far
above the every-day world, he is aware that it is good to be alone”
(Martineau, 1855, p. 57). He must also go equipped with a “stout stick”,
a “knapsack” for provisions (an item that Harriet herself carried on every
walk), a “map” to “explain to him what he sees” and a “pocket compass
in case of sudden fog” (Martineau, 1855, p. 57). And, of course, a copy of
her guide, which is itself “a necessary addition to the literary walker’s kit
bag” because it will “guide and shape the traveller’s experience of the
28 K. ANDREWS

natural setting” (Easley, 2006, p. 302). After rejecting several possible

walks, including the ascent of Coniston Old Man (too long a walk in “for
the day’s treat”), and Loughrigg (“not commanding enough”) (Martineau,
1855, p. 58), the Fairfield horseshoe is selected as the perfect walk for the
mountain-loving tourist. Having offered a description of the climb,
Harriet outlined what the reader-walker might expect to see higher up.

The finest point of the whole excursion is about the middle of the cul-de-­
sac, where, on the northern sides, there are tremendous precipices, over-
looking Deepdale, and other sweet recesses far below. Here, within hearing
of the torrents which tumble from those precipices, the rover should rest.
He will see nothing so fine as the contrast of this northern view with the
long green slope on the other side, down to the source of Rydal Beck, and
then down and down to Rydal Woods and Mount. He is now 2,950 feet
above the sea level; and he has surely earned his meal […] The further he
goes, the more amazed he is at the extent of the walk, which looked such a
trifle from below. (Martineau, 1855, pp. 63–4)

It is a matter of opinion whether the Fairfield horseshoe ever appears a

‘trifle’—it is a long day from Grasmere, with steep climbs out of the valley
bottom, but Harriet certainly spoke from her own experience when delin-
eating the great beauties of the climb, and the triumph of ascending to
such a height. Her account of the descent from the ridge, though, is sad
and regretful—it seems a pulling back or retreat from a special place, or
perhaps a special state of being. At Nab Scar, at the end of the horseshoe,
the tourist

must take his last complete survey; for from hence he must plunge down the
steep slope, and bid farewell to all that lies behind the ridge. The day has
gone like an hour. The sunshine is leaving the surface of the nearer lakes,
and the purple bloom of the evening is on the furthest mountains; and the
gushes of yellow light between the western passes show that sunset is near.
He must hasten down […] is driven home, and is amazed […] to find how
stiff and tired he is. He would not, however, but have spent such a day for
ten times the fatigue. (Martineau, 1855, pp. 64–5)

The use of the present tense creates a powerful sense of immediacy in

this passage, and underlines the urgency of the descent from the hills with
the last of the light. The lyrical description of the mountains at the day’s
close does more than this, though, by inviting the reader to experience the
 2 ‘THAT IS THE LADY I SAW ASCENDING SNOWDON, ALONE’: PIONEERING… 29

region’s ‘geography’ through what Alexis Easley (2006, p. 302) has

described as “the lens provided by a famous writer, whose interpretation
of the landscape is more authentic” because it is rooted in repeated moun-
taineering and longer acquaintance. In consequence, the Lakeland tourist
can access an interpretation that is “more real” than their own, “unmedi-
ated experiences and impressions of place” (Easley, 2006, p. 302). Harriet
Martineau, as an experienced mountaineer, not only found personal plea-
sure in climbing, but helped shape the mountain experiences of countless
others who sought to literally follow in her footsteps up some of Lakeland’s
most iconic peaks.

Conclusion
If mountaineering is now experienced as an often gender-segregated sport,
it is not because it started out that way. As this chapter has demonstrated,
women were present as pioneers of ascents from mountaineering’s very
earliest days. Throughout the nineteenth century, as mountaineering
became firmly established as a sport across Europe and beyond, women
were eager participants, and their presence on mountain summits is
attested to by written accounts, photographs and documentary records.
From Dorothy Wordsworth’s first climb up Scafell Pike in 1818 to Harriet
Martineau’s leading of others up Lakeland’s mountains via her popular
Guide, women have sought the thrill of outdoor adventuring for the whole
of the two centuries since mountaineering as a concept came into being.
Any reassessment of mountaineering and gender, therefore, needs to
account for the disparity between the historical evidence of women’s pres-
ence as mountaineers, and our perceptions of mountaineering—and
mountaineering literature—as male-dominated spaces. If women’s stories
have not been told, it is not because they do not exist, but because we have
not searched sufficiently hard for them—or not cared to listen to them. By
returning those stories to the historical record of mountaineering we will
be better placed to understand the contemporary gender dynamics of the
sport. Most importantly, we will perhaps then be able to show girls and
women that not only do they belong in the mountains right now, but that
they have always been there, paving the way.
30 K. ANDREWS

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Ed., vol. 6), 1956–71. Clarendon Press.
Easley, A. (2006). The woman of letters at home: Harriet Martineau and the Lake
District. Victorian Literature and Culture, 34(1), 291–310.
Johnson, S. (1775). A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Thomas Cadell.
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vol. 5). Pickering and Chatto. 2007.
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Oxford University Press.
 CHAPTER 3

Troubling the Silences of Adventure

Legacies: Junko Tabei and the Intersectional
Politics of Mountaineering

Jenny Hall and Maggie Miller

Introduction: ‘Go climb the Himalayas, by all means,

by women alone’

Junko Tabei should be a household name. Her outstanding achievements

make her one of the twentieth century’s leading mountaineers, being the
first woman to summit Mount Everest (8848 m) in 1975 as part of the
Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition (JWEE). This was the second all-­
women’s expedition to ascend a peak over 8000 m in the Himalayas
(Claude Kogan’s 1959 expedition to climb Cho Oyu (8188 m) being the
first). Inspired at 9 years old following a school trip to climb Mount

J. Hall (*)
York St John University, York, UK
e-mail: j.hall@yorksj.ac.uk
M. Miller
Swansea University, Swansea, UK
e-mail: Maggie.miller@swansea.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 31

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_3
32 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

Nasu-­Dake, mountaineering became central to Junko’s life: during her

college years she dedicated every weekend to climbing expressing, “I
could hardly explain how much I needed to climb and to be among the
peak. The rocky landscape had become part of me” (Tabei, 2017, p. 44).
After graduating in 1962 Junko established her reputation as a mountain-
eer by climbing all the highest peaks, many being first ascents, in the
Japanese Alps.
Junko was a pioneer in every sense, she defied the ingrained mid-­
twentieth-­century sexism that fixed women in familial and domestic roles
(Oakley, 1972). This was particularly challenging in her home country of
Japan where social expectations cast women as housewives (Momsen &
Nakata, 2010). Undeterred by such challenges, she achieved a successful
career as a professional mountaineer by creating women-only spaces and
establishing the first all-women’s climbing club (Joshi-Tohan) in Japan to
facilitate the Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition (JWEE). In 1992, she
became the first woman to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents,
and climbed the highest mountains in seventy-six countries, her last ascent
being Mount Fuji in 2016. Over her lifetime she took part in 44 all-­
women mountaineering expeditions. Not only a professional mountain-
eer, but Junko was an accomplished musician, author, environmentalist
and guide. Importantly, she was a pioneer in challenging racial, class, age
and gender norms concerning the societal expectations of women, and
advanced women-only high-altitude expeditions to the Himalayas. Yet,
despite dedicating her life to mountaineering, mountain conservation and
leading political activism for gender equality, her achievements are
marginalised.
This chapter explores this lack of recognition, and how Junko’s story
crafts a different mountaineering discourse. Specifically, we extend an
intersectional analysis of her story, critically appraising Junko’s experiences
of inequality and how she navigated them to create space for herself and
other women mountaineers. Prior to this we first provide an overview of
intersectionality, the gendered nature of mountaineering and how women
navigate participation in high-altitude mountaineering. Secondly, the
challenges associated with race and gender in the context of Japanese
mountaineering in the mid-twentieth century are discussed. Finally, draw-
ing on Junko’s autobiography Honouring High Places, our intersectional
analysis of gender and race elucidates how she navigated difference
through the processes of inclusion/exclusion to achieve transformational
spaces in mountaineering.
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 33

Intersectionality in Tourism
and Adventure Mountaineering

Mountaineering offers a rich ground for thinking through the impact gen-
der has on adventure spaces through the ways it is reproduced, resisted
and reimagined by those outside the dominant norm. Mountaineering as
a homosocial, masculinist and colonial pursuit is well documented as an
adventure space highly resistant to change (Hall, 2018; Hall & Brown,
2022; Hunt, 2019; Miller & Mair, 2020; Ortner, 1999; Rak, 2021;
Wigglesworth, 2021). Rak (2021) shows how “gender issues have worked
to shape climbing for all climbers of any gender, in profound ways, par-
ticularly the writing of classic ascents”(p. 22), for which there are rich and
long literary and film traditions. Mountaineering histories are subject to
“selective gendering” and there is a “dearth of minority histories” that
perpetuates colonialism (Hunt, 2019, p. 4). Further, Ortner (1999)
argued that masculinity and manhood are foundational to mountaineering
and when women participate, they are deviant for breaking from domi-
nant notions of femininity tied to domesticity and motherhood discourses
(see also Frohlick, 2006; Moraldo, 2013). Thus, gender issues are central
to mountaineering identities, and masculinity is a discourse that is taken
up by bodies differently at different times (Rak, 2021). For example,
Taylor (2006, p. 211) posited that twentieth-century women climbers, in
Yosemite, USA, tended to internalise and reinforce “the sport’s classist
and imperialistic impulses” as a tactic of survival in this social battleground
(Beedie, 2003).
Understanding how social categories intersect across multidimensional
axes of social distinction (gender, age, class, sexuality, race and disability)
offers a way to understand the cumulative effect of multiple forms of dis-
crimination, as well as how these categories overlap and produce indepen-
dent systems of inequality (Crenshaw, 1989). Yet a small number of
scholars have considered how race and gender as identity markers intersect
in mountaineering. The intersection between the two has received signifi-
cant attention within Black feminist scholarship and activism, notably
through the work of Kimblerlé Crenshaw (1989). Crenshaw evolved the
concept of ‘intersectionality’ through her work on the inequalities African
American women experience in both legal and public spheres observing
how race, class and gendered subordination are inseparable (Crenshaw,
1989). In tourism scholarship, Chambers (2022, p. 1590) observes a
growing recognition that “an intersectional approach to gender provides
34 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

a more nuanced and richer means of understanding the issues affecting

women in tourism” (see also Cole, 2017; Figueroa-Domecq et al., 2015;
Khoo-Lattimore & Mura, 2016; Mooney, 2018). However, as Mooney
(2018, p. 175) notes, “intersectionality in tourism scholarship is limited
and there is a critical need to address its ‘Western-centric focus’ and adopt
more critical perspectives when exploring difference”.
Though there is a growing body of research that considers narratives of
those of difference in mountaineering, it too remains largely focused on
Western voices (Hunt, 2019; Wilson, 2012). Though Hunt (2019, p. 6)
argues, mountaineering “is not the possession of a singular white history”,
scholarship that considers diversity and research that explores how social
categories intersect in these spaces are largely absent (Rak, 2021).
Exceptions include Frohlick’s (2004) exploration of the uneven represen-
tational global processes that cast Indigenous Nepali women mountain-
eers as feminised and racialised mountaineering subjects, and Díaz
Carrión’s (2022) examination of the concept of sisterhood and how
Mexican-mestiza women mountaineers negotiate gender, race and sexual
subordination in Mexican mountaineering. However, the ways gender
and race intersect in adventure settings experienced by Asian mountain-
eers have yet to receive scholarly attention. To meet this gap, like Watson
(2018), we take an intersectional approach as a mode of feminist thinking
to contextualise the inequalities and differences Junko Tabei experienced
as a mountaineer. We recognise that inequality and difference are inextri-
cably linked, situated and contextual across, race, class, gender and sexual-
ity and accept the complexities of heterogeneous gendered experiences
(Watson, 2018). Through Junko’s words our approach analyses difference
and inequality intersectionally to think about how she constructed new
ways to mountaineer for herself and a generation of Japanese women (after
Watson, 2018). Furthermore, we aim to understand how social relations
are interconnected in ways that continually inform gender structurally as
well as how Junko resisted and/or reformulated spaces to mountaineer.
We do so, to appreciate how race impacts experiences of gender and vice
versa through different power relations (Watson & Scraton, 2013, p. 37).
As such, we aim to problematise “dominant positions of knowledge pro-
duction centred on a middle-class, Western, masculine self” (Haraway,
1988; Watson, 2018, p. 317), by analysing how she navigated race and
gender on a global platform.
Finally, we also recognise our positionality as white-Western-women
scholars. We acknowledge that within this critique we are documenting
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 35

Asian women’s lives and appreciate the challenge of who gets to speak for
whom (Ahmed, 2006). Our intention is to tread a careful line to consider
the transforming potential of exploring spatial and embodied experiences
in adventure, to nuance the interconnections between the power relations
and social processes working across gender, race and class in twentieth-­
century Japanese mountaineering.

Intersectionality and Mountaineering

in Twentieth-Century Japan

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries European notions of

mountains as sites of leisure were highly influential in Japan. Eighteenth-­
century Western perceptions of the natural landscape that evolved during
the Enlightenment “became an essential part of the modern Japanese
mind” during the Meiji era (1868–1912) (Fujioka, 2002, p. 284). As
founder of the Japanese Alpine Club, writer, mountaineer and banker
Kojima Usui (1873–1948) adopted the new scientific-aesthetic of the
industrialising West and pioneered the highly influential modern genre of
sangaku kikobun (alpine essay or literature) that fuelled the popularity of
mountaineering as a leisure pursuit throughout the twentieth century
(Wigen, 2005). Yet, very little of the literary heritage chronicling achieve-
ments of Japanese alpinists, mountaineers and mountaineering expedi-
tions have been translated into English or European languages. This is
true of countries with notable mountaineering heritages across Asia,
including China, Korea, India, Pakistan and Nepal. Indeed, these linguis-
tic barriers exacerbate cultural misinterpretations that perpetuate racist
Orientalist stereotyping and cast “them as ‘other’ to the history of climb-
ing” (Rak, 2021, p. 22).
Furthermore, both male and female Asian climbers are often feminised
and infantilised by Western writers “who do not understand the thoughts,
feelings, and motivations of these climbers” (Rak, 2021, p. 23). Regardless
of gender they are often othered, and perceived as reliant on the help of
guides or ropes/technical aids, too collaborative, old-fashioned and lack-
ing knowledge or experience. Rak (2021) shows how John Krakauer’s
account of the 1996 disaster on Everest, arguably the most successful
mountaineering book ever written, portrays those other than the domi-
nant norm as incompetent, weak, ruthless or inexperienced. For example,
Krakauer insinuates that Taiwanese climber Gau Ming Ho is “overly
36 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

ambitious and callous about the worth of human life”, claims that dam-
aged Gau’s reputation. Worst still Krakauer represents mountaineer Yasuko
Namba, one of the most acclaimed climbers in Japan at the time, as “the
meek, deferential stereotype of a middle-aged Japanese woman” (Krakauer,
In Rak, 2021, p. 23). Rak (2021, p. 24) suggests that such representations
“circulate as they do because there has been little opportunity to think
about the discourse of masculinity and European, Western whiteness that
keeps them so current”.
Indeed, depictions of non-Western and women mountaineers are often
unfair, passive and perpetuate stereotypes and representations that silence
difference, even in recent climbing accounts and mountaineering media.
For example, when the extraordinary image of over 220 people queuing
to summit Mount Everest on 22 May 2019 was shared, (Arnette, 2019)
only 29 (13%) of the 220 mountaineers were women. Interestingly, 23
(79%) of the women ascending Everest on that day were from Asian coun-
tries (R. Salisbury, Himalayan Mountain Trust, personal email, 14 April
2021). Yet, we know little of their stories. Despite a booming adventure
tourism industry and the rapid commodification of high-altitude moun-
tain places (Cater, 2013), it is alarming that in the twenty-first century, so
few women are represented and even less so Asian mountaineers of any
gender. It is not then surprising that it took 42 years before an accurate
English translation of Junko’s story was published in 2017. As such, this
chapter follows Chambers (2022, p. 1586), who advocates that “an inter-
sectional approach to gender is vital as it rejects reductionist views of
women’s experiences in tourism and the attendant power relationships
that such an approach (re)produces” to appreciate the achievements of
adventurous women of difference.

Intersectional Experiences in Japanese Women’s

Mountaineering: “Let’s go on an overseas expedition
by ourselves”

Performing Masculinities Through Male Allyship

Undoubtedly, the rise of a Japanese women’s-only culture in mountain-
eering proved enormously fruitful for Junko Tabei; however, male allyship
and performing masculinities also played a key role in her development as
a mountaineer. In 1956, a male Japanese team claimed the first ascent of
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 37

the Himalayan peak Manaslu (8163 m), which heralded a sense of nation-
alism and belief in Japan’s economic revival. During this time, women
experienced significant social constraints, whereby national imperialism,
colonialism and hypermasculine cultures were prevalent, limiting women’s
participation in mountaineering (Hansen, 2013; Rak, 2021). Japanese
culture, however, despite traditional familial structures where women
were expected to demonstrate modesty and a sense of duty, supported
gender equality within education. From the early twentieth century,
Japanese women and girls were afforded equal access to education and in
1905, at the same time the Japanese Alpine club was founded, there were
over a hundred girls’ schools in Japan (Seiwa & Funahashi, 1982).
Mountaineering was a feature of school life and was to prove pivotal for
Junko when Watanabe-sensei (male primary school teacher) took her class
to the mountains to climb Mount Nasu. This was life-changing for her,
“my initial sense was that it was not competitive, unlike other sports … No
matter how slow a person walked, they could reach the summit … I also
understood that in mountain climbing, no matter how hard the strug-
gle … one had to complete the task themselves” (Tabei, 2017, p. 40).
Watanabe-sensei was so influential that Junko attributed becoming an
“accomplished climber due to having met my Grade 4 teacher” (Tabei,
2017, p. 40). As a young girl, gender was seemingly not a barrier to climb-
ing mountains but rather a route to well-being, leisure and religious spiri-
tuality through connecting deeply with nature and ancient traditions of
Shinto Mountain pilgrimage (Seiwa & Funahashi, 1982). Herein, Japanese
girls and women crossed intersectional boundaries to access education,
were culturally empowered to enjoy mountain environments and experi-
enced fluidity across gender by engaging in masculinities such as enduring
physical hardship and self-sufficiency. We argue, this acted as a catalyst for
girls and women to evolve their own mountaineering spaces.
Whilst at college, Junko sent letters to her father about her adventures
in the mountains. Understanding the importance of mountains in her life,
he would respond “Hiking is good for your health…take care of your
health” (Tabei, 2017, p. 44). Her father’s approval was crucial to her early
development as a mountaineer and provided “a lifetime of great guid-
ance” after his death (Tabei, 2017, p. 45). However, Junko’s mother dis-
approved and constantly pressured her to marry. This resulted in Junko
hiding her activities, reflecting that “little did they know, the very activities
my family wished for me to ignore had become everything to me” (Tabei,
2017, p. 53). Although conflicted between mountains and duty, she
38 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

reflected, “I tried to picture myself as a traditional Japanese wife who fol-

lowed her husband. The idea never sat well with me”. When she finally
announced she would marry accomplished climber Masanobu Tabei, her
mother objected declaring Masanobu “an insignificant man without a uni-
versity degree” (Tabei, 2017, p. 58).
It was Masanobu’s shared love of mountaineering that was critical to
Junko building a successful mountaineering career. When Junko had
doubts about her abilities while organising her expedition to Everest,
Masanobu not only supported Junko but undertook the main caring role
for the family,

I caught myself a few times wondering how much simpler it would be for a
single woman with no children to organize herself for a trip of this magni-
tude. Then Masanobu stepped in: “Don’t worry about us. Trust me to pro-
vide a good life here in Japan. Focus only on yourself and your team;
complete your mission from your heart without regret.” His words allowed
me to move forward. (Tabei, 2017, p. 140)

Masanobu’s selflessness, collaboration and sense of equality in familial

responsibilities enabled Junko to pursue a professional mountaineering
career. She reflected, “his support was the true base to my continued suc-
cess in the mountains” (Tabei, 2017, p. 77). Furthermore, through resist-
ing her mother’s demands to choose a ‘suitable’ husband, Junko
transcended both class and gender boundaries to build the relationships
needed to become a professional mountaineer.
In her early career, Junko practised masculinities and femininities flu-
idly, while male allyship continued to prove crucial for managing the
inequalities she experienced. Though mountaineering clubs were open to
women members, Junko was in a minority. She would often climb and
share a tent with male climbing partners to realise her own goals, but was
subject to significant emotional labour due to rumours of impropriety
concerning her relationships with men. In contrast, Junko’s male climbing
partners were not affected by such gossip, but it was a price she “could
endure if it meant continuing to climb” (Tabei, 2017, p. 48). One male
climbing partner Koichi Yoko-o became her mentor,

His repeated words of simple advice made me a better climber … he took

me everywhere, even though a woman climber was a rare sight in Tanigawa.
I ignored the rumours that began to spread about us. After three years of
climbing together, I was capable of mastering quite difficult routes. (Tabei,
2017, p. 48)
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 39

Junko absorbed everything climbing-related from Yoko-o, which

instilled a sense of self-sufficiency and legitimacy. Despite her small stat-
ure, making it difficult for her to follow Yoko-o on approaches to climbs,
his mantra “I don’t climb with anyone weak” had an affirming effect on
Junko. It made her believe, “I could climb anywhere with him … We were
connected by a deep trust, not romance, in a dangerous environment
where a mistake could cost a life, pleased me” (Tabei, 2017, p. 51). Acutely
feeling her difference, Junko adopted masculine mountaineering tactics,
by performing masculinities, such as bravery, strength and technical ability
to prove herself in the mountaineering club scene. However, the inequal-
ity and power imbalance perpetuated by romantic perceptions and gossip
became untenable. This led Yoko-o to encourage Junko to end their part-
nership: “Go to 8000 meters. You’re ready to lead with female partners.
Try that from now on”. Her, gender was a catalyst to seek and build
women-only climbing spaces (Tabei, 2017, p. 48).
Performing masculinities and male allyship were instrumental in Junko’s
development as a mountaineer. The space, collaboration and sharing of
knowledge that male interactions afforded Junko were critical to her suc-
cess in climbing the highest peaks in the world. Though these encounters
led to her involvement in women-only spaces, they also encouraged a flu-
idity between masculinities and femininities, which helped Junko navigate
class, age, gender and racial prejudice on the mountainside.

Pioneering New Spaces

The relentlessness of the winter mountain environment surprised me … It
was exhilarating to know what cold and scared really felt like. (Tabei,
2017, p. 45)

Junko, like other female contemporaries, were proving they were capa-
ble and possessed endurance, technical ability and determination to sum-
mit high-altitude peaks. Japanese women mountaineers eventually held
significant positions in the mountaineering community, making many first
ascents, and transcending cultural and gender boundaries. Many of her
early achievements in the Japanese mountains were in partnership with
accomplished climber Rumie Sasou, and although “routes took longer to
climb with a female partner”, Junko “felt more rewarded by the accom-
plishment. … Being physically more equal to one another seemed fairer to
me” (Tabei, 2017, p. 53). From the late 1950s onwards a strong tradition
40 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

of women’s-only Alpine ascents evolved, with Japanese women’s climbing

teams having several key successes in the Peruvian Andes, India, Pakistan
and Europe. Yoshiko Wakayama and Michiko Imai became the first all-­
women’s team to ascend the North Face of the Matterhorn, Switzerland,
in 1967, and the scene was set for Japan’s female mountaineering elite to
tackle the greater ranges in Nepal. Yoshiko Wakayama, Junko Tabei and
two other seasoned overseas mountaineers Eiko Miyazaki and Michiko
Sekita initiated the Japanese Women’s Annapurna Expedition (JWAE) in
the Himalayas to climb Annapurna III (7555 m). In 1969, to help identify
suitably experienced women to participate in the JWAE expedition, Junko
helped to establish Japan’s first Ladies Climbing Club (Joshi-Tohan),
which was founded on the slogan Let’s go on an overseas expedition by our-
selves. For the first time, women had a formal space to profile their achieve-
ments and ambitions and build a support network.
The club was a catalyst that saw Junko and Hiroko Hirokawa become
the first climbers and women from Japan to ascend the Annapurna III by
a new route. Culturally, such an egalitarian and collaborative approach was
to be crucial to the success of a whole generation of Japanese women
climbers. In an interview Junko explains a key reason for seeking women-­
only climbing spaces,

I have also felt differences between all woman climbing expeditions and
mixed expeditions. I find that men have more pride, and want to always go
up first and faster, even one step faster. I never feel a sense of racing, but
often because I usually go quite fast, I pass many men and they look at me
in a funny way! Men have a high sense of pride! (In McDonald, Tabei, 2020)

The Japanese Women’s Annapurna Expedition (JWAE) was founded

on “fellow cooperation and open communication… and decisions were to
be made on a team basis, not for personal gain” (Tabei, 2017, p. 75).
Subsequently, collaboration proved fundamental to the success of the
Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition (JWEE), which consisted of a
diverse team of fifteen women, who worked together for four years to
realise the first female ascent of Everest. Junko reflected,

Standing on the summit of Everest lasted a moment in time, a moment that

resulted from the joint effort of all the women on our team…It was our
combined determination that made the summit moment a significant one.
There lies the most precious thing about our trip; teamwork and commit-
ment to the goal. (Tabei, 2017, p. 206)
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 41

Collaborative action was not only pivotal to performing mountaineer-

ing but also extended beyond the mountain to realise a new space for liter-
ary representation.
Despite her many achievements, Junko experienced prejudice and mis-
representation in literary and media interviews that often focused on her
physical appearance rather than her mountaineering achievements. For
example, in Western literary publications, she was referred to as a “bespec-
tacled ex-schoolteacher from Tokyo” and experienced sexist claims that
she was unable to ascend Everest without male help; “Ang Tshering led
the whole way and she followed as best she could …The route was too
steep and too long for a woman” (Unsworth, 1991, p. 462). Rak (2021)
argues that such representations feminise Junko’s achievements as a mere
curiosity and casts her as an amateur figure. Epitomised in “Messner’s sex-
ist and racist assessment of Tabei, which is that, more important than her
strength or experience as a climber, Tabei has “Oriental” and above all, is
a good wife and mother” (Rak, 2021, p. 66, in Blum, p. 7). A representa-
tion that arose from his interview with her after summiting Everest “He
asked me very directly if I climbed as a woman or a human being. I was
quite surprised that he asked me this, as I always climb as a human being”
(In McDonald, Tabei, 2020), a question repeatedly asked by all the media
was how it felt as a woman, which baffled her. Junko did not understand
the inability to see beyond her gender and inquire more deeply about the
experiences of mountaineering “There is more to us; we all come from
somewhere” (Tabei, 2017, p. 35). Moreover, a focus on her appearance
reinforced that small Japanese women do not fit the ideological norm of a
‘heroic mountaineer’ (she was 4’9” tall). Junko lamented,

When people meet me for the first time, they are surprised by my size. They
expect me to be bigger than I am, more strapping, robust, like a wrestler …
I was always puzzled by this, by people’s obsession with the physical appear-
ance of a mountaineer. (Tabei, 2017, p. 35)

To counter these narratives, Junko created a new literary space by pub-

lishing articles and books about expedition life. She shared “what people
said and how they felt” offering candid accounts of the emotions, tensions
and rivalries experienced personally and collectively within the expedition
team (Tabei, 2017, pp. 120–121). This challenged Japanese mountaineer-
ing publishing traditions by not glossing over the harsh realities of camp
life. Junko was critical of the flowery and vain writing style of Japanese
42 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

expedition reports that did not accurately record the “unkinder side of
human behaviour” and had led to “cultural doubt” forming about indi-
vidual male mountaineers who had been forced to leave Japanese high-­
altitude expeditions (Tabei, 2017, pp. 120–121). Such honesty was
expressed in the published account, Annapurna: Women’s Battle, which
was criticised for sharing “the feelings of the team members when things
failed to go in the direction they had envisioned…we put our honest expe-
riences on paper” (Tabei, 2017, p. 120). The book was politically charged
expressing how the team navigated masculinities and femininities by
expressing the raw emotions and feelings experienced (Tabei, 2017,
p. 69). However, the book has yet to receive attention in the West and has
not been translated into any European languages, its emotional frankness
precluding it from being recognised as a mountaineering adventure classic.
Junko’s contextualisation of how and why women climb 8000 m peaks
was a political act to break gendered and racial stereotypes. Importantly,
Rak (2021, p. 188) notes “that Tabei’s decision to recount the life story
and motivations of other female climbers in…her memoir is an act of
intersectional climbing feminism and it performs important political
work”. For example, Junko represents Tibetan mountaineer Pan Duo, the
second woman to summit Everest, making the first ascent from the Tibetan
side in 1975. Junko challenges the misrepresentation of Pan Duo in
Western literature, which fails to use Pan Duo’s correct name that Rak
(2021, p. 188) argues provides a “counter narrative to the story of moun-
taineering as the story of male achievement and heroism”. Junko actively
crossed racial and gender boundaries to represent the stories of other
women mountaineers.
The JWAE Annapurna III expedition not only pioneered a new route
on the mountain, becoming the first Japanese team and the first women to
do so; they innovated a new way to conduct women-only high-altitude
expeditions and write/publish about their experiences. The team knew
that “both accomplishments stirred the pot from the start” making a
global statement that not only women, but Asian women had the exper-
tise, skills and tenacity to “Go climb the Himalayas, by all means, by
women alone” (Tabei, 2017, p. 69). JWAE had crossed racial and gen-
dered intersections on a global scale, forging new spaces of inclusion for
those of difference. After the success of JWAE, Joshi-Tohan started to plan
the next expedition to summit Mount Everest.
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 43

Crossing Boundaries of Leadership, Gender and Motherhood:

Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition (JWEE)
Fifteen women were recruited for the Japanese Women’s Everest
Expedition (JWEE) to make the first all-women’s expedition to ascend
Mount Everest, under the leadership of Eiko Hisan. Junko was appointed
assistant leader. Although the women wanted to maintain financial inde-
pendence, the major newspaper The Yomiuri Shimbun in conjunction with
its branch of the Nippon Television Network Corporation agreed to be
JWEE sponsors. This unlocked sponsorship from numerous sources
including government departments giving an air of legitimacy to the expe-
dition that proved crucial in bringing JWEEs achievements to a global
audience.
Whilst the socially ingrained ethos of collaboration was foundational to
Japanese mountaineering expeditions, requiring Junko to remind herself
to “cooperate with everyone and avoid any drama” (Tabei, 2017, p. 76)
even when personalities clashed, she was compelled to innovate a new style
of leadership. Junko’s approach to leadership was to challenge entrenched
Japanese tropes, such as remaining stoically silent when suffering from
altitude sickness or injury, not admitting ignorance, or not wanting to
seem to be different. She had to break free of being “seen as a good per-
son, one who pleased both leader and team members … A social teaching
that was deeply rooted in me when I was young girl” (Tabei, 2017,
pp. 121–122). Junko found such normative values,

made it difficult to stand by tough choices that were required on the moun-
tain. It was unusual enough to be a female climber in that era of yesteryear,
let alone to make a stand in front of your friends that would possibly upset
them. (Tabei, 2017, pp. 121–122)

The crucial lesson Junko learned from Annapurna III was that “the old
ways had failed me. Behaving as a social butterfly does not work in moun-
taineering … there is no time for mixed messages … a person must be able
to voice her opinion without worrying about criticism”; this changed her
life and “once more mountains were my teacher” (Tabei, 2017, p. 122).
Junko drew on lessons learned from Annapurna III and transcended social
norms to make hard decisions and dismiss team members if they chal-
lenged her leadership. But this was not without consequence, “I remained
strong-willed about Everest, but tears of doubt fell down my cheeks at
44 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

night”. She would turn to her daughter and say “Mom will fight! Get
going, Junko!” (Tabei, 2017, p. 135). Junko transcended social norms
and cultural traditions, adopting masculine as well as culturally different
(Westernised) ways to lead women-only high-altitude mountaineering
expeditions. Tough leadership, and in some instances an autocratic
approach, was required to navigate the extreme prejudice Junko experi-
enced, notably one aspect of this concerned becoming a working mother.
Interestingly, at a time when women in Japan were largely expected to
remain at home, most of the JWEE women were working and two includ-
ing Junko had children. The expedition faced considerable resistance
“most of the men in the alpine community were against our plan, saying
that it would be impossible to go to Everest on a women’s-only expedi-
tion” (In Frenette, Tabei, 2017). At the time, Japan was in an economic
recession and sponsorship was not forthcoming. The women received
many rebuttals from major corporations insinuating, “Raise your children
and keep your family tight rather than do something like this” (Tabei,
2017, p. 136). Being a married woman with a small infant and appointed
assistant expedition leader for the JWEE, Junko faced additional social
challenges of managing the demands of motherhood and mountaineering.
Like many mother mountaineers she expressed, “Although I would never
forfeit Everest, I felt pulled in the two directions of mountains and moth-
erhood” (Tabei, 2017, p. 132). Junko was caught at the intersection of
diametrically opposed discourses of being absent from home in the selfish
pursuit of risk, in contrast to normative notions of domesticity of being
tied to children and homelife (Frohlick, 2006). This was met with unsym-
pathetic attitudes expressed by other team members when the demands of
expedition planning clashed with childcare; one commented, “In other
climbing parties, progression of a trip was dependent on the assistant lead-
er’s positive attitude. Perhaps we need an assistant leader who doesn’t
have children” (Tabei, 2017, p. 134). This produced significant emotional
labour, resulting in performing an astounding work rate to secure her
legitimacy as an assistant leader: “I knew more effort was required for a
married woman with a family to pursue an expedition of this grandeur. I
worked relentlessly to establish a solid home life for my daughter while
remaining 100 per cent committed to the team” (Tabei, 2017,
pp. 134–135). Masanobu’s support was critical, insisting “‘everybody
should commit equally, regardless of their situation” (Tabei, 2017,
p. 131). Junko’s tenacity underpinned by familial support enabled her to
cross gendered cultural boundaries creating fluidity between masculinities
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 45

and femininities, and forging a new discourse and space for women to be
mountaineers. However, her racial identity in tandem with gender was
also a barrier she had to navigate.

Crossing Boundaries of Gender and Race: Creating Spaces

of Cultural Exchange
On both Annapurna III and Everest, collaboration with the Indigenous
communities was critical to the expedition’s success, taking a pragmatic
approach Junko reflected that “a women’s only ascent, without Sherpa
assistance, was never discussed”, astutely assessing that without the sup-
port they were unlikely to achieve their goal (Tabei, 2017, p. 157). On the
approach to Annapurna III, Junko was nervous that their access to base
camp would be impeded by rumours of negative gendered views held by
Indigenous Peoples inhabiting the last village, Chomrong. Although
rumoured to be “no country for women”, and a women-forbidden vil-
lage, Chomrong turned out to be supportive of JWAE declaring “We’re
for the women’s party” and organised a big party to welcome them. In
contrast, Chomrong had refused support for Chris Bonnington’s British
expedition that season. Perhaps news had travelled to Chomrong about
the racial discrimination Tibetan porters had experienced with talk of “the
British team Manager not wanting Tibetan porters” (Tabei, 2017, p. 90)
yet, she notes, “we found them to be the hardest working of all the por-
ters…one-hundred-and-forty porters were gathered… all walks of life
were amidst this colourful tribe” (Tabei, 2017, p. 90). Junko reflected
that “History had occurred, A new wind had blown through this remote
place in the Nepali Himalaya, changing a land that once forbade women
to one that welcomed them. We left there in peace” (Tabei, 2017,
pp. 93–95).
JWAE transcended both gender and racial boundaries by creating a
positive exchange at the intersection of racial and cultural differences.
During the Everest expedition, Junko observed, “a porter’s job was not
only pursued to earn money but also for the rare chance to interact with
other cultures, and our women-only Everest expedition added even more
diversity to the cause” (Tabei, 2017, p. 147). The representation of
Indigenous Peoples is rarely found in European mountaineering texts
from this period and when reference is made to both climbers and porters
from Asian countries such as Japan or Nepal are often misrepresented
(Rak, 2021). Although it is impossible to appreciate the oppressions or
46 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

experiences of the Indigenous Nepali labourers and climbers who partici-

pated in the Japanese expeditions during this period, Junko’s literary rep-
resentations of Indigenous Peoples are rare glimpses of the cultural
exchange experienced between the expedition and Nepali expedition
workers.
The JWEE’s interest in cultural exchange was embodied through
deeper connections to language and religion, Junko notes, “There was no
sweeter sound than the porters announcing the mountain to us in Nepali:
‘Memsahib, Sagarmatha’” (Tabei, 2017, p. 148). The women actively par-
ticipated in learning religious teachings. To ask for a safe passage before
beginning an ascent, Sherpa trained as lamas or teachers “were able to lead
us in the proper chants for the occasion. The ritual was quite beautiful”
(Tabei, 2017, p. 154). When encountering danger, the women found
themselves chanting “Om mani padme hum along with the Sherpas as we
crossed the monstrous chasms” (Tabei, 2017, p. 158). The women strived
to build lasting and respectful relationships with their Sherpa counter-
parts. During their Everest summit bid, Junko described her relationship
with Sidar Ang Tsering Sherpa (lead mountain guide), “I would never do
anything to upset him, for the faith of the Sherpas is one to uphold … Not
only were we climbing partners, we were friends” (Tabei, 2017,
pp. 185–186). Junko transcended racial boundaries to create meaningful
exchange between cultures and recognised the impact this could have on
building future relationships between local people, the environment and
international mountaineering tourism. This was reflected not only in her
writing but also in her mountain conservation work. Crossing interna-
tional boundaries Junko became a global advocate for gender equality.

Pioneering International Gender Equality

At 12.30 p.m. on 16 May 1975 Junko Tabei stood on the summit “Here
is the summit. I don’t have to climb anymore”, she declared (Tabei, 2017,
p. 193). The news travelled fast in Nepal producing national celebrations
and congratulations from Nepal’s King Birendra, prime minister and other
government officials. Ang Tsering, Junko and team leader Hisano were
awarded the Order of the Gorkha Dakshina Bahu—one of the highest
honours in Nepal. Similarly, in India, the team were met by hundreds of
reporters and congratulated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The United
Nations designated 1975 as International Women’s Year “Whether I
wanted it to be or not, our climb became a symbol of women’s social
 3 TROUBLING THE SILENCES OF ADVENTURE LEGACIES: JUNKO TABEI… 47

progress” (Tabei, 2017, p. 209). In a gesture of gratitude and reverence

to Ang Tsering’s contribution to the successful expedition, he was invited
to Japan to meet both the Japanese Emperor and Empress as well as many
officials and attended many celebratory functions and television inter-
views. The spotlight on their achievement did not lessen for a considerable
period following their return to Japan “it irreversibly changed my life”
(Tabei, 2017, p. 208). Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the celebra-
tions were limited to Asia, with only a minor excerpt published in The
New York Times that a Japanese woman had climbed Everest. Tabei had
crossed gender and racialised boundaries in Asia, but had little impact in
the Global North. Despite her achievements, Junko did not measure up to
the powerful trope of the white male mountaineering hero and continues
to be marginalised.
Building on her celebrity, Junko continued to fight for gender equality
and crossed racial and gender boundaries by championing the achieve-
ments of her peers globally. On Everest adaptability, leadership and team-
work were central strengths, enabling every team member to reach camp
3 (6900 m), a fact that filled Junko with pride,

This alone emphasized the unique strength and adaptability of our team,
which to us was an accomplishment in itself. We were never considered a
group of elite mountaineers in the Japanese climbing community. We were
a team of women who shared the dream of climbing Mount Everest; a team
that readied itself for such an opportunity despite the obstacles met along
the way. (Tabei, 2017, p. 172)

Collaborative action was a quality Junko embraced throughout her life

that she used to provide experience and prepare as many women as possi-
ble for ascending high-altitude peaks in the greater ranges. In 1995 she
and her friend Setsuko Kitamura organised the Mount Everest Women’s
conference “I thought about meeting all the women who had climbed
Everest to date. I realised there were cultural and societal differences in
our individual pursuits of the mountain, and I was interested to learn
more about the female perspective” (Tabei, 2017, p. 211). This drive to
achieve greater equality for women through pioneering intellectual as well
as physical spaces enabled a whole generation of Japanese women to access
newfound spaces of risk and adventure. As the first woman and 38th per-
son to climb Everest, Junko Tabei stands at the intersection of class, race and
gender of women who transgressed, transformed and pioneered social
change for women mountaineers in Japan and beyond.
48 J. HALL AND M. MILLER

Conclusion
This chapter critically appraised Junko Tabei’s memoir Honouring High
Places, elucidating how she navigated the gendered landscape of moun-
taineering creating transformational spaces for herself and a global com-
munity of women mountaineers. It contributes new understandings of the
complex historical intersections arising through race, gender, class and
sexualities in mountaineering adventure. Pivotal to Junko’s success were
her early experiences of mountaineering facilitated through her male allies,
who enabled her culturally and socially to access mountain environments,
while she developed, experienced and enjoyed interchanging between
masculinities and femininities. The force of collaborative action through
teamwork and the sharing of emotional experience through leading and
innovating women-only spaces opened opportunities to literally climb to
the top of the world. Junko was a political pioneer for gender equality and
through sharing the often-brutal realities of expedition life to a global
audience she created a new form of literary representation that challenges
“narratives of sexism and racism that circulate about Everest” (Rak, 2021,
p. 189). The Japanese all-women’s expeditions transformed social, cul-
tural and racial boundaries on a global scale through pioneering women-­
only spaces to be mountaineers. We offered insight into how women
navigate the social mountain posed in high-altitude spaces at the intersec-
tion of difference and what this can teach us in taking seriously issues of
inclusion in spaces of adventure. We call on scholars to research difference
in tourism adventure spaces to address the urgent need to decolonise
(Chambers & Buzinde, 2015) and refute the possession of this single,
white male history and to secure a better future.

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 CHAPTER 4

“There is no manlier sport in the world”.

How Hegemonic Masculinity Became
Constitutive of Excellence in Mountaineering

Delphine Moraldo

Introduction
Mountaineering is historically a socially elitist practice. It was invented and
codified by men of the British rising middle and upper class in the mid-­
nineteenth century. In 1857, they created the first mountaineering club:
the Alpine Club, which was forbidden to women until 1974 (Hansen,
2013; Moraldo, 2021). Thus, in addition to being socially elitist, moun-
taineering was originally an eminently masculine practice—created by men
and for men, it was constructed by the institutional and symbolic exclu-
sion of women. To this day, mountaineering remains a very masculine
sport in which women are under-represented.

D. Moraldo (*)
Centre Max Weber, ENS de Lyon, équipe Dispositions, pouvoirs, cultures,
socialisation, Saint-Etienne Cedex, France
e-mail: delphine.moraldo@ens-lyon.fr

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 51

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_4
52 D. MORALDO

This article investigates masculinity in mountaineering insofar as it is

constitutive of the model of excellence prevailing in this activity, which I
have studied from the British and French cases (Moraldo, 2021). In this
work, I have shown how a “spirit of mountaineering”—that is, a singular
conception of what “excellence” in mountaineering is, invented and
implemented by “great” or “elite” mountaineers—was created in Victorian
England. I then traced the perpetuation of this model over time (up to the
present day), and its geographical diffusion (from England to France).
Excellence in mountaineering, in this perspective, is based on a triple dis-
tinction: that is sporting, social, and gendered. Indeed, the great climbers
who continue to forge the spirit of mountaineering are the authors of the
ascents recognised as the most difficult (sporting distinction), but they are
also men (gendered distinction) from the social elite (social distinction).
As such, they codify mountaineering in a very specific way and make cer-
tain characteristics specific to their group exemplary, distinctive, and
attractive attributes in mountaineering.
I will focus on these attributes relating to gender. I will use the concept
of “hegemonic masculinity”, theorised by Raewyn Connell (Connell,
1987, 1995; Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005), to think about the con-
ception of masculinity specific to mountaineering and the gender relations
that result from it. Raewyn Connell defines masculinity as “simultaneously
a place in gender relations, the practices through which men and women
engage that place in gender, and the effects of these practices in bodily
experience, personality and culture” (Connell, 1995, p. 71). Hegemonic
masculinity is the specific form of masculinity “which occupies the hege-
monic position in a given pattern of gender relations, a position that is
always contestable” (Connell, 1995, p. 76); it is “the configuration of
gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the
problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy which guarantees (or is taken to
guarantee) the dominant position of men and the subordination of
women” (Connell, 1995, p. 77). The concept of hegemonic masculinity
highlights the fact that there is not one, inherently or naturally dominant,
form of masculinity, but many, some more dominant than others. This
opens the way to a more complex way of thinking about gender relations,
which makes it possible to take into account the existence of a hierarchy of
masculinities and therefore of men. The concept of hegemonic masculin-
ity is therefore fruitful when applied to mountaineering because it allows
us to think about male domination at the heart of the spirit of
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 53

mountaineering and to understand why certain men, although they are

men, are nevertheless excluded from it.
This concept will be useful in answering three questions:

(1) How did a hegemonic form of masculinity come to characterise

excellence in mountaineering in its own right, to form the equation
“excellence = masculine”?
(2) What are the tangible consequences of hegemonic masculinity on
gender relations in mountaineering? In other words, what does
hegemonic masculinity “do” to mountaineering, or how does it
“do gender” in mountaineering?

To answer these first two questions within the scope of this chapter, I
will focus on the period in which the spirit of mountaineering was con-
structed, namely the nineteenth century, and on the country that forged
its foundations, the United Kingdom.

(3) After this foundational period, the history of mountaineering

shows episodes where hegemonic masculinity asserts itself in a
more or less heightened way. I ask what are the contexts conducive
to a strong expression of hegemonic masculinity in
mountaineering.

How, as a sociologist or historian, can we perceive and understand

hegemonic masculinity in mountaineering? My material consists of narra-
tives published by elite mountaineers who, it should be remembered, are
those who forge the “spirit of mountaineering” (Moraldo, 2022). Because,
unlike the majority of sports, mountaineering can’t be practised under the
gaze of referees, and the broader audience only has access to the ascents
through the accounts of the ascents. Mountaineers must therefore recount
their exploits for these to exist and to obtain the recognition of their peers,
which gives rise to an intense literary production. The sociologist or histo-
rian of mountaineering thus finds himself in the presence of very dense
literary material, composed of various narratives (articles published in
mountaineering magazines, expedition accounts, autobiographies). Such
materials, far from being an obstacle to sociological knowledge, are near
to ideal for the analysis of excellence in mountaineering and the form of
masculinity that characterises it, as they are exemplary of the discourses of
elite mountaineers and of their superiority (Moraldo, 2022). These
54 D. MORALDO

narratives can be understood from a double perspective: descriptive and

prescriptive. On the one hand, they recount episodes that, although not
intentionally, highlight power relationships, and situations of domination,
which testify to the existence of hegemonic masculinity in mountaineering
and of a “cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading
position in social life” (Connell, 1995, p. 77). On the other hand, they
constitute ideals, in the sense that the elite mountaineers who write them
are exemplars similar to those described by Raewyn Connell and James
Messerschmidt (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 846). As such they
embody a “culturally idealized form of masculine character (in a given
historical setting)” (Connell, 1990, p. 83).

Excellent = Masculine: Hegemonic Masculinity

as Constitutive of Excellence

My work on the “spirit of mountaineering”, by which I mean the basic

principles, values, representations, and rules that form the core of what is
considered to be “excellence” in mountaineering, has highlighted the fact
that among the constitutive traits of excellence stands masculinity, even
virility. This is not surprising in a practice that, as has been said, is made for
men and by men, in a deliberate and explicit move to exclude women
(Moraldo, 2020; Rak, 2021; Ortner, 1999). Where does the equation
“excellence = masculinity” in mountaineering come from? What evidence
is there that hegemonic masculinity exists at the very foundation of the
spirit of mountaineering?
To understand why hegemonic masculinity is constitutive of excellence
in mountaineering, we must go back to its origins and to those who codi-
fied it. Indeed, mountaineering, like sport, was originally conceived as an
eminently masculine practice and moreover, an expression of the manli-
ness of the British middle and upper classes. Indeed, mountaineering
appeared in the wake of modern sport (Moraldo, 2021). Those very mem-
bers of the bourgeoisie who invented sport took to mountaineering shortly
after, thus extending to this new undertaking their sporting principles
and values.
The 1850s saw the birth of a sporting doctrine forged by school head-
masters and applied in public schools and major British universities: ath-
leticism (Mangan, 2000; McIntosh, 1960). Through the practice of
“dignified” sports such as rugby-football (Dunning & Sheard, 1979),
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 55

rowing, or cricket, according to the principles of fair-play, the future elite

inculcated moral values: courage, self-sacrifice, esprit de corps, discipline,
honesty, and so on. These values were all qualities that were supposed to
characterise the manliness of the Victorian ruling classes and, at the same
time, forge the character of future leaders and soldiers of the British
Empire. Through the public schools, the athlete thus became one of the
key figures of manliness (Mangan, 1987, p. 4; McLeod, 2004, p. 138). It
should be noted that this “manliness”, “the most clearly articulated indi-
cator of men’s gender in the nineteenth century” according to John Tosh
(Tosh, 2005, p. 2), is a term that is at once normative, prescriptive, and
socially marked. Josh Tosh shows that this term “implied that there was a
single standard of manhood, which was expressed in certain physical attri-
butes and moral dispositions” (Tosh, 2005, p. 2). These attributes were
those that men were proud to possess, and which earned them prestige
and respectability. Moreover, manliness thus conceived was originally
forged by members of the middle and upper class. It was in the public
schools, reserved for these elites, that manliness was taught, in particular
through sport, based on the same set of values and qualities that consti-
tuted the “character” of the gentleman. John Tosh, in his analysis of the
redefinition of English masculinity in the nineteenth century, shows that
Victorian manliness, as inculcated in public schools, “had to be earned, by
mastering the circumstances of life and thus securing the respect of one’s
peers” (Tosh, 2005, p. 86). To be manly—or “gentlemanly” as the two
terms came to be equated, manliness being, by definition, that of the
upper and middle classes—was to possess not only moral qualities (will-
power, self-sacrifice, frankness, honesty, simplicity, courage) but also phys-
ical qualities (stamina, resistance, strength).
These qualities can be found in the obituaries of the Alpine Club mem-
bers of the time, published in the Alpine Journal, the club’s magazine.
There is, for example, a celebration of the manliness of the Reverend
L.S. Calvert (1850–1909), headmaster of a grammar school, chaplain in
an infantry battalion for twenty-two years and an accomplished sports-
man. It was his manliness, understood as virility of body and character
above all, that earned him the respect of his men and pupils: “In his regi-
ment he was deeply respected, and endeared himself to his comrades and
the men, and exerted an influence, unique in its character, over them; for
he was, above all, a ‘man’ in the widest sense and understood them thor-
oughly” (Anon. 1909, p. 666).
56 D. MORALDO

The references to individual struggle for success, the strength of will,

honesty, discipline, and so on were in fact directly addressed to the experi-
ence of the new social fractions born of the industrial revolution, entrepre-
neurs and professionals, won over to the principles of social Darwinism
(Mangan, 1987, p. 140), a doctrine loosely based on Darwin’s theory of
evolution as the survival of the fittest repackaged to justify such ideologies
as imperialism, eugenics, or capitalism. Such doctrines specifically
addressed men of the British Empire—civil servants, soldiers, planters,
explorers, and so on—hence the rhetorical background of the Empire,
based on “duty”, “struggle”, “will”, and “character”, converged with that
of manliness (Field, 1982). Unsurprisingly, imperialist ideology was perva-
sive in athleticism: public schools inculcated a pronounced patriotism and
admiration for Britain’s imperial power (Mangan, 1998). Already in the
1850s, they were a preparation for imperial service. This role was increas-
ingly asserted after the Crimean War (1854–1856), and came to the fore
between 1880 and the beginning of the twentieth century, in the era of
neo-imperialism (Ellis, 2001).
These values of athleticism, and more generally of the manliness of the
Victorian elites, went on to be applied, by the first generation of moun-
taineers, to this fledgling practice, which was undergoing a process of
codification and institutionalisation. This also translated into the establish-
ment of an “ethics”, that is, a body of implicit rules, derived from the rules
of sporting fair play, which leads to a voluntary limitation of artificial aids
in order to give the mountain a “sporting chance” (Moraldo, 2016).
A good example of this ethos being carried over from sport to moun-
taineering can be found in Leslie Stephen, a famous mountaineer and
president of the Alpine Club in the 1860s. A pupil at Eton, a student at
Cambridge where he became a Fellow in philosophy, Stephen was always
a sportsman and a promoter of university sport. For him, mountaineering
was nothing more than “a different kind of athletic exercise” (Stephen,
1868, p. 264) practised by gentlemen who applied the principles of fair
play. Similarly, the imperialist ideology inculcated in the young bourgeoi-
sie—and which is part of the same set of values—is very much present in
mountaineering, which, from the outset, is seen as a form of exploration
within the reach of members of a bourgeoisie with but very little free time.
Like the soldier, the explorer or the captain of industry, the mountaineer,
in his own way, considered that he was contributing to the glory of the
British Empire, and that he too, at his own level, was living an adventure
from which he could legitimately derive social prestige. New ascents were
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 57

thus an opportunity to demonstrate the pre-eminence of the English

“race”, the social superiority of the bourgeoisie and the manliness of
mountaineers. It is through these lenses that, in the discourses of moun-
taineers, the specifically “English” nature of mountaineering was often
referred to. Thus, in the necrology of the famous mountaineer Albert
F. Mummery, one reads that “recklessness is a quality essentially English.
It is the quality which has made our race the pioneers of the world, which
in naval warfare won for us the command of the sea, which by exploration
and colonisation has given the wastelands of the earth to Anglo-Saxon
enterprise, and the loss of which, if we ever do lose it, will bring our lead-
ership to an end” (Anon. 1895, p. 567). Thus, mountaineering stories
from this period portray the mountaineer as a conqueror, an explorer, and
a colonist. In the terms used to describe it, in the values that underlie it, in
the supposed qualities of its actors, mountaineering was exploratory, con-
quering, and virile. These were the same terms, values, and qualities that
were attributed to the great explorers of the time. This can be observed,
for example, from stylistic devices of comparison between mountaineering
and conquest or exploration, through the use of military terminology. The
mountain, often described as a formidable fortress under siege, is
“attacked” and “assaulted”, and is the subject of a battle plan. The ascent
is described as a “campaign”, a “battle”, and a “fight” in order to “win”
or “conquer” a summit. When one fails, he “retreats”. Conquest is also
sexual. Beyond the martial vocabulary, the rhetoric of these narratives
implicitly associates “victory” over the mountain with (heterosexual) male
domination (Majastre, 2009), with the mention of “virgin” peaks to be
“possessed”, whose “prestige” is taken away forever, peaks whose “vir-
ginal purity” is “defiled” or “desecrated”, etc. Sherry Ortner also notes
this essential component in post-war mountaineering in the Himalayas,
which she breaks down into two trends: competition and references to sex
(Ortner, 1999, pp. 149–184). Indeed, these representations, forged in the
Victorian era, did not disappear afterwards. On the contrary, they are so
constitutive of the spirit of mountaineering that they continued to perme-
ate it to a large extent thereafter, and not only in the UK. In a recent
(French) popular work on the history of mountaineering, it is barely sur-
prising to find the term “deflowered” (défloré) regularly used when
applied to first ascents (Gardien, 2021). This is one of the signs (among
others) of the effectiveness and durability of the model of mountaineering
excellence forged by the gentlemen of the Alpine Club. The values, ethos,
rules, and hierarchies—in a word, its “spirit”—that organise
58 D. MORALDO

mountaineering and define what excellence is are thus impregnated with

their ideologies. Among these ideologies are the ideals of masculinity,
which originated in Victorian England and which, even in new forms,
continued and spread to France (Moraldo, 2021).
This idea of masculinity, that is “manliness”, corresponds well to what
Raewyn Connell calls hegemonic masculinity. It is a dominant and ide-
alised form of masculinity but also, above all, a model of masculinity that
serves as a support and justification for male domination. Originally forged
for upper and middle-class men, that is, individuals in a dominant posi-
tion, it became an ideal shared by men of all classes. However, not all men
were able to conform to it. This is another characteristic of hegemonic
masculinity: “Hegemony works in part through the production of exem-
plars of masculinity (e.g., professional sports stars), symbols that have
authority despite the fact that most men and boys do not fully live up to
them” (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, 846). Hegemonic masculinity,
by definition, is not the attribute of the many, but of exemplary and domi-
nant individuals. In mountaineering, the embodiments of hegemonic
masculinity are the elite climbers who decide the criteria of excellence,
thereby establishing a hierarchy of users and uses of the mountains, at the
apex of which they stand. As hegemonic masculinity is also embodied in
concrete practices, “i.e., things done, not just a set of role expectations or
an identity” (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 832), let us look at what
these deeds are that underpin the domination of certain men over both
women and other men.

Masculine>Feminine: Hegemonic Masculinity

as Exclusion of Women

Women, understandably, are excluded from this model from the outset.
Yet, by extension, as a set of physical but also moral attributes, manliness
was not originally thought of solely as a male quality. Kelly Boyd, who has
worked on the press for boys, explains that in the Victorian era, “one was
not manly by virtue of being gendered male; however, one became manly
by learning to perform that role. Boys, women, and indeed, men, were
sometimes portrayed as ‘manly’, as the term suggested strength of charac-
ter in the face of adversity, the ability to stand up for one’s right, or some-
times, just not succumbing to the pressures of life” (Boyd, 2003, p. 46).
John Tosh concurs: a woman who was able to overcome the “natural”
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 59

qualities of her sex might be labelled “manly” (Tosh, 2005, p. 91). Thus,
a mountaineer like Elizabeth Le Blond (1861–1934) could write without
irony: “there is no manlier sport in the world than mountaineering” (Le
Blond, 1903). Because mountaineering has been codified from the values,
ideologies, and ethos of sport, which are part of a specific form of manli-
ness (that of Victorian gentlemen), its spirit and values are fundamentally
manly. While women mountaineers existed at the time, they were, like Le
Blond, more likely to conform to this manliness than the other way
around. The fact remains that in practice, women were far removed from
this ideology, which was inculcated in places that were forbidden to them.
Davidoff and Hall (1987) show how, during the first half of the nine-
teenth century, a view of the sexes as operating in separate spheres was
established in Britain, with the domestic sphere being that of women and
sport, like other outward-looking or action-oriented activities, being the
province of men.
In mountaineering, hegemonic masculinity is first expressed in beliefs
about the place of women. I dealt with this question at length in an article
dealing exclusively with the evolving position of women regarding excel-
lence in mountaineering, from the nineteenth century to the beginning of
the twenty-first century (Moraldo, 2020). In that paper, I show that
women mountaineers, however much they may conform with the prevail-
ing conception of excellence, were always suspected of not being “real
climbers”, either because they were considered too weak to be great
climbers or, conversely, because they were too good at climbing to be
“real” women. Because hegemonic masculinity is constitutive of moun-
taineering excellence, women simply have no place in this model. As a
result, women mountaineers have long been discredited, rendered invisi-
ble, and relegated to the role of second within climbing parties. Even
today, they still struggle to become recognised as part of the mountaineer-
ing elite, despite repeated exploits (Moraldo, 2020; Rak, 2021). This is
the first and most obvious example of what hegemonic masculinity “does”
to gender relations: it creates a hierarchy between men, who are domi-
nant, and women, who are dominated.
The aforementioned article (Moraldo, 2020) shows that women had to
develop strategies, which differed from one period to another, in order to
make a place for themselves in the face of male hegemony. Until the begin-
ning of the twentieth century, the dominant strategy was that of discreet
practice, consequently little documented and difficult to trace. It was a
form of mountaineering under the tutelage of their (male) guides and
60 D. MORALDO

partners who led the party. Although female clubs (like the Ladies Alpine
Club) did exist, these merely mimicked, and were considered inferior ver-
sions of, their male counterparts from which women (even the most excel-
lent of them, like Elizabeth Le Blond) were excluded.
From the 1930s onwards, a second dominant strategy emerged, con-
sisting, for certain ascents only (never the most difficult ones), of climbing
within women-only parties. These were not necessarily organised within a
female club. This allowed women mountaineers to emancipate themselves
from male judgements and to access the valued position of leader which
was often denied to women even in mixed parties. Women continued to
see themselves as inferior climbers, citing their lesser physical strength, but
aspired to achieve a form of autonomy by way of a separate female prac-
tice. From the 1950s onwards, new strategies developed that made women
“mountaineers in their own right” (rather than “women mountaineers”).
Among the latter, solo mountaineering was chosen, for example by
Catherine Destivelle or Alison Hargreaves, as it guaranteed being given
full responsibility and credit for an ascent. I conclude the article by show-
ing that a new trend today is the reappearance of all-female groups that,
like the female parties of the 1930s, claim their specificity and, this time,
their value equal to men’s. These groups remain few, as are women in
selective clubs (their proportion does not exceed 10%) (Moraldo, 2020,
2021). The fact is that hegemonic masculinity continues to underlie the
definition of excellence in mountaineering and, consequently, to distin-
guish and hierarchise male and female mountaineers.

Masculine>Masculine: Hegemonic Masculinity

as Hierarchy Among Men

Hegemonic masculinity does not merely produce domination of men over

women. The concept also allows one to apprehend the exclusion and rel-
egation of certain groups of men, despite their belonging to the male
gender. Demetrakis Z. Demetriou thus distinguishes two functions of
hegemonic masculinity: “external hegemony” (the domination of men
over women) and “internal hegemony” (the domination of a group of
men over other men) (Demetriou, 2001, p. 341). After studying external
hegemony in the first part of the article, we must now turn our attention
to the relationship between elite mountaineers and other male users of the
mountains as a relationship between hegemonic masculinity and other
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 61

masculinities. The latter can be “complicit”, and they “receive the benefits
of patriarchy without enacting a strong version of masculine dominance”
(Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005, p. 832): this is the masculinity of the
small-scale mountaineer who derives a form of symbolic prestige from the
deeds of an elite to which he does not belong. Masculinity can also be
subordinate, that is to say, dominated: the tourist visiting the mountains
would stand out here. Finally, “marginalised” forms of masculinity
(Connell, 1995, p. 80)—those of guides or Sherpas—involve men who, in
some ways, are just as manly as elite mountaineers, without enacting the
hegemonic masculinity of which the latter are the exclusive embodiment.
Indeed, since hegemonic masculinity is constitutive of excellence in moun-
taineering, the distinction made between these various mountain goers
intertwines the gendered, class, and sporting dimensions, that is, the three
constitutive planes of excellence. To be an elite mountaineer is, originally,
to be a man, a member of the social elite (or, later, to conform to its
codes), and the author of renowned ascents.
In the mechanism of distinction—understood as the ways in which
individuals differentiate, classify, and hierarchise other individuals, prac-
tices, products, values, and the results of these operations (Bourdieu,
1979)—at work within mountaineering, it is in fact difficult to separate
these three dimensions, even in the case of the distinction between men
and women studied above. Indeed, one can notice the very strong over-
representation of women from the social elite among elite mountaineers:
the transgression of gender hierarchy is all the less likely if social hierarchy
must be overcome first (Moraldo, 2020). Once more, this shows the com-
bination of the sporting, social, and gender components that make up
excellence in mountaineering.
On the one hand, hegemonic masculinity is part of the distinction
established between elite mountaineers on one hand, and tourists or small
mountaineers on the other. The first could be said to practice “hard moun-
taineering activities” and the second “soft ones” (or, as tourists are con-
cerned, no mountaineering at all), according to Gill Pomfret and Adele
Doran’s typology (Pomfret & Doran, 2015). Since the nineteenth cen-
tury, a contemptuous attitude of mountaineers towards tourists has pre-
vailed. Tourists are seen as parasites who desecrate the mountains, even
though they come, at least initially, from the same social groups as the
mountaineers that despised them. They are “intrusive insects” (Stephen,
1904, p. 196), a “crowd of idlers” (Freshfield, 1882, p. 195), generally
presented as vulgar and incapable. In this contempt for tourists and
62 D. MORALDO

small-­scale mountaineers, references to manliness are never far away. They

can be explicit, as in Albert F. Mummery’s, whose positions correspond
perfectly to Victorian conceptions of manliness when he states that the
“pseudo-mountaineers” (i.e., the small ones) “nursed and coddled by
their guides” lose “all proper self-respect and (…) every feeling of self-­
reliant manliness” (Mummery, 1962, p. 357). He adds: “to toil up long
slopes of screes behind a guide who can ‘lie in bed and picture every step
of the way up, with all the places for hand and foot’, is work worthy of the
fibreless contents of fashionable clothes, dumped with all their scents and
ointments, starched linen and shiny boots, at Zermatt by the railway”
(Mummery, 1962, p. 327). In contrast, true mountaineering is a virile
activity that keeps those who practice it in the proper way (i.e. who put all
their ardour into the fight against the mountain) well away from any dan-
gerous drift towards femininity: “There is an educative and purifying
power in danger that is to be found in no other school, and it is worth
much for a man to know that he is not ‘clean gone to flesh pots and
effeminacy’”. Using the same opposition between the “pseudo” and the
“real” mountaineer, he questions the manliness of the former, who is inca-
pable of making the ascent on his own, reducing him to “a thing that
Swiss peasants push and squeeze on top of summits” (Mummery, 1962,
p. 351).
The way in which the distinction between “real” and “small” or
“pseudo” mountaineers (or even mere tourists) is made through the prism
of hegemonic masculinity is also apparent in the physical description of the
latter who, in addition to their superficial clothing mocked by Mummery,
are also depicted as fat or “heavy”. This physical characteristic is at once a
social marker (far from the slimness of good society), a sporting marker
(the fat tourist can only be inept in the mountains, incapable of endur-
ance), and a gendered marker (a real man is not heavy nor fat). Thus,
Leslie Stephen criticises women (“ladies in costume”) and “heavy German
professors” (Stephen, 1904, p. 328), a group that another member of the
Alpine Club, F.W. Bourdillon, later wrote about when he mocks the “stout
and Teutonic” tourists (Bourdillon, 1909, p. 149). Their corpulence is an
element that accentuates their ineptitude at the same time as their despi-
cable feminine element. Edward Whymper compares in turn the “stout
priest” on the Theodule pass, “carried down, a helpless bundle and a ridic-
ulous spectacle, on the back of a lanky guide”, and a group of young girls
with their governesses carried in turn by an exhausted mule (Whymper,
1871, p. 7). This image of tourists never disappeared and examples are
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 63

plenty. In the 1960s, famous Annapurna expedition member and guide

Lionel Terray (1921–1965) found it hard to “find good clients”—that is,
not “vulgar packages”—with whom he might do “real mountaineering”
(Terray, 1961, pp. 311–314). By his own count, over his entire career, he
had led clients on only one “very hard” ascent, sixty “hard” ones, and
seven hundred “easy” ones (Terray, 1961, 341). This image is still found
today in the words of some mountaineers and guides, the latter to empha-
sise (or deplore) the inaptitude of their clients. In the 1990s, Joe Simpson,
himself a hero of Himalayan exploits, “would stare at a client in difficulty
and find [him]self lost for words, wondering why, if [he] found it easy,
they couldn’t do it” (Simpson, 1994, pp. 158–159). The same tension
plays out in the narrative of Marc Batard, a French guide and “record
holder” on Everest, who vents his frustration at his need to “earn money”
leading him to be treated by useless clients like “a vulgar luxury product
that they treat themselves to for a weekend” (Batard, 2003, p. 113).
If the masculinity of tourists and small-scale climbers can be described,
using Raewyn Connell’s typology, as “subordinate” and “complicit” mas-
culinity, guides and Sherpas, however, often practice mountaineering at a
level superior to that of the amateur climbers, even excellent ones (who
still used to hire them). They must therefore fall into the category of mar-
ginalised masculinity. This can be defined as a dominant and manly mas-
culinity, which would be hegemonic if it were not carried by socially or
racially dominated individuals or groups. It is a powerful tool for thinking
about the ambiguous position of these adjuvant mountaineers who, for
the best of them, are tougher and more skilled than the latter. Before the
1880s, even the most ambitious of climbs could not be envisaged without
a guide. But just as there was a hierarchy of mountaineers, with those at
the top holding the highest standards of hegemonic masculinity, there was
a hierarchy of guides. Smaller guides were not given more consideration
than tourists or small climbers. The “first class” guides, on the other hand,
those whose services were hired by the best mountaineers from one year
to the next, were respected and admired. Their physical qualities, their
skill, and their sense of honour and duty were praised. Yet, guides were
rejected as being outside the realm of mountaineering excellence, and
therefore—and this is the argument we make in this text—outside the
hegemonic masculinity constitutive of the spirit of mountaineering.
Although they possessed the attributes of manliness, they were not part of
the social group that embodied both manliness and excellence in moun-
taineering: they were not gentlemen but farmers or craftsmen; they were
64 D. MORALDO

not amateurs but professionals, the ultimate offence for gentlemen who,
at the time, found it dishonourable to earn money from a practice that
ought to be disinterested (Moraldo, 2021). Therefore, just as a road
sweeper would never have been able to join the Alpine Club, were he the
best climber in the world—as S. Spencer famously explained to a young
applicant to the Alpine Club at the end of the nineteenth century (Smythe,
2015, p. 13)—guides were also not on the same level as (amateur) moun-
taineers—but regarded as socially subordinate. Guides suffered the same
prejudice as Black athletes who “may be exemplars for hegemonic mascu-
linity” but whose “fame and wealth (…) has no trickle-down effect” and
“does not yield social authority to black men generally” (Connell,
1995, p. 81).
Similarly, the masculinity of the Sherpas or porters employed in the
Himalayas can be seen as a “marginalised masculinity”. Like European
guides, Sherpas are often celebrated for their strength, stamina, their key
role in the success of the expedition, their sense of honour or good
humour, and moreover, they themselves see their relationship with climb-
ers as one of equality (Ortner, 1999). These characteristics allow them not
to be as completely “symbolically expelled from hegemonic masculinity”
as, for instance, tourists (in mountaineering) or (in other social scenes)
homosexuals (Connell, 1995, p. 78).
However, we should not consider that, in mountaineering, relations of
domination are only relations between masculinities: if “external hege-
mony” appears clearly in mountaineering and allows us to insist on the
mutual reinforcement of male and sporting dominations, an analysis in
terms of “internal hegemony” could give the impression that sporting
hierarchies—between elite and small mountaineers—are above all rela-
tions between masculinities. They are not only that, because, as I have
said, sporting, social, gendered, and even racial (especially when it comes
to Sherpas) criteria are intertwined in a complex way.

Hegemonic = Hegemonic? Expressions of Hegemonic

Masculinity as Context-Dependent
So far, I have insisted on the hegemonic masculinity of the early days of
mountaineering, to emphasise the genesis of a form of excellence.
However, like any ideology (Corbin et al., 2011) its expression varies his-
torically, depending on the modalities of practice and the symbolic place
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 65

of mountaineering in each era. In particular, the 1880s–1920s in Britain

and the 1950s–1970s in France seem to constitute singular moments dur-
ing which the conditions are met for the expression of a particularly asser-
tive form of hegemonic masculinity.
First, these are two moments of exploration of new mountain ranges.
An analysis of mountaineering narratives shows that these moments are
conducive to the expression of a particularly strong conquering rhetoric,
blending colonial domination and male domination. In the United
Kingdom, this occurred between the end of the nineteenth century and
the end of the 1920s, when the English left the Alps and explored new
massifs for the first time, in particular the Himalayas. It reached its peak
with the English’s very imperialistic attempts on Everest in the 1920s. The
forerunners of mountaineering in the Alps, and then in increasingly remote
massifs (the Caucasus, the Karakoram, the Himalayas, etc.), they also had
privileged access to the Himalayas, and to Everest, which remained their
preserve during the interwar period (by means of diplomatic authorisa-
tions issued by Tibet). Thus, the United Kingdom led no less than six
expeditions to Everest before the war, all of them failures. To cite just one
eloquent instance of this conquering rhetoric, one can simply look at the
titles of expeditions’ narratives: The Assault on Mount Everest 1922
(Hunt, 1923); The Fight for Everest 1924 (Norton, 1925); Kamet
Conquered (Smythe, 1932). Then, already in the 1930s, the titles began
to take on a less martial (but still very heroic) connotation: The Epic of
Mount Everest (Younghusband, 1934); Everest, the Unfinished Adventure
(Ruttledge, 1937). From the 1950s onwards, it seems to have disappeared
in favour of an emphasis on adventure (with the exception of Lowe’s film
about the ascent of Everest, The conquest of Everest (1953)): The Ascent
of Everest, 1953 (Hunt, 1953); Our Everest Adventure (Hunt, 1954);
South Col: One Man’s Adventure on the Ascent of Everest (Noyce, 1954);
Kangchenjunga, the Untrodden Peak (Evans, 1956); Annapurna South
Face (Bonington, 1971).
In France, the rhetoric of conquest appeared with the first Himalayan
attempt in 1936 and especially from 1950 onwards. The post-war period
ushered in a new phase for world mountaineering (Isserman & Weaver,
2008). India and Pakistan, previously under British authority, gained inde-
pendence, opening up access to the five 8000-metre peaks in Pakistan.
Tibet, home to the British route for their previous Everest attempts, was
closed to Westerners, but Nepal opened up and introduced a permit sys-
tem, thereby freeing up access to the country’s eight 8000-metre peaks,
66 D. MORALDO

including Everest from its south face. This unprecedented opening of the
Himalayan massif gave rise to fierce competition, in a geopolitical context
where rivalries were exacerbated. Michel Raspaud speaks in this regard of
a “heroic-nationalist” phase to designate the 1950–1964 period which
saw the ascent of the fourteen 8000s (Raspaud, 2003, p. 164). The style
of the expeditions reflects this state of mind and the parallel between
ascents and military operations is striking. The emphasis was on heavy,
expensive expeditions, with complex logistics, employing hundreds of
porters and several tonnes of equipment. The climbers were real heroes.
Looking at the titles of the French expedition narratives (translated by the
author, as only the Annapurna book and film have been translated in many
languages), one can see Annapurna, The First Conquest of an 8000 metre
Peak (Herzog, 1951), and the expedition film, Victory on the Annapurna
(Ichac, 1951); The Conquest of Salcantay, Giant of the Andes (Pierre,
1953); The Conquest of Fitz-Roy (Azéma, Terray, & Magnone, 1954);
Victory over Aconcagua (Poulet & Ferlet, 1955); Record in the Himalayas
(Lambert & Kogan, 1955); A Victory over the Himalayas (Pierre, 1960);
Battle for Jannu (Franco & Terray, 1977).
I have shown elsewhere (Moraldo, 2015) that the existence of this
heroic and particularly widespread form of hegemonic masculinity was
due to a combination of factors: to the exploration of new massifs was
added the action of mountaineering training institutions (this was particu-
larly the case for post-war France) but also the influence of the media.
Among them are mountaineering books for boys, such as Mes galons
d’alpiniste (Pierre, 1964); Un guide raconte (Rébuffat, 1964); Come
climbing with me (Clark, 1955); The True Book about Everest (Shipton,
1955); On Climbing (Evans, 1955); The Young Mountaineer (Unsworth,
1959); The Real Book of Mountaineering (McMorris, 1961); The Boy’s
Book of Mountains and Mountaineering (Pyatt, 1963), and so on. They
flourished in both countries following the Himalayan ascents, in the con-
text of developing outdoor education and mountaineering teaching
organisations. These books, because of their literary simplicity (they are
sometimes shortened editions of mountaineering classics), lend them-
selves particularly well to a narrative in the heroic mode. “Hegemonic
masculinity is naturalised in the form of the hero and presented through
forms that revolve around heroes: sagas, ballads, westerns, thrillers”
(Connell, 1983, p. 186). As such, these books can be seen as vectors for
the dissemination of the heroic model outside the immediate field of
mountaineering. This seems to have had an effect, as the elite
 4 “THERE IS NO MANLIER SPORT IN THE WORLD”. HOW HEGEMONIC… 67

mountaineers of the following generations cite these books as being

among the narratives that sparked their interest in mountaineering as chil-
dren or teenagers. The boys’ books are very clearly geared towards a male
readership. In several of them, the great heroes of mountaineering are
used as role models, mentoring fictional young boys with whom the target
audience can identify. These spectacular illustrations show only men—and
no female climbers whatsoever. The emphasis is on the most heroic epi-
sodes in the history of mountaineering (starting with the ascent of
Everest), systematically simplified to the detriment of the secondary pro-
tagonists. Thus, in Unsworth’s account of the ascent of Annapurna, only
Herzog, “the leader”, reaches the summit. The heroic rhetoric of moun-
taineering and combat is omnipresent. Unsworth closes his book with
Hillary’s supposed comment on his descent from Everest: “Well, George,
we knocked the blighter off” (Unsworth, 1959).

Conclusion
Three questions were raised in this article.

(1) Firstly, how does the equation “excellence = masculine” come

about? The spirit of mountaineering was built on a triple distinc-
tion, sporting, social, and gendered, at the heart of which is the
manliness of the Victorian gentlemen. This form of hegemonic
masculinity was to endure thereafter.
(2) Secondly, what does hegemonic masculinity “do” to mountaineer-
ing? It creates a hierarchy between men and women and a hierar-
chy between certain men (elite climbers) and other men (tourists,
small climbers, guides, and Sherpas).
(3) What context(s) are conducive to the expression of hegemonic
masculinity in mountaineering? Periods of conquest of new moun-
tains are times of heroisation of (male) mountaineers and height-
ened expression of hegemonic masculinity.

Mountaineering as a sociological object, when approached from a gen-

der perspective, tends merely to deal with the positions of women moun-
taineers within this pre-eminently masculine practice. Although crucial,
this must not obliviate other dimensions of gender. At first glance, moun-
taineering as a sport might seem too male-dominated for masculinity to be
a relevant object of study. This article has argued otherwise. Indeed,
68 D. MORALDO

masculinity in mountaineering is not monolithic. The concept of hege-

monic masculinity, in particular, allows the sociologist to understand that
men do not all occupy the same position in mountaineering. The more
visible hierarchies between men and women run parallel to subtle—but no
less significant—hierarchies between groups of men, hierarchies that are
all the more complex that, just as those between men and women, they
reconfigure themselves over time.

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 PART II

Transforming Experience:
Intersectionality in Mountain
Spaces and Places
 CHAPTER 5

Reflexive Duoethnography: A Dialogic

Exploration of Disability and Participation
in Outdoor Adventure Activities
and a Mountain Climber Academic

T. A. Loeffler and Kim White

Basecamp
TA: After eight years of sharing the outdoors together as friends and co-­
researchers, Kim and I embarked on our second duoethnographic reflex-
ive process (Loeffler & White, 2022). The result is a dialogic exploration
between a woman with a disability seeking to participate in outdoor activi-
ties and that of a mountain climber academic helping to facilitate these
experiences. In this duoethnography, we discuss mountaineering both lit-
eral and figurative through the lens of equitable and inclusive access to

T. A. Loeffler (*)
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada
e-mail: taloeffler@mun.ca
K. White
Community Centre Alliance, St. John’s, NL, Canada

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 73

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_5
74 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

mountains and outdoor spaces. Layered over this discussion are the com-
plex terrains of abilities, bodies, risks, and joys.
Kim: Specifically, we share narratives of the sexism and ableism that we
have experienced in our life journeys towards access and summits. We aim,
as Wheeler (2013) suggests, to create “even more complex knowledge
[that] results from negotiating multiple minority identities at the same
time. Multiple consciousnesses can inspire multivoiced discourses within
one narrative” (p. 554). As is the process of duoethnography, we weave
our life histories together with an exploration of relevant literature from
the fields of outdoor recreation, gender, disability, and mountain studies
to find and make meaning in how our mountainous journeys are both
similar and different.
TA: Given Dupuis’ general call for reflexive research methodologies
(1999), as well as Howe (2009), suggesting there is a great need for the
“use of reflexive ethnography in leisure spaces” (p. 489), we set out to
understand how mountainous spaces welcome or spurn the participation
of people with disabilities and women and other equity-seeking groups.
We chose duoethnography as the foundation for this writing because it
centres critical reflection in and on our life stories by examining specific
events, within these stories, that have shaped who we were, who we are,
and who we may become (Norris et al., 2017).
Kim: We note that, although the inclusion of women and people with
disabilities into outdoor spaces has progressed significantly, there are still
many mountains to climb until full inclusion is reached (Crosbie, 2018;
Gray & Mitten, 2018; Ross, 2001). A relatively new method, duoethnog-
raphy is a polyvocal and dialogic form of inquiry emerging from a recipro-
cal process of interrogating the life stories of two individuals of difference
(Breault, 2016; Norris & Sawyer, 2017).
TA: In reporting our insights, we position our voices in juxtaposition
throughout the chapter, as if we were swinging leads on a climbing pitch
with each of us sharing equal time at the sharp end of the rope. This col-
laboration yields “multiple understandings” (Norris & Sawyer, 2012,
p. 9) of the mountains we each climb—both literally and figuratively—
which we explore in this chapter (Clare, 2015).
Kim: To assist the reader in having a context from which to read our
exchanges, we now introduce ourselves to you. Learning that I, as a per-
son with a disability, was at a greater risk of the serious health problems
associated with physical inactivity, I wanted to be proactive in maintaining
my health (Rimmer et al., 2012). Living with a disability since age three
 5 REFLEXIVE DUOETHNOGRAPHY: A DIALOGIC EXPLORATION… 75

and using braces and crutches to facilitate my locomotion, I knew that my

mobility capacity would likely change as I aged. In 2013, I began to
explore new ways to be both active and outdoors. Amid learning to navi-
gate a local gravel trail by adopting the use of my previously unused wheel-
chair, I accepted your invitation to explore the East Coast Trail using the
TrailRider®.1 In hindsight, I think we both see that memorable day on the
East Coast Trail, as both our first shared outdoor adventure, as well as the
pivotal moment that ultimately propelled us into exploring themes of
“ableism and hopes of access” as we traversed that and many other trails
together (Johnson & Hineman, 2019, p. 65). For me, it was an intense
time of exploring using wheels to negotiate both inner and outer spaces.
Winance (2019) so aptly summed it as a double transformation whereby
using various wheeled chairs provided a means to gain new awareness of
my body while discovering new and different abilities.
TA: In my province, I am widely known as the “professor who climbs
mountains” because of my community-engaged mountaineering (and
other) expeditions. I’m an outdoor generalist who is decently skilled at
many outdoor pursuits but an expert in none. I conduct research and
teach in outdoor recreation and physical education with a focus on diver-
sity and inclusion at a university in Canada. For this paper, I identify as
White, woman, lesbian, and upper middle class. I am middle-aged and
constantly negotiating with a changing body that creaks and hurts one
moment and moves freely the next. Wendell (1996) summed up this state
of bodily flux so aptly, “We are all disabled eventually. Most of us will live
part of our lives with bodies that hurt, that move with difficulty or not at
all, that deprives us of activities we once took for granted or that others
take for granted, bodies that make daily life a physical struggle” (p. 263).
Kim: I am currently the Executive Director of a community centre
located in a social housing neighbourhood in the capital city of
Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The centre provides a wide variety
of programmes and services for the neighbourhood’s residents focused on
social, recreation, health, education, and employment. I identify as a
White, middle-class, heterosexual female who lives with a mobility
disability. For most of my life, I have been an observer on the sidelines of
outdoor activities—due to my mobility disability and my attitude towards

1
The TrailRider® is a singled-wheeled outdoor access device that provides an option for a
person with a disability, with group assistance, to ride over inaccessible terrain and trails to
wild or remote places (Goodwin et al., 2009).
76 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

it. Ageing with a disability and watching my capacity for mobility start to
shift, I was eager to become more active. I struggled to figure out how to
do that and connecting with TA opened a world of possibilities to explore.
Being an educator by training and an advocate by accident because of my
career in community-based work, I saw the impending journey as not just
a way to help me age better but to help open minds and animate action.

Camp One
TA: I started my path to becoming a mountaineer as a child with a love of
heights. Early family pictures capture me sitting on a roof beside my dad
at the age of one, ascending ladders at four, climbing trees at six, and
jumping off the garage by the age of ten. My father taught me skills to
manage the risks of playing at heights, around water, and in the woods.
Given what is now the privilege of a “free-range” childhood, I roamed and
ranged widely from the forest floor to the tops of mountain ski resorts
(Fenton, 2012; Mikkelsen & Stilling Blichfeldt, 2015) developing both
physical literacy and confidence in my ability to navigate both wild and
urban spaces. My love of outside adventure was further shaped by partici-
pating in my high school’s outdoor pursuits club. Run by Mr Hamilton,
our mountaineering English teacher of British heritage, club members
took excursions to the Alberta Rocky Mountains twice a semester to learn
rock-climbing and mountaineering skills.
Kim: I have never physically climbed a mountain. For me, the biggest
mountain and likely because I’m a teacher at heart is wanting people to
learn about what disability is and what inclusion is beyond disability. The
older I get, the more death and disability fall away from my thinking.
Inclusion becomes more about seeing the humanity in each person. Like
Wheeler (2013), I want “Stories that don’t replicate stereotypes. Respect
for all landscapes and all bodies” (p. 573). If we, individually and collec-
tively as a society, could let all the incorrect and limiting stories we hold
about disability fall away, that would be my summit.
TA: While I was first learning to climb, Laurie Skreslet and Sharon
Wood became the first Canadians to summit Mount Everest, rendering
them heroes in my mind. I stood atop my first mountain, Mt. Utopia, on
a crisp autumn morning while the club’s Thanksgiving turkey cooked in a
firepit below. The club’s weave of skill development, outdoor adventure,
and community planted a deep desire for high peaks that would not truly
emerge until three decades had passed. After that first climb, I read what
 5 REFLEXIVE DUOETHNOGRAPHY: A DIALOGIC EXPLORATION… 77

Ortner (2020, p. 228) described as “one of the most extraordinary moun-

taineering books ever written,” Annapurna: A woman’s Place by Arlene
Blum (2015). That ground-breaking book showed me at the beginning of
my climbing life, that it was possible for women to reach the highest peaks
while also showing me that the route to those summits was fraught with
sexism, colonialism, and racism (Rak, 2007).
Kim: I can only assume from reading your book, More than a Mountain:
One Woman’s Everest (Loeffler, 2008), that there is a process to climbing
mountains that includes making ground and then slipping back, move-
ment upward and forward with a continuous risk of falling back or off
with the frequent risk of harm or death (Pereira, 2005). Having lived with
a disability for 50 years, my journey is much the same. Seeing the budding
hope that progress is being made towards an inclusive and accessible soci-
ety, and then seeing that dream slip away amid failures of leadership,
poorly designed civic infrastructure, and attitudes that are slower than
glaciers to change (Gaete-Reyes, 2015). This slow rate of change likely
means that I won’t see my summit happening in my lifetime.

Camp Two
TA: My mountain and professional life has been dominated by men and
hegemonic masculinity (Frohlick, 1999; Kennedy & Russell, 2021;
Ortner, 2020). In the male heroism culture of the brotherhood of the
rope, I have never been tall enough, fast enough, or skilled enough in my
own and others’ eyes (Doran et al., 2020; Rak, 2007; Rébuffat, 1999). I
remember, in an early mountaineering course, being on a rope-team with
my instructor and male peers. I was essentially being dragged uphill at an
unsustainable pace. I was getting sweaty, tripping over the rope, and basi-
cally hating being there. My glacier glasses were fogging due to my over-
exertion and the instructor yelled at me to “get your shit together.” There
was no coaching on how to do this nor any adjustment of the team speed.
This was the first of many experiences of being treated as lesser or physi-
cally inadequate in the mountains (and in the outdoors in general).
Kim: This reminds me of times when I have been out wheeling in my
neighbourhood and random strangers coming up behind me assuming I
need their help. Their unthinking reaction—that I can’t possibly traverse
these hills without them (even though I do every day without them)—is
cause for great harm in that it labels me as “disabled.” They fail to see my
body as able—(as I do), and they often also refuse to hear that I do not
78 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

need their assistance in that moment. They often do not take “No” as my
answer and proceed to push my wheelchair without my consent. These
acts of unwelcome “rescue” are an assault on both my autonomy and
competence. I am so weary of others perceiving me as physically inade-
quate and therefore, dependent. I must deal with the fallout of their unex-
amined actions while they (likely) continue merrily on their way. As
Wheeler (2013) suggests, they were thinking about me through the lens
of their able body, and thus made inaccurate assumptions about my abili-
ties. This results in me, as a wheelchair user, being treated by others as
lesser, invisible, or as a non-person (Gaete-Reyes, 2015).
TA: I remember on my mountain search and rescue course that my
male peers would very quickly take the carabiners out of our (the women
on the course) hands if we showed the slightest bit of hesitation or uncer-
tainty while setting up a lowering system. Rather than pause or wait to be
asked, they would swoop in and monopolize the training time. As a result,
at the end of those long training days, I practised privately at home by set-
ting up hauling systems to move the chairs around the kitchen until late
each night. As is the case in many fields for women, I saw that my technical
skills needed to be greater than my male peers to be considered merely
adequate (Warren et al., 2018). Rak (2007) summed it up this way,
“Gender forms both the background and the situation of each climbing
encounter” (p. 133).
Kim: Being constantly watched, measured, and evaluated while going
about my ordinary life is exhausting—especially if in the evaluator’s eyes,
I come up inadequate (Gaete-Reyes, 2015). When you and I traverse the
trails together, people we pass seem to have no filters in what they say to
us. Either they are totally surprised that I am outside and give all the credit
to you for me being there or they assume that I am somehow superhuman
and inspiring. They do not see that the best response would be, “It’s a
lovely day out, isn’t it?” rather than placing me (once again without my
consent) on a continuum as either unable or an Everest summiteer
(Clare, 2015).
Similarly, Grue (2016) and Warren (1985), decades apart, recognized
the hazards of representing the presence of PwD (people with disabili-
ties) and women in the outdoors as extraordinary or because of individual
prowess rather than ordinary and expected. Warren (1985, p. 13) identi-
fied this dynamic as the “Myth of the Superwoman,” while Grue (2016,
p. 840) problematized it as “inspiration porn.” As Wheeler (2013) so
aptly stated, “Mountains and disabled people have something in common:
 5 REFLEXIVE DUOETHNOGRAPHY: A DIALOGIC EXPLORATION… 79

they both get stereotyped as inspirational” (p. 553). I remember many

times when I was outside or going to the shopping mall and just having to
leave because I couldn’t stand to be there, having people stare at me, say-
ing to myself, “I just have to go home out of this.” These avalanches of
misjudgement bury me so often when I dare enter these inequitable spaces
that I might paraphrase the quotation that you used from Rak (2007)
above, ableism forms both the background and the situation of every
encounter I have outside my home.
TA: I can understand the burden of being constantly monitored. On
my first Everest expedition in 2007, the expedition leader kept a publicly
posted record of climbing times through the Khumbu icefall with a “line
of shame” drawn across an arbitrary pace line demarking fine and too slow.
All the women’s times on this expedition were below this line and this
process of public humiliation undermined our confidence, though many
persevered and went on to summit. That experience left with me a “heavier
backpack” because on subsequent expeditions, I was constantly distracted
by the cognitive burden of wrestling with the fear of being labelled “not
fast enough” although I had a multitude of summits on my resumé. As a
result, before my next Everest expedition, I spent hours perfecting my
technical skills to shave time from my laps through the Khumbu Icefall
since I seemed to already have maximized what my physiology could do
(and I could not bear to be found “lacking” again). Similarly, Doran et al.
(2020) found that many women mountaineers focused on intensive skill
and physical fitness training to negotiate the complex terrain that exists at
the collision of gender, ability, physiology, landscape, and sense of compe-
tence (Chisholm, 2008; Warren & Loeffler, 2006).

Camp Three
Kim: One of the most complex terrains I traverse comes with the need to
maximize the mobilities and abilities I do have, to negate those I don’t.
This drive to be as independent as possible has also created a dynamic of
never wanting to inconvenience others when I might need some assistance
in surmounting an obstacle or merely getting in the door. When I was in
high school, I wanted to participate in the strength-training club at my
high school. The training facility was in an old storage area behind the
stage in the gymnasium. It required climbing a ladder to enter. My teach-
ers would carry me up the ladder to gain access to the training equipment.
I was willing, at that juncture in my life, to put up with the indignity of
80 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

being carried in exchange for the benefits of the experience; however, that
willingness passed with adulthood, expectation of access, and valuing my
bodily autonomy. Sometimes, I make the choice to stay home rather than
ask someone for assistance, thus inconveniencing them.
TA: I am reminded of how many decisions on mountains I’ve made not
to “inconvenience” other team members or expedition leaders—with me
calling a climb off earlier than perhaps I should have—to not cause diffi-
culties or commotion. In reflection on many such climbs, I see how much
I have given up by making these choices, when many of my male team-
mates have not—they have most often kept climbing until they literally
could not and requiring a much larger effort to get them down. I lost a
summit on Mount Blanc because a male teammate didn’t call off his sum-
mit when feeling poorly lower on the mountain. Had he called his summit
bid off earlier, different arrangements could have been made for his safe
descent which didn’t compromise the summit for the rest of us. Bottom
line—a teammate’s health and safety are always more important than the
summit, but I see a pattern of who sacrifices their personal ambitions for
the group. It is certainly not wrong to look at the overall logistical picture
of an expedition and make a decision that eases egress for all, but I wonder
how gender influences these decisions and how often women are gaslit by
expedition leaders to pull the plug on their participation early.
Kim: This is a very strong theme for my “climbs” as well. I am always
traversing the sharp binary ridge that pits independence against depen-
dence where one is seen as good or strength, and the other as bad or weak-
ness (Kerr & Meyerson, 1987). So, for the times I retreat from a situation
where I might require assistance, it is not just for the sake of inconvenienc-
ing others per say, but instead, it’s an attempt to prevent others from put-
ting that lens or focus on disability once more. That lens is ableism.
Callanan (2022) defines ableism as “discrimination against disabled peo-
ple; the notion that disabled people are of less value than non-disabled
people, and that disability is fundamentally burdensome, tragic, and unde-
sirable (and, by extension, so are disable people).” I climb every day to
undo the detrimental personal, social, and societal effects of this wedding
of burden to impairment and the unrelenting dis/ability that results from
it (Goodley, 2013).
TA: Ortner (2020), studying Everest climbers, found that women
often had to navigate similar terrain of being absolutely categorized as less
serious, skilled, or strong by the men they were climbing with. In moun-
taineering and outdoor adventure, there is a similar enforced binary in
 5 REFLEXIVE DUOETHNOGRAPHY: A DIALOGIC EXPLORATION… 81

terms of gender association and respect afforded, through the unrelenting

use of the terms hard and soft. Referring to both technical skills and climb
difficulty, “hard” is vernacular shorthand for high-risk terrain, requiring
advanced rope system skills, remote, independent participation, and male
whereby “soft” is verbal stand-in for low risk, communication and group
skills, dependent participation, and female (Doran et al., 2020; Warren &
Loeffler, 2006). While climbing in Nepal, male teammates and climbing
Sherpas ask repeatedly to take weight or carry my entire backpack. I most
often decline these frequent invitations because giving up my backpack
reduces my independence and typically signals weakness to others in a
mountain culture that values stoic masculinity and being self-sufficient
above all.

Camp Four
Kim: What we are exploring here is truly at the confluence of disability
and gender—examining how our various identities intersect as well as how
our experiences of difference and marginality are both similar and contra-
dictory. In your discussion above, I am reminded of Garland-Thompson
(2005) noting that disability and gender are often woven together with
women with disabilities being categorized as subordinate, unfit, lacking,
or incapable—in other words, soft. Examining how we climb through this
intersecting space of feminist and critical disability studies, we like Garland-­
Thompson (2005) seek new ways to describe our lofty view “because pre-
vailing narratives constrict disability’s complexities, they not only restrict
the lives and govern the bodies of people we think of as disabled, but they
limit the imaginations of those who think of themselves as non-disabled”
(p. 1567).
TA: In our work together, it has been so important to both examine
and re-imagine the narratives we tell ourselves, that we tell others, and that
others tell about us so that we can tear down attitudinal and societal bar-
riers while simultaneously climbing above them (Garland-Thompson,
2005; Goodley, 2013). We have learned to dwell in what Goodwin et al.
(2009) identified as “interdependence” (p. 51) layered on our shared
interest in outdoor adventure, rather than a typical narrative of depen-
dence. This learning has not been linear, but rather a “spiral of trust”
(Norris & Sawyer, 2012, p. 24), woven on an intentional warp of physical
discomfort and risk crossed by a weft of emotional discomfort and dialogic
risk. From our first outdoor excursion onwards, it has been critical that
82 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

each of us, as well as for the community of access members surrounding

us, that each person have a valued place and role in our shared adventures
(Loeffler & White, 2022).
Kim: Risk has been a critical topic for us. It was a mountainous risk for
me to give up my independence and autonomy to ride in the TrailRider®
and will likely stand out as one of the psychologically hardest things that I
will have done in my lifetime. Knowing that my disability would be obvi-
ous and visible to the group, I decided to use humour to diffuse the emo-
tional risk by bringing a “Princess on Board” sign for the TrailRider® and
by wearing a tiara. This helped change the narrative for me and the group
seemed quite willing to play along with this act of revisionist theatre. At
that point, I didn’t know you well, but I knew you were an experienced
outdoor instructor, and you would likely be a thoughtful leader as well.
TA: It was a potent day for the entire group, me included. As we made
our collective way to Torbay Point traversing both primitive trails and
rocky outcrops, I could see the power and value of co-creating this adven-
ture where risk and trust ceased to be in binary, instead soaring like the
eagle we saw in concentric and layered circles. Bell (2019) offers a succinct
summary of that day, “Shared experiences with people who appreciate the
dignity of risk often enhance such opportunities, offering valued compan-
ionship, cultivating the skills and competencies required to explore a
mountain, cave or rock face, or simply offering support, and encourage-
ment” (p. 317). Taking well-considered risks is a fundamental way I learn,
grow, and climb but I’ve come to understand that you and many PwD
were often prevented by your families or outdoor programmes from expe-
riencing true risk. Rather, those close to you labelled the outdoors as “a
very ‘risky place’” and wanted to keep you safely at home indoors or you
found that outdoor programmes only offered you watered-down, risk-­
sanitized experiences (Burns et al., 2013, p. 1065).
Kim: During our first climbing excursion, the concept of dignity of risk
came into clearer focus for me as I both climbed the wall and then belayed
your climb. As I pushed beyond the protective cocoon that I had been
raised in, I saw how the prevention of risk had eroded my dignity and
contributed to my further othering as a PwD (Marsh & Kelly, 2018).
Leaving the ground and handling the rope gave me the impetus to explore
my capacities and capabilities in new ways. Similarly, when we went ziplin-
ing together, I saw that you and the ziplining guides seemed to have a
greater tolerance and appreciation of the value of risk for personal growth
and capacity building. I agree with Goodwin et al. (2009) that PwD need
 5 REFLEXIVE DUOETHNOGRAPHY: A DIALOGIC EXPLORATION… 83

more opportunities for risk in recreational outdoor programmes because

it doesn’t exist for us in many other places.
TA: I think there has been a similar dynamic in mountaineering where
women are sometimes protected more from risk, and at the same time, are
expected to risk less, especially if they are mothers. I remember when
Alison Hargreaves died in 1995 while climbing K2. Her memory and tre-
mendous mountaineering accomplishments were lashed with intense criti-
cism for daring to take risks in the mountains rather than staying home
mothering her young children (Gilchrist, 2007; Summers, 2007). I was
angered that her death in the mountains received much more scrutiny
than her climbing skill and prowess and that she was frequently portrayed
as a ‘bad mother.’ It is only in recent years, that mountaineering and
climbing fathers have begun to publicly wrestle with the double dilemma
of leaving home and family to indulge in far-away risky pursuits on moun-
tains and crags (Osborne, 2021).
Kim: I experienced something similar when I chose to become a
mother with many healthcare workers questioning my decision and plac-
ing my ability to care for my daughter under intense scrutiny as well.
Mothers with disabilities face extreme stigma, invisibility, and pressure to
demonstrate that they can be ‘good mothers’ (Grue & Laerum, 2002).
Additionally, I see a connection in the navigation of risk, autonomy, and
caretaking that climbing parents do, being akin to PwD sorting through
risk with their families. Without careful thought and intention, it can be
easy to deny PwD autonomy and choice over much of their lives—let
alone, outdoor adventure. It was a pivotal moment when you offered to
climb while I belayed you. In many ways, this gesture flipped much of this
risk calculus on its head, and I was the one responsible for managing the
risk of you being high on the wall. Belaying gave me a true share in our
climbing experience while fostering a much deeper sense of achievement
and empowerment that wouldn’t be as rich if I’d only climbed (Doran
et al., 2020).

Summit Bid
TA: In belaying, you experienced one of the two sharp ends of the rope.
Belaying is an embodied experience of caring for both the rope and the
climber attached to it—essentially feeling both the weight of taking
responsibility for another through the belaying process and the bond that
comes from that—in our case, the sisterhood of the rope (Dilley & Scraton,
84 T. A. LOEFFLER AND K. WHITE

2010). The other sharp end is when a climber progresses the rope up the
climb or mountain in the lead which can entail a greater level of risk than
for those who follow. Here on the NE Avalon, I see you taking the other
end of the rope and leading the way for others with disabilities into the
outdoors.
Kim: I can see that connection. Before I took that first roll around
Quidi Vidi Lake, I didn’t have access to an “expedition leader” to assist
me in getting outside nor had I seen many outdoor PwD role models.
Fortunately, I accepted your invitation to go out in the Trailrider because
that day has led to so many joys and benefits for me.
TA: And for me and our community too! We had no idea where that
first journey outdoors together would take us—looking back, I see so
many peaks and summits, as well as a few inevitable deep valleys along the
way. I am grateful to my feminist outdoor leadership mentors for equip-
ping me with knowledge, practices, and ideals for creating inclusive out-
door experiences (Mitten, 1992; Warren et al., 2014). I drew on their and
your expertise so often as I sought to increase access to the outdoors for
you and others.
Kim: I don’t physically climb mountains but there is an analogous
physicality to my outdoor pursuits and adaptive dance practices. When
you are climbing your mountains or I am climbing mine, we must seek out
our kindred spirits. We must continue to find open and accepting spaces
for ourselves and create them for others—on both literal and metaphorical
mountains. As your niece Rayne so aptly said when you got back from
your first Everest attempt, “Maybe next time I’ll paint the mountain
shorter for you.” We will continue to make the mountains shorter for oth-
ers by our very presence in the outdoors as well as fighting ableism and
sexism (and other intersecting oppressions) in our time out there together.

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 CHAPTER 6

“The whole trip I basically had to hide”:

A Goffmanian Analysis of Erin Parisi
and Negotiating the Gendered
Mountaineering Space

Thomas M. Leeder, Kate Russell, Lee C. Beaumont,

and Lois Ferguson

Introduction: Who Is Erin Parisi?

Erin Parisi has been involved in outdoor and adventurous sports (e.g.,
climbing, hiking, snowsports, mountain biking) for most of her adult life
and is attempting to become the first trans*1 person to ascend the Seven
Summits (see https://www.transending7.org/). To date, Erin has climbed:
Elbrus (Europe); Kosciuszko (mainland Australia); Aconcagua (South

1
Stealth refers to Erin deliberately concealing her trans* status.

T. M. Leeder (*) • K. Russell • L. C. Beaumont • L. Ferguson

University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
e-mail: tom.leeder@uea.ac.uk; Kate.russell@uea.ac.uk; Lee.beaumont@uea.ac.uk;
Lois.ferguson@uea.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 89

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_6
90 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

America); Kilimanjaro (Africa); and Vinson Massif (Antarctica). She intends

to complete the final two summits, Denali (North America) and Everest
(Asia), over the next few years. Erin presents herself as having always been
in ‘transition’ but commenced her physical and medical transition at 38 years
old (she is now in her mid-40s). Erin uses the pronouns she/her/hers.

Outdoor and Adventurous Sports:

A Gendered Space?
Within outdoor spaces, participation in adventure activities is shaped by
masculine ideals (Frohlick, 2005), exhibiting a range of gender inequali-
ties which represent strong ideals of hegemonic masculinity (Warren,
2016). Research indicates additional risks exist for women and girls around
misogyny and sexual harassment when participating in such activities
(Davies et al., 2019). Mountain climbing has long been dominated by
men due to persisting stereotypes of femininity as weakness, which chal-
lenges the proposed characteristics required to succeed in outdoor sports
(Davis, 2007). Furthermore, Wigglesworth (2021) highlights the exclu-
sive nature of many climbing routes which often have misogynistic, racist,
homophobic, transphobic, or ableist names.
Activities such as mountaineering are traditionally positioned as gen-
dered pursuits, with women (as both leaders and participants) needing to
work hard to ‘earn the right to climb’ within this social context (Kennedy
& Russell, 2021; Rogers & Rose, 2019; Russell et al., 2022; Tulle, 2022;
Warren, 2016). Indeed, research by Bell et al. (2018) has demonstrated
how outdoor spaces, such as within mountaineering, are gendered through
normalised expectations regarding perceived competency, strength, safety,
and knowledge of equipment. Nonetheless, while we are beginning to
understand some of the issues that women face in accessing and participat-
ing in outdoor activities, such as mountaineering, little is known about
how those with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning,
and sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQ+) identities come to experience
these spaces, and the challenges they must negotiate within this “trou-
bling terrain” (Bell et al., 2018, p. 199).

Trans* Experiences in Mountaineering and Outdoor Adventure

The term trans* has been adopted within this chapter as a way of repre-
senting the broad range of experiences and the diversity of gender
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 91

identities within this community (Tompkins, 2014). The asterisk opens

the term up to a wider range of meanings and is intentionally ambiguous
to reflect this multiplicity (Catalano, 2015). While we focus on Erin’s
story and acknowledge that her experiences are situated within the gender
binary, the term trans* encompasses any individual who identifies differ-
ently to the sex assigned at birth and the asterisk could be viewed as a
“textual disruption”, encouraging readers to reflect upon this diversity
(Nicolazzo, 2021, p. 532). We also wanted to avoid often-conflated expe-
riences of trans* individuals within broader lesbian, gay, and bisexual
(LGB) communities (Lucas-Carr & Krane, 2011), by focusing solely on
Erin’s story.
Trans* identities challenge the ‘naturalness’ of the gender binary and
disrupt the notion of a fixed and innate gender identity (McPhail, 2004).
Therefore, many of the gendered practices and assumptions that are
embedded within outdoor and adventure settings can also impact on the
experiences of those who identify within the trans* umbrella. Mitten
(2012) argues that both trans* identifying and gender non-conforming
young people would benefit from attending mainstream camps, as the
camps themselves are inclusive spaces and provide opportunities to explore
identity and the outdoor space safely. While the argument is powerful and
hopeful for the inclusion of gender and sexual diversity within a wider
community as a key aspect of social justice forms of education, others
report greater challenges. Warren et al. (2018) highlight barriers to trans-
gender and gender variant outdoor leaders’ participation due to sleeping
and bathroom arrangements that typically align with heteronormative
assumptions that reinforce the gender binary. Trans* participants can be
forced to avoid or carefully navigate these settings to reduce the risk of
gender expression harassment. While those with gender-conforming
expressions may be able to go stealth and hide their trans* status to gain
access to these spaces, the same cannot be said of non-conforming expres-
sions, highlighting an additional tension for these individuals. Accounts
from transgender and non-binary climbers demonstrate additional hostili-
ties faced by this group: constant misgendering, concerns over being
outed in unsafe spaces, and a lack of inclusive opportunities to compete
(Ellison, 2019; Schneider, 2020). Kennedy and Russell (2021) suggest
that a disruption of hegemonic masculinity within outdoor education is
required to create “conditions for more diverse gender performances”
(p. 1). While the focus in Kennedy and Russell’s work is outdoor
92 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

education, we would argue that this context is reflective of mountaineer-

ing and outdoor adventure more broadly.
Consequently, as part of a wider research project (see Russell et al.,
2022), this chapter critically analyses Erin Parisi’s experiences of the gen-
dered mountaineering space, interpreting her story using Erving
Goffman’s (1959, 1963, 1979) concepts of impression management,
stigma, and gender displays. While existing research has drawn upon
Goffmanian concepts to interpret trans* experiences within diverse social
contexts (e.g., Johnston, 2016; Wight, 2011), limited scholarly work has
applied this theoretical lens to explore trans* identities within mountain-
eering and outdoor spaces. While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to
fully delve into Goffman’s dramaturgical approach to understanding social
life, his concepts focus on a theatrical-based analogy, explaining how stig-
matised individuals engage in staged performances to manage the impres-
sions of others within social situations (the audience). Thus, the utility of
a Goffmanian approach lies in its ability to understand how and why indi-
viduals (e.g., Erin) might engage in both gender displays and transgender
performativity (Wight, 2011), to manage the impressions of others within
outdoor spaces (e.g., mountaineering).

Methodology: Procedure and Data Collection

Following a series of email exchanges and online meetings discussing the
logistics of the collaboration, Erin agreed to take part in the research, with
the broad aim of the project focusing on presenting Erin’s experiences,
perceptions, and journey to date, to help challenge and change the trans*
narrative (see Russell et al., 2022).
After obtaining institutional ethical approval, over a one-month period
three semi-structured interviews using the videoconferencing system
Zoom were conducted by the second author, lasting a total of 265 min-
utes. All interviews were audio recorded via Zoom, before being tran-
scribed verbatim. While Zoom interviews were a necessity due to the
geographical distance between Erin and the research team, the online
nature offered several benefits. For example, ease and flexibility of sched-
uling, greater participant control, ease of data capture, in addition to pro-
viding a more comfortable and empowering experience for Erin (see
Archibald et al., 2019; Oliffe et al., 2021). At the end of the third and final
interview, Erin began to touch upon the notion of rapport and trust which
had been developed throughout the interview process:
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 93

I think in those few calls we have built some rapport and, you know, I’ve
never granted anyone the amount of time that you’ve gotten … again I trust
you … I hope it comes out as a helpful thing when it gets read. (Interview 3)

Topic areas discussed within the interviews were initiated by the second
author, but also led primarily by Erin and the experiences she wanted to
share. Thus, while an interview guide was developed, the semi-structured
nature of the interviews allowed the conversations to digress. Nonetheless,
topics such as Erin’s experiences of mountaineering both before and after
her transition, the role of gender when climbing, alongside the develop-
ment of the TranSending7 project and changing the trans* narrative were
addressed across the three interviews.

Data Analysis
Interview transcripts were subject to a reflexive thematic analysis process
(Braun & Clarke, 2022), where the research team engaged with the itera-
tive stages of dataset familiarisation; data coding; initial theme generation;
theme development and review; theme refining, defining, and naming;
and eventually writing up. Having read and re-read all transcripts through
a process of immersion, codes were assigned to meaningful data extracts
related to the project’s aims, at both a semantic and latent level. The
research team engaged in collaborative coding to “enhance understand-
ing, interpretation and reflexivity, rather than to reach a consensus” (Braun
& Clarke, 2022, p. 8), with each member acting as a critical friend (Smith
& McGannon, 2018).
The analytical process of coding and initial theme generation involved
an abductive orientation to data, where coding incorporated an inductive
(data-driven) and deductive (theory-driven) approach, enabling the data-
set to function as the starting point for meaning, while using existing the-
oretical concepts (e.g., Goffman) as a lens to interpret the data (Braun &
Clarke, 2022). Having developed and reviewed candidate themes, these
were refined to ensure a coherent narrative was present, before weaving
together analytical commentary and data extracts within the writing pro-
cess (Braun & Clarke, 2022). Prior to data analysis, all interview tran-
scripts were shared with Erin as a form of member reflection to generate
initial commentary (Smith & McGannon, 2018).
94 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

Results and Discussion

As a result of the reflexive thematic analysis process, two themes were
developed: (1) Going stealth: Defensive practices and maintaining invisi-
bility and (2) Becoming a speaker: The gendered mountaineering space.
Within this section, data extracts from the interviews conducted with Erin
are supplemented with an analytical commentary informed by Goffman’s
(1959, 1963, 1979) theorisation on impression management, stigma, and
gender displays. We use the term ‘trans’ in the data extracts to denote
Erin’s true voice, as opposed to the research-informed use of trans*. We
refer to Erin’s experiences before and after ‘transition’ to relate to her pre-
and post-medical transition.

Going Stealth: Defensive Practices

and Maintaining Invisibility

Erin highlighted social situations where she needed to remain invisible and
engage with “the arts of impression management … through which the
individual exerts strategic control” over others’ impressions (Goffman,
1963, p. 155). Erin outlined situations where she adopted defensive and
protective practices to safeguard the impression she portrayed to others
(Goffman, 1959), while maintaining stealth. In the extract below, Erin
explains how she engaged with dramaturgical discipline, for example con-
trolling emotions and feelings within a performance, when she was exposed
to transphobia and stigma within mountaineering spaces before her
transition.

I was in those spaces I heard what people were saying, you know, I know
what my climbing friends think about trans people I know what my climb-
ing friends think about gay men … When you’re in my space as a trans
person who’s not manifested yet. You’re seeing it, you’re seeing all that
homophobia, all of that sexism, and all of that transphobia kind of around
you and saying, God, I better keep hiding because this is how the world will
receive me … as soon as I came out all those people, they said we weren’t
sexist we weren’t homophobic, we weren’t transphobic … I was there I
heard it … they just didn’t know I was there. (Interview 1)

Individuals who adopt dramaturgical discipline can suppress emotions

“in order to give the appearance of sticking to the affective line, the
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 95

expressive status quo” (Goffman, 1959, p. 211), to maintain an alignment

between virtual and actual identity. However, Erin also engaged in drama-
turgical circumspection, referring to the process of preparing for likely
contingencies and challenges when encountering a new audience
(Goffman, 1959). In this instance, prior to climbing Mount Elbrus, Erin
needed to be aware of how she presented herself and stressed the need to
remain ‘hidden’ due to the social and cultural environment in Russia.

If you’re LGBT … go there but hide, don’t be known. Don’t put yourself
out, no public displays of affection. And then the last piece of information I
had was I knew that the rainbow flag is considered anti-family propaganda
in Russia, so the display of the rainbow colours in the public forum is against
the law in Russia … it’s a little bit scary, so yeah, I went in kind of with the
idea that I was going to kind of keep my head down … and like my eyes up.
So, just keep a lookout and be safe but, you know, kind of keep a low profile
too … I wouldn’t expose myself or my group to any danger, and, you know,
so that meant that the whole trip I basically had to hide. (Interview 3)

The emphasis Erin placed on keeping her ‘head down, eyes up’ and
maintaining a ‘lookout’ epitomises the practice of dramaturgical circum-
spection to maintain a performance, where Erin needed to constantly be
“alive to the social situation as a scanner of possibilities” (Goffman, 1963,
p. 110), to safeguard her own personal and group’s safety in Russia. For
Goffman (1959), the disclosure of secrets and ‘destructive information’
which are hidden may disrupt performances when in front of an audience.
Thus, Erin reiterated the need to keep a low profile.

My ability to keep myself safe and possibly the group safe really depends on
me being low key … It’s got to be unknown until I get on that plane and
land in a different airport. You know, outside of this, outside of Russia. So,
you know, I tried as much as I could, but I also couldn’t make a big deal out
of it. (Interview 3)

When talking more generally, Erin further described the need to engage
in dramaturgical circumspection, specifically when calculating risk and
planning ahead of any climb, knowing when to switch between front (with
an audience) and back (in private) regions (Goffman, 1959).

That’s the risk that I can kind of quantify and calculate and figure out, you
know, from base camp to the top of the mountain and, I can work on all of
96 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

those things but it’s going from my house to base camp, that, you know, I
can’t calculate the risk I can’t quantify what will happen between those two
places so, yeah … I can kind of fly a little bit under the radar and get to
places … through stealth. (Interview 3)

Visibility and the presentation of ‘destructive information’ will have

varying levels of consequences for individuals. Goffman (1963) explained
how people are in a constant struggle to manage information which forms
their identity, needing to strategically decide whether “to display or not
display; to tell or not to tell” (p. 57). Therefore, an individual’s ability to
manage their identity is influenced by the presence of others and whether
‘others’ are aware of such ‘destructive’ information (Goffman, 1963).
When climbing Mount Elbrus, Erin encountered this situation:

I did it [climbed Elbrus] with a group and I did it with a friend, and, you
know, this is somebody who was my boss at my office … you know, some-
body that I had contact with, I think, you know, before transitioning so, you
know, he knew my whole history … I felt a little bit exposed … And he
made some comment like ‘yeah I haven’t fully digested where you’re at in
life’ … You know, he was certainly kind of the weak link, as far as I think,
you know, letting my information out because the importance of being
silent and not being seen. But he didn’t and, you know, he misgendered me
a few times on the trip because, you know, that’s just the way some people
are. (Interview 3)

While Goffman (1959, p. 216) argued that “with those whom one
does not know, careful performances are required”, an individual’s ability
to manage their identity is influenced by the presence of others who are
also known (Goffman, 1963). Erin highlighted the challenges associated
with managing known-about-ness and encountering situations where oth-
ers do know her identity. In the example above, Erin relied upon her
boss’s tact and ability to demonstrate the defensive practice of dramaturgi-
cal loyalty, where those in the know must not “betray the secrets of the
team when between performances” (Goffman, 1959, p. 207). While
Erin’s boss misgendered her on the Elbrus trip, it would seem she was still
able to manage her identity.

Interviewer: Did you ever get a sense that anybody else within the team
that you were climbing with was reading you in a dif-
ferent way?
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 97

Erin: I didn’t know for sure; I just didn’t know. I had no idea if they
were or they weren’t but, you know, there’s no way to kind of test
those waters either so you just keep quiet. Keep kind of doing what
you’re doing. (Interview 3)

Despite these challenges, Erin’s successful engagement with impression

management strategies enabled her to remain safe in what might be con-
sidered a forbidden place, where unpleasant eventualities had the potential
to arise (Goffman, 1963). Erin further outlined how she constantly needed
to put on a front to “define the situation for those who observe the per-
formance” (Goffman, 1959, p. 32).

It’s a hostile environment and it’s intimidation so you kind of at every turn,
as far as what your emotions are how you’re kind of carrying on, you know,
if you’re part of the, you know, the LGBT+ community, you’re having to
maybe change your behaviours just a little bit and always kind of be cogni-
zant of what you should do, or what you shouldn’t do in order just to enjoy
what’s around you, and it’s a constraint that, you know … there’s a greater
population that can go there without having to think … you’re kind of hav-
ing to individually weigh up and change your behaviours at every kind of
point. (Interview 3)

When managing identities, Goffman (1963) indicated that individuals

may find themselves in forbidden (stigmas must be hidden), civil (stigmas
accepted), or back (individuals at ease) places. While the cultural and
political context of Russia (Mount Elbrus) or Tanzania (Mount
Kilimanjaro) can be considered a forbidden place, Erin discussed how
more civil places (e.g., North America or Australia) also require the need
for impression management techniques to overcome everyday tasks.

A lot of people don’t have that, you know, they don’t just have the fear that
I have, you know … I have that backstop where if everything else kind of
falls apart or I get myself into trouble some other way, by, you know, getting
pulled over, or something. I might not face the same abuse that somebody
that’s from a different state in the United States faces, or somebody from a
different country. (Interview 1)

I still worry when I run into strangers because the consequences are so bad
so, you know, here in the United States, low consequences but you know
there’s a great chance I’ll be outed in my day-to-day life because I come into
98 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

contact with people that, you know, know people that know people that
know me, or just directly know me. It’s just a different risk equation.
(Interview 3)

Managing visibility and the presentation of information to others will

have varying levels of consequences for individuals (Goffman, 1963). For
Erin, needing to stay stealth and maintain a greater sense of sensitivity
results in a “great psychological price, a very high level of anxiety”
(Goffman, 1963, p. 109), which impacts routine day-to-day social
encounters.

Becoming a Speaker: The Gendered Mountaineering Space

Mountaineering is traditionally recognised as a gendered pursuit, which
encompasses strong elements of hegemonic masculinity, with women
working hard to legitimise their place in this social context (Kennedy &
Russell, 2021; Rogers & Rose, 2019; Tulle, 2022; Warren, 2016). For
Goffman (1979), the expression of gender can be considered a social con-
struction, where individuals perform ‘gender displays’, adopting behav-
iours, gestures, and postures to conform to social norms regarding what
gender ‘should’ look like. Pre-transition, Erin outlined how she engaged
in gender displays to ‘fake’ and conform to gender stereotypes, while cov-
ering her true identity.

I don’t think a lot of them [other climbers] thought much about it. I think
I looked a lot like them and fit in. I faked it pretty well, I was, you know, if
I went on an old guy’s trip, you know, I think that they kind of let loose and
just, you know, kind of viewed it like that. I think if I went on a mixed trip,
it was the same thing I kind of interacted from that very gendered space …
everything is gendered. (Interview 1)

In this instance, Erin “perceived an expectation to enact prescribed

masculine, competitive behaviours” to align with her gender display
(Rogers & Rose, 2019, p. 46). Recent research has demonstrated how
outdoor spaces are gendered through expectations regarding competency,
strength, safety, and knowledge of equipment (Bell et al., 2018; Russell
et al., 2022). Moreover, the naming and classification of mountains and
their routes have strong hypermasculine underpinnings (Tulle, 2022;
Wigglesworth, 2021), which was identified by Erin.
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 99

The names of routes are completely ridiculous and the way that they’re
named is very indicative of the kind of talk that I think goes on … the routes
are very indicative of what was on their mind. And, you know, everybody
kind of denies it that, you know, like, I mean everybody knows locker room
talk exists, but then when you confront it … then it doesn’t exist or it’s not
a problem. (Interview 1)

In addition to negotiating locker room talk, Erin further described how

the mountain space is gendered through the assignment and enactment of
group dynamics, team roles, and decision-making processes within climbs.

It could be as overt as kind of how you break up kind of bathroom kind of

stuff right or, you know … even like your car rides and how you get places
or how you get into a group. You know … there’s like the dynamics of it as
well and that’s kind of the hardest part of it, the communication and kind of
the decision making and all those parts of it, you know, like when a group
starts to form and you start seeing like, the decision making and the person-
ality of the team come together … it even looks a little bit more gendered.
(Interview 1)

Erin discussed her experiences of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro both

pre- and post-transition, outlining the misogyny, sexism, and gender bias
she was exposed to as a woman when negotiating group planning and
discussions, where her leadership qualities were seemingly devalued
(Kennedy & Russell, 2021; Rogers & Rose, 2019; Tulle, 2022).
Specifically, Erin’s experiences align with Goffman’s (1979) function rank-
ing representation of gender, where women have a passive role of being
‘instructed to’ rather than an active role of leading and instructing others.

I’m starting to realise like I’m definitely being treated differently this time
than last time it was unfolding more emergently … I couldn’t even stand
with the guys when they’re negotiating and working it [the climb] out. So,
you know, I would just be put in the car for like, you know, before they
would take me everywhere … I’m gonna have a meeting with this person
but, you know, they’ve got like a little cafe or like table or whatever, just like
hang out and like we’d be at a table, drinking Cokes together, and I was not
involved in the conversation because they’re speaking Swahili, but I was still
there, I wasn’t even invited in, like, I would be left in the other room or left
in the car … I was kind of always snipped off … I wasn’t allowed to assert
myself in that way and that had never happened before. (Interview 2)
100 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

In line with recent research exploring gender in outdoor spaces

(Kennedy & Russell, 2021; Rogers & Rose, 2019; Tulle, 2022), Erin’s
experiences demonstrate how mountaineering can be described as a “trou-
bling terrain” for women (Bell et al., 2018, p. 199). In the third interview,
Erin further elaborated upon the misogyny and sexism she encountered
pre-transition, alongside the ‘locker room mentality’ which is detrimental
to women’s equality within outdoor spaces.

People don’t know what it’s like … a lot of times you want to be empathetic
to somebody else’s plight, but I don’t think it’s always possible. I would
hope that in the groups that I’ve been with when there were women present
that the behaviour was mostly, I think, respectful, or, you know, striving
towards trying to be equal. I can say that I’ve been in climbing circles and
I’ve said it before where I think it’s just as detrimental to, kind of, you know,
women’s equality is what’s being said when women aren’t around. The
country club mentality or the locker room mentality, or, you know, when
you get into these spaces that men feel safe enough to open their mouths
and, you know, I think a lot of men don’t understand … they vocalise some-
thing that they don’t necessarily feel, to feel as though they’re part of the
group … I think that the sexism felt was more vocally present when women
weren’t present. That being said, it doesn’t matter, it’s equally damaging
whether somebody is there to hear it or not. (Interview 3)

From Erin’s recollections, within mountaineering, some men also

engage in impression management techniques through their expressions
given and given off, for example outwardly displaying an attitude of
misogyny and sexism to conform to contextual norms, with acts of gender
performativity resulting in a collective representation within mountaineer-
ing groups (Goffman, 1959, 1979). As such, the danger for Erin was
always beyond the physical and technical challenges associated with climb-
ing the mountain. Instead, possessing an “aliveness to the contingencies of
acceptance and disclosure” (Goffman, 1963, p. 136) and managing inter-
personal interactions to avoid negative consequences posed a greater
concern.

Interviewer: So, does that mean that on the mountain, it’s … easier to
hide in that, in that sense then, on the journey between
home and the mountain base, the base camp?
Erin: I don’t know if it’s easier to hide or not, but you’re exposed
to a whole lot fewer people … So, you know, I mean in
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 101

Aconcagua [Argentina] I was out there for 20 days or

18 days with the same people, you know, Elbrus was
10 days or something. So, it’s hard to say … I said, the
whole goal is that, you know, the challenges we face in the
mountain should be the ultimate kind of egalitarian system
but because it’s, it’s how steep it is, it’s what my technical
knowledge is, it’s how well I trained, it’s how well I know
the gear and the weather conditions but yeah … you don’t
know as a traveller why you’ll get singled out, but if you do
get singled out, you know, what are the consequences? So,
you know, as a female traveller I face different risks than I
did as a male traveller. (Interview 3)

Engaging in impression management techniques and dramatic realisa-

tion requires a significant amount of energy and strain for any individual,
who must consciously manage their mannerisms, activities, and percep-
tions to convince an audience of their performance (Goffman, 1959).
Hence, to manage her identity within mountaineering spaces, Erin had to
“learn about the structure of interaction in order to learn about the lines
along which they [she] must reconstitute their conduct” (Goffman, 1963,
p. 127). However, over time, Erin had reached a stage where she felt
“above passing … after laboriously learning how to conceal, then, the
individual may go on to unlearn this concealment” (Goffman, 1963,
p. 125). Erin transitioned to a stage of voluntary disclosure, exemplified
by displaying the trans* flag when reaching the summit of Kilimanjaro in
Tanzania.

So yeah, I got to the top and again I kind of said well, it depends how many
people are there. It depends on who’s looking, and how I feel and every-
thing and I got to the top … I busted out that banner and just flew it up
there and got several pictures taken and figured if anybody finds out what I
did, then that’s fine. I’ve got 24 hours to get off this mountain and then
everybody can kind of go their own separate direction and hopefully, I can
go my own separate direction. (Interview 2)

In this instance, displaying the trans* flag as a voluntary ‘symbol’ con-

veys information about Erin’s identity (Goffman, 1963). This movement
towards a state of voluntary disclosure transforms Erin’s interactions
within social situations, as she becomes “an individual with information to
102 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

manage to that of an individual with uneasy social situations to manage”

(Goffman, 1963, p. 123). Indeed, while Erin recognised throughout the
interviews that there are certain situations where impression management
strategies might be required, Erin discussed the importance of visibility.

I think it’s important to be visible. You know it’s important to be, you know,
be proud no matter where you are in your transition or whether you are at
the point, you’re happy even if it doesn’t look like what someone else thinks
it should look like. (Interview 2)

I remember the times when I felt so alone, and I couldn’t find other people
who were like me. And I couldn’t find positive stories and I couldn’t find
any sort of reassurance and positivity that … things were going to be okay.
You know that I could be myself, and do the things I loved that I could do
those two things … I feel like, you know, I’ve been successful in kind of
seeding that story into enough places that, you know, the person that finds
themselves in that situation where they’re really just looking for positive
experience and a positive role model and I don’t actually, I hate the word
role model and I don’t like to use it. But just a positive story of what can be
accomplished, even in taking this risk of being your true self. (Interview 3)

The extracts above demonstrate that Erin has embarked into what
Goffman (1963) suggests is a ‘moral career’, referring to a phase of adjust-
ment, transition, and state of grace. Goffman (1963) used the phrase
‘moral career’ to describe specific patterns of learning and changes in an
individual’s perception of self, alongside the adjustment to social environ-
ments within a person’s life trajectory. Thus, this state of adjustment
means Erin feels she no longer needs to remain stealth within certain con-
texts, despite this never being an intention.

Because, you know, ultimately, I didn’t really ever want to be visible … you
know, I’m now kind of doing something that makes me very visible and, you
know, most of the time I kind of want to just go out, hike on the trail, or
just go climb or just work on things, you know, don’t involve fundraising
and speaking with people about, you know, why we need to change the nar-
rative and all of those things. So, I guess I feel good about, you know, what
we’ve done. I think that it’s working. (Interview 3)

According to Goffman (1963, p. 45), stigmatised individuals tend to

have “similar learning experiences regarding their plight, and similar
 6 “THE WHOLE TRIP I BASICALLY HAD TO HIDE”: A GOFFMANIAN ANALYSIS… 103

changes in concept of self—a similar ‘moral career’”. While never aiming

to become a role model or ‘speaker’ (Goffman, 1963), Erin’s journey
provides inspiration and aspiration for other trans* individuals within
mountaineering and beyond, presenting a positive narrative which is visi-
ble and attainable to others.

Conclusion
This chapter has drawn upon Goffman’s (1959, 1963, 1979) concepts
associated with impression management, stigma, and gender displays to
interpret and analyse Erin’s experiences as a trans* mountaineer.
Combining Goffman’s concepts as opposed to applying them in isolation
has helped demonstrate how gender is part of a socially scripted perfor-
mance within mountaineering, emphasising the ways in which “identity
management relies on a presupposed socialization process in which per-
sons develop identity patterns in reaction to the signs and symbols they
receive, either overtly or subtly, from others” (Whelan, 2021, p. 49).
Goffman’s dramaturgical approach and seminal writings on impression
management come alive within the data as Erin engaged in performances
when negotiating her identity within mountaineering spaces across the
globe. Indeed, Erin’s performances revolved around managing aspects of
her biography which could potentially ‘spoil’ her identity in various social
situations (Goffman, 1959, 1963), often resulting in a need to remain
stealth. With mountaineering being presented as a gendered space plagued
with hegemonic masculinity (e.g., Kennedy & Russell, 2021; Tulle, 2022),
Erin’s experiences highlight how both herself and others performed gen-
der displays to manage the perceptions of others. However, Erin’s story is
one of progression, as she moved to a position of voluntary disclosure,
rising above the need to hide and unintentionally becoming a role model
for other trans* individuals.
Rogers and Rose (2019, p. 47) have recently argued that “further
research needs to be conducted with both marginalized and underrepre-
sented populations” within outdoor and adventurous activities, while
Tulle (2022, p. 18) suggests “the culture of women’s mountaineering can
be enriched by unearthing silenced voices, encouraging more diverse
women in the UK and elsewhere to add to these voices”. We argue that
highlighting Erin’s perceptions, experiences, and journey to date within
this book chapter and elsewhere (see Russell et al., 2022) has begun to
address these calls, by continuing to bring trans* experiences into our
104 T. M. LEEDER ET AL.

understanding of gender within sport and the outdoors (Ferguson &

Russell, 2021). We believe Erin’s account has the potential to “broaden
horizons and inspire” (Kennedy & Russell, 2021, p. 167), offering a first-
hand account of the issues associated with exclusion, hegemonic masculin-
ity, and gender within mountaineering, to portray an alternative narrative
and offer a glance of progression.
Erin’s story has the potential for several forms of generalisability within
qualitative research (Smith, 2018). For example, naturalistic (e.g., Erin’s
journey resonates with readers’ experiences), transferability (e.g., to other
outdoor and sporting contexts), and finally analytical (e.g., application of
Goffman’s theory). However, while Erin’s story may act as a catalyst for
change, more research is evidently needed to support existing studies
(e.g., Avner et al., 2021; Doran et al., 2018). In building upon the senti-
ments of Tulle (2022), future research projects might consider the use of
ethnographic methods to enable researchers to walk (climb) with partici-
pants to help “understand their embodied relationship to mountain spaces
and access their sensibility” (p. 7). Interviews and encounters within
mountain spaces will allow perspectives and experiences to be understood
within broader social, cultural, and historical contexts.

Acknowledgements The authors thank Erin Parisi for her time in sharing her
experiences with us. Full details of the TranSending7 project and ways to support
it can be found at: https://www.transending7.org/.

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 CHAPTER 7

Exploring the Gendered and Racialised

Experiences of Mexican Mestiza: Women
Mountaineers Through the Rhizomatic Body

Isis Arlene Díaz-Carrión

Introduction
Despite the increasing involvement of women in adventure and tourism
activities during the last decade (Carr, 2000; Comley, 2016; Hillman,
2019), several scholars have shed light on entrenched attitudes and prac-
tices that promote the continued masculinisation of mountaineering
(Frohlick, 2006; Hall, 2018; Pomfret & Doran, 2015). In this chapter, I
explore Markula’s (2006) and Knijnik et al. (2010) “rhizomatic body” as
a useful construct to promote inclusion in mountaineering. Derived from
Deleuze and Guattari (2019), this concept follows a non-central structure
that emphasises a network of multiple formations, which allows for het-
erogeneity, multiplicity, and rupture, thus providing space for new signifi-
cances of women’s physicality.

I. A. Díaz-Carrión (*)
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Mexicali, Mexico
e-mail: diaz.isis@uabc.edu.mx

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 107

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_7
108 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

The rhizomatic body has been proven as a strong proposition to foster

critical perspectives in both adventure and tourism activities (Díaz-Carrión
et al., 2020; Knijnik et al., 2010). As suggested by Guia and Jamal (2020),
Deleuze and Guattari’s scholarship has provided new insights into prac-
tices mainly related to physicality in tourism (Matteucci, 2014); therefore,
the rhizomatic episteme in outdoor activities will allow an understanding
of mountaineering as a social and cultural practice in a mestiza-gendered
society like Mexican. My purpose is twofold: to examine mestiza women’s
participation in mountaineering, and to promote inclusion from a rhizom-
atic perspective characterised by non-centrality and rearranging; consider-
ing the scant Deleuzian-informed scholarship in tourism and
mountaineering, this chapter will provide new avenues of exploration.
Following Lombardo and Mergaert (2013), Bakas (2017), as well as
Gao et al. (2020), I conducted in-depth interviews and participant obser-
vations to evaluate mechanisms used by Mexican women in mountaineer-
ing; by doing so, I advanced a proposal to complement the rhizomatic
body episteme from a mestiza cisgender perspective which enabled me to
explore “otherness” from a gendered and racialised approach. In so doing,
I aim to advance reterritorialisation to promote inclusive mountaineering.

Mountaineering in Mexico
In the world view of Mexican ancient cultures, the mountains were con-
sidered either masculine or feminine deities, and the highest mountains
located in the Mexican neovolcanic belt appeared among the most impor-
tant. According to Broda (2009), two of the most salient mountains are
Íztac Cíhuatl (Iztaccíhuatl, la “mujer blanca”, the white woman) and
Malinche (Matlalcueye, “la de la falda azul-verde”, the one with the blue-­
green skirt); with a wide profile, these were considered as feminine moun-
tains and fitted with attractiveness and seductive characteristics while
masculine mountains were more related to power and nobility. Nowadays
these mountains may not be worshipped as in past times, but regarding
mountaineering, the masculinisation of space pervades.
Mountain climbing in the country revolves around the Eje Neovolcánico
(Mexican neovolcanic belt), a chain of volcanoes and part of the so-called
Pacific Ring of Fire; this mountain range consists of Volcán Citlaltépetl
(Puebla-Veracruz States, 18,410 ft., the highest mountain in the country),
Volcán Popocatépetl (México-Morelos-Puebla States, 18,040 ft.), and
Volcán Iztaccíhuatl (México-Puebla States, 17,130 ft.), as well as other
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 109

mountains used for outdoor and adventure activities (Arriola Padilla et al.
2014; Ferriz & Mahood 1986).
The interest of Mexican society in nature and outdoor activities can be
traced back to the beginning of the twentieth century (Club Citlaltepetl,
2019; Sunyer Martín et al., 2018). It was during the 1960s and 1970s that
outdoor activities grew in popularity and mountaineering experienced
substantial growth, marking a new contemporary era that was largely
dominated by city-based middle-class younger generations (Brigada del
Socorro Alpino de México A.C., 2015; González, 2019; Sunyer Martín
et al., 2018).
It is difficult to know the role played by women during that time; the
chronicles used were centred on male roles. Considering women’s partici-
pation in other countries, it is probable that Mexican women also partici-
pated in the practice of mountaineering, and it is evident that their
participation started to increase during the last decades (Díaz-Carrión,
2022). However, the masculine definition of mountaineering prevails
until today, providing a fruitful area to promote a diverse and inclusive
activity.

Characterising the Rhizomatic Body

Derived from a Deleuze and Guattari perspective, the rhizomatic body has
been considered by Knijnik et al. (2010) as a strong episteme to promote
critical gazes in both adventure and tourism activities. Built on Markula’s
proposal, scholars have generated a fruitful insight into this episteme to
deconstruct women’s “otherness” in adventure contexts (Díaz-Carrión
et al., 2020; Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017; Knijnik et al., 2010). Specifically,
their work has highlighted the relevance of the rhizome to provide a better
understanding of the interconnection between social categories: gender,
social class, ethnicity, or physicality, among others. Their findings have
been relevant to reconstruct more inclusive sport and adventure practices
for women.
In all cases, their advances to the theoretical concept also reflect interac-
tions between societal norms and the practice of outdoor adventure tour-
ism that restrict the presence of women in masculinised spaces. For the
authors, a rhizomatic body appears as a powerful theoretical construction
to face “otherness” and generate new readings about risk and freedom
embodiment which can allow women to reconstruct a more inclusive
womanhood in the adventure context. Likewise, as a theoretical concept,
110 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

the rhizomatic body will allow a review of individual and collective inter-
connections, as a relevant strategy to foster negotiations among Mexican-­
mestiza women in mountaineering.
In her work about pilates and women, Markula (2006, pp. 35–42)
resumes a rhizomatic structure based on the following three concepts:

1. Plan of consistency, to generate unification in different and multiple

ways (this allows one to understand femininity without a feminine-­
masculine dichotomy);
2. Assemblages promote coding diverse de-coded milieus and forming
substance through the organism, significance, and subjectification
(to perform transformations); and
3. Body without Organs (BwO) where gradual transformations take
place through practice or sets of practices.

To translate the rhizome to sports and adventure activities, I have intro-

duced intersectionality to materialise the three main concepts. The consid-
eration of diversity has been regarded as central to Deleuze and Guattari
(2019); therefore, the recognition of the multiple categories that combine
with gender (women, in this case) is highlighted in the plan of consistency
but also as assemblages (interconnections that are both the base and the
result of mestiza mountaineering) and the BwO (as the embodied societal
category that is always evolving). Knijnik et al. (2010) rename the BwO as
the “rhizomatic body”; their proposal considers a social embodiment to
highlight a collective rhizomatic body—a sororal space to interconnect
with other bodies. The idea of linkage has also been analysed by Fullagar
and Pavlidis (2017) or Olive et al. (2021) to face “otherness” and pro-
mote collective negotiation of societal norms.
Another important element for the rhizomatic body is strata, consid-
ered the basis for the territorialisation processes (Matteucci, 2014).
Following Markula’s (2006) and Houge Mackenzie et al. (2020), I have
adapted mountaineering through four main strata; as a theoretical exer-
cise, this combination will link the activity to psychological needs and
well-being:

1. The first stratum links the activity to psychological needs and well-­
being. It is more related to women’s physicality in outdoor and
adventure contexts; this is relevant to the resignification of “other-
ness”, in concordance with a poststructural approach.
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 111

2. While the second stratum highlights mestiza and women’s embodi-

ment through mountaineering, this level converges directly to
women’s bodies.
3. An important third stratum is connected to the physical activity
itself, considering the major amount involved in the mountaineering
expedition during the activity, but also the training programme to
maintain both physical and mental fitness in order to pursue
mountaineering.
4. Finally, the fourth stratum summarises vulnerability, even if it is
closely related to strata 3. It considers the important risk level
implied in the activity and its interactions with societal norms
regarded as a restrictive component.

All strata perform as layers of thinking and intertwine to create an “oth-

erness” that is quickly territorialised by non-dominant strata. This exercise
requires a critical approach, of personal and collective assumptions, to
endow women’s involvement in mountaineering with significant and non-­
oppressive practices. Markula (2006) and Knijnik et al. (2010) highlight
the relevance of those actions to enhance a zone of transformation; this
“safe space” will nest practices aimed to surpass binary oppositions that are
used to undervalue women, especially in relation to outdoor and adven-
ture recreation (Carter & Colyer, 1999; Hillman, 2019; Houge Mackenzie
et al., 2020). To me, this “safe space” is built on other women’s support,
a strategy that is relevant to foster sororal spaces to weave individual and
collective rhizomatic bodies. Olive et al. (2021) provided some insights
into the way women take advantage of their “otherness” by partnering in
marching bands and re-territorialising individual but also collective identi-
ties. In a similar way Fullagar and Pavlidis (2017) and Rodríguez Castro
et al. (2021) explore women’s embodiment of collective emotions to cre-
ate resistance spaces and new readings of active womanhood.

Deleuze in the Mountain

Poststructuralist approaches have been embraced in tourism studies dur-
ing the last years to promote critical gazes (Guia & Jamal, 2020; Tavakoli,
2016). Some adventure and tourism scholars have relied on a poststruc-
tural epistemology to deepen the construction of “otherness”, regarded as
an episteme centred on difference and diversity (Frohlick, 2004, 2006;
Olive et al., 2021). As mentioned before, the rhizomatic body considers
112 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

“otherness” as a way to materialise diversity; for example for Knijnik et al.

(2010) the episteme appears as a means to face societal assumptions or
stigmas (women in men’s world or the embodiment of aesthetic). In this
line, Frohlick (2004) focuses on the construction of an “otherness” able
to take advantage of globalisation (where the “other” is not only gendered
but racialised). Furthermore, Fullagar and Pavlidis (2017) and Olive et al.
(2021) explore the linkages among an “otherness” defined as collective
and sororal constructions to face gender restrictions.
Poststructural feminist scholarship has therefore advanced multiple
interactions in power relations dynamics, their impacts on restrictive prac-
tices, and the way women embody those restrictions and face them
(Matteucci, 2014; Rodríguez Castro et al., 2021). The masculinisation of
adventure spaces is built on societal norms and is used to exclude women
by defining them as the “other” (Comley, 2016; Doran et al., 2020; Roy,
2014). As a consequence, women who engage in the practice of activities
which are typically male-dominated, such as mountaineering, also report
antagonism and objectification in the pursuit of so-called selfish desires.
Frohlick, who explored motherhood in the high mountains, emphasises
the intricate ways societies have considered women mountaineers as the
“other”. For those women climbers, the heroic and fraternal environment
did not apply, and by contrast, their subjectivities were scrutinised and
linked “in complex ways to mountaineering” (Frohlick, 2006, p. 482).
Frohlick’s work identified how women mountaineers faced societal ques-
tioning for not choosing their family over risk while summiting, an argu-
ment not experienced by male mountain climbers. This conflict appears to
be still at the core of some risky activities in the outdoors, and women are
questioned for risking themselves and being selfish mothers (Frohlick,
2006). But motherhood in the mountains as the “other” is not the only
symbolic construction. As Tavakoli (2016) has suggested, women’s “oth-
erness” often interweaves gender with race, class, religion, and more cat-
egories that support exclusion; therefore, the “other” has been used as a
powerful construction by feminist scholars to face gendered constraints
(Frohlick, 2004; Olive et al., 2021). The studies have identified the mul-
tiplicity of dynamics entrenched that complicate gender negotiations (e.g.,
Knijnik et al., 2010; Doran et al., 2020), and interactions between local
and global scales that can lead to negotiations of gender and ethnic identi-
ties (e.g., Frohlick, 2004; Hillman, 2019). With regard to this, the con-
struction of “otherness” reported by Knijnik et al. (2010) involves gender
and ethnicity, and depicts black Brazilian professional surfers as doubly
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 113

rhizomatic bodies that must carve their place; in this case, “otherness” is
composed by gender and race in the Global South. Some similarities have
been found by Hillman (2019) in her investigation of rural Nepal where
low-caste, uneducated, or marginalised women are considered as the
“other” and take advantage of that “otherness” to find, as skilled trekking
guides, an opportunity to enter and gain space in the guiding industry.
According to feminist scholars (Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017; Hall, 2018),
poststructuralism has been helpful to promote an “otherness” construct
based on multiple edges (gender, ethnicity, physicality, and age, among
others); this exercise has been relevant to make heterogeneity visible, to
emphasise the importance of non-normative categories, and to show
diverse interactions that shape women’s participation in mountain climb-
ing. Drawing on this body of work will make evident the relevance of core
elements that shape the Mexican-mestiza women identity in mountaineer-
ing and to confront them as the “other” in the practice.

Method
I conducted ten in-depth interviews and participant observation to analyse
“otherness” experienced by Mexican-mestiza mountaineers. Both qualita-
tive methods have been proven effective while addressing mountaineering
from a gender perspective (Doran et al., 2020; Díaz-Carrión, 2022;
Hillman, 2019). I used life stories to explore “otherness” among Mexican,
mestiza, women mountaineers from my own mestiza, urban, middle-class,
heterosexual, Mexican womanhood, who has been mountaineering for
more than 20 years. Life story is described as a biographic narrative
method and highlights the relevance of individual experiences (Atkinson,
2007; Fernández Sánchez & Lopez-Zafra, 2019). Thomsen et al. (2016)
and Gough (2008) pointed out its relevance to addressing personal
changes and the possibility to evaluate highly emotional quotidian events;
by doing so, the method empowers specific analysis able to apprehend
individual and socio-cultural constructions. My “otherness” also exempli-
fied multiple intersections, and it is therefore not only gendered or classed
but also a mestiza one.
By focusing on three specific cases, I was able to deepen my under-
standing of the rhizomatic body generated by participants, as well as mul-
tiple interactions in their mountaineering. I contacted participants using
convenience sampling (Brewis, 2014; Carr, 2000; Moser & Korstjens,
2018). To be eligible, women interviewed had to be Mexican, to define
114 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

Table 7.1 Participant demographics

Maura Melina Minerva

Age 56 23 37
Mountaineering (years) 23 8 10
Social class Middle class Upper-middle class Middle class
Profession Dentist Student Professor
Gender Cisgender woman Cisgender woman Cisgender woman
Civil status Married Single Divorced

Source: Author

themselves as mestiza, and to be active mountaineers (to perform at least

three summiting expeditions yearly). Participants’ names were changed,
and some small modifications have been made in their socio-demographic
characteristics to preserve their anonymity (Table 7.1).
Maura, Melina, and Minerva are Mexican-mestiza mountaineers whose
stories were analysed to theorise the rhizomatic body. Their embodiment
experiences emphasise diverse identities; however, the intersectionality
exercise is limited, as some categories are not represented (for instance, no
transgender woman has been included, nor native women). This limita-
tion can be explored in further research to advance the rhizomatic body
epistemology.
In-depth interviews and participant observations were conducted to
structure a life stories narrative; interviews were face to face and carried
out in Spanish. Participant observations took place during daily hiking
practices—performed during weekends; I documented the activities and
used that insight to enrich participants’ narrative (Biernacka et al., 2018;
Hall, 2018; Hesse-Bibber & Piatelli, 2014). A subsequent content analysis
was performed to analyse “otherness”. To identify dominant and critical
discourses I extracted the most significant mentions of “otherness” and
rhizomatic body; key themes were related, contrasted, and organised to
confirm or challenge findings (Wilson & Little 2008). This analysis started
with the identification of four strata(see Table 7.2). A subsequent phase
describes interviewees’ perception about the main strata; “physicality”,
“mestiza”, and “mountaineering” discourses were reviewed as the content
stage and provided the basis for latent analysis. In this step, I focused on
“vulnerability in the mountains” to highlight the negotiation experienced
by participants (Graneheim et al., 2017). By doing so, I was able to iden-
tify the development of the rhizomatic body and the reterritorialisation
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 115

Table 7.2 The rhizomatic body: Mexican-mestiza women mountaineering

Maura Melina Minerva

Stratum 1. “When you think of a “A Mexican-woman “It’s until recently

Women’s mountaineer … You mountaineer? Until that Mexican
physicality in always imagine a man” some years ago it was women are starting
adventure like … No, not at all to be considered as
contexts … If you ask about it, mountaineers …
most people will say Some have
that yeah!, there are summited some of
more women the highest
mountaineering in mountains, but
foreign countries than most are
in Mexico” non-professional”
Stratum 2. “I am kind of tall “As you see I am “There are Mexican
Mestiza and considering the short so many people women who are tall,
women’s body Mexican average, but get surprised to see but most are short
after my daughter was my strength and some look very
born my body changed abilities to summit. I fragile while others
and it was difficult … I love to be regarded as don’t match with
didn’t fit in the clothes ‘the little girl who is the athletic aesthetic
and that made me feel strong’” … For me it’s like
angry and sad … no matter how you
Eventually I accepted it look like, with the
and now I feel proper training you
confident with my can be a good
body” mountaineer”
Stratum 3. “I like mountaineering “For some people it’s “To be a
Mountaineering … I feel free … I also crazy, because it’s mountaineer you
practices face my insecurity and dangerous … I mean have to be strong,
fears. I endure because people have died you have to train a
of mountaineering” while climbing El lot not only
Pico [the highest physically but
mountain in Mexico] emotionally, you
… But for me it is become resilient and
also thrilling and more self-confident”
summiting after all
the efforts and
trainings … You feel
nice, you feel good,
you feel humble too”

(continued)
116 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

Table 7.2 (continued)

Maura Melina Minerva

“It took me some time “I know that violence “Of course, it is a

to feel safe in the and insecurity are dangerous activity,
outdoors, I used to go national, but I think of course, women,
with friends, when I young women men, people
started mountaineering experience less regardless their
there were few women, restrictions than 20 or gender have died or
and we all climbed with 30 years ago. I have a have been in a
the boyfriend or the friend and nobody dangerous situation,
brother, mostly with from her family used but being a woman
the boyfriend or to practise outdoor makes you more
husband. Women alone activities so I vulnerable to certain
… very very few. I introduced her to situations”
noticed this has mountaineering and
changed and women she loved it”
nowadays do not
necessarily engage
through a man as a
gatekeeper”
Stratum 4. “We all are vulnerable “Sometimes it’s like “Today women are
Vulnerability in in the mountains, but because being a more prepared to be
the mountain women experience woman you don’t mountaineers, we
some issues that men generate a lot of have prepared
don’t … Like we can expectations … it’s ourselves physically
experience sexual like others regard you and emotionally but
harassment, some as not determined, also we have trained
female friends feel like any attempt is ourselves in first aid
uncomfortable to share enough for women so or in other skills you
the tent or in the this can be negative need to be an active
shelter because of men, because you’re mountaineer, not
and some men are undervalued, but also only the companion
respectful but others you don’t have to be … This is important
aren’t and make like the alpha-male because in case of an
women feel who is always accident or
uncomfortable” competing … So you emergency you can
can enjoy your have a response and
summiting” be assertive too”

Source: The author

and deterritorialisation characteristics to produce individual and collective

rhizomes. Following Lietz and Zayas (2013), and Usher and Gómez
(2016), I also conducted peer debriefing to confirm findings and analysis.
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 117

Findings
As previously discussed, the rhizomatic body episteme consists of four
strata to analyse women’s physicality, mestiza body, mountaineering prac-
tices, and vulnerability experienced by participants. Table 7.2 identifies the
most important participants’ narratives related to the main strata of the
rhizomatic body episteme. Regarding “Stratum 1. Women’s physicality in
adventure contexts” and “Stratum 2. Mestiza and women’s body”, partici-
pants noted a different Mexican-mestiza mountaineer aesthetic. Bodies
diversity and their performance have been identified as core elements for
the rhizomatic body by scholars (Fullagar & Pavlidis, 2017; Knijnik et al.,
2010; Markula, 2006), and in this case, participants also recognised a “tra-
ditional” aesthetic (a man mountaineer), a second layer (a foreign man
mountaineer, a Mexican man mountaineer), and a third layer where mainly
a foreign woman mountaineer (usually from the Global North) appears:
“if you ask about it, most people will say that yeah!, there are more women
mountaineering in foreign countries than in Mexico”. It is in this assem-
blage where the Mexican-mestiza mountaineer is rooting and carving a
place to a plane of consistency, to produce unification and diversity
(Markula, 2006). Melina’s questioning of the presence of Mexican-mestiza
mountaineers (“A Mexican-women mountaineer?”) is reflecting this space
where different and multiple bodies are not only reinterpreting the
Mexican-mestiza physicality but also the multiple meanings of the gen-
dered and racialised “other” and their embodied mountaineering.
Some meanings are closely related to physicality and seem to always
refer to the male aesthetic that prevails in mountaineering; as a conse-
quence, shorter bodies have to find their place: “as you see I am short so
many people get surprised to see my strength and abilities to the summit.
I love to be regarded as ‘the little girl who is strong’” (Melina). Melina’s
discourse proposes more inclusive practices to the “other” body, one that
adds new reading to the rhizomatic Mexican-mestiza mountaineer body.
Bodily changes were also identified by Maura and the impacts on her body
after pregnancy. For Maura, pregnancy and motherhood appear as more
than an adjustment phase. Motherhood has an important impact on wom-
en’s physicality and therefore in their mountaineering; in this case, the
rhizomatic body does not only encompass the physical but also the psy-
chosocial dimensions of mountaineering, as the participant recognises
when she says: “eventually I accepted it and now I feel confident with my
body”. In this case, the rhizomatic body episteme appears useful to include
118 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

life cycles and changes experienced in women’s physicality (such as preg-

nancy, motherhood, or seniority) and also promotes the inclusion of emo-
tions in mountaineering as a relevant element that cannot be separated.
Emotions experienced during the practice of sport and adventure activities
have been analysed by Hall (2018), Fullagar and Pavlidis (2017), or
Frohlick (2006), among others; scholars have underscored women’s emo-
tions in a power context that are used to restrict them, as well as the
diverse actions they use to face and surpass those restrictions. In this case,
considering physicality and emotions allowed me to incorporate psycho-
logical needs and well-being to the rhizomatic body episteme and to anal-
yse the way they are embodied
Participants had been active mountaineers for several years and their
experiences as Mexican-mestiza can be read from different perspectives;
nonetheless, vulnerability in mountaineering not only addresses general
risk but also as Minerva says: “Of course, it is a dangerous activity, of
course, women, men, people regardless their gender have died or have
been in a dangerous situation, but being a woman makes you more vul-
nerable to certain situations”. In her opinion a persistent gendered prac-
tice can be regarded as a limitation. Minerva’s vulnerability has been
constructed as a societal characteristic that is present in the outdoors.
Maura’s opinion also notes that “It took me some time to feel safe in the
outdoors, I used to go with friends, when I started mountaineering there
were few women, and we all climbed with the boyfriend or the brother …”.
For participants, this construction acted as a limitation that reinforced
their “otherness”. In relation to this, Maura has been mountaineering for
more than 20 years, and according to her, the gendered mountain has
been experiencing some changes: “I noticed this has changed and women
nowadays do not necessarily gain access through a man as a gatekeeper”.
Melina, a younger mountaineer, agrees with Maura and recognises that for
younger mountaineers the activity is less restrictive. Melina and Maura’s
experiences are useful to exemplify “Stratum 3. Mountaineering prac-
tices”, mainly how gendered practices in mountaineering enable some
limitations based on socio-cultural norms, and how women have to nego-
tiate them in order to be regarded as mountaineers. Even if for partici-
pants main issues are related to insecurity or risk, some scholars have
identified more specific limitations such as the so-called ethics of care
(Doran, 2016), fear (Wilson & Little, 2008), or ethnicity (Frohlick, 2004;
Knijnik et al., 2010; Olive et al., 2021) to reinforce restrictions to the
gendered adventure spaces. Participants’ experiences suggested that
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 119

Mexican women can also face this constraint, mostly because adventure
spaces appear to be constructed with elements traditionally identified with
manhood rather than womanhood (for instance, Minerva’s strength is
taken for granted as a mother but not as a mountaineer).
Finally, the last stratum “4. Vulnerability in the mountain” highlights
the way participants embody vulnerability as a core element of “other-
ness”. In Maura’s opinion, it is a gendered practice and sexual harassment
appears as a relevant restriction reported in the use of public spaces in
Mexico (Lindon, 2020; López Muñoz, 2021). Fragility or lack and/or
limited technical training has been noted by Melina and Minerva as other
elements that materialise vulnerability in the gendered mountains; these
socio-cultural restrictions have also been mentioned by other scholars
(Doran, 2016; Hall, 2018; Hillman, 2019). In participants’ opinion, these
restrictions are a result of what is traditionally expected from Mexican
women, as it has been stated by Melina: “sometimes it’s like because being
a woman you don’t generate a lot of expectations …”.

Analysis
Several scholars have highlighted the gendered use of public spaces (Carr,
2000; Lindón, 2020); in this case, the Mexican-mestiza mountain appears
as an adventure space that is embodied differently. Regardless, other inter-
sections can also be identified through the narrative of participants; for
example main core elements highlighted for “otherness”, such as risk,
freedom, endurance, insecurity, and vulnerability, are also used for defin-
ing gender, ethnicity, or politics (Doran, 2016, Frohlick, 2004; Hillman,
2019; Knijnik et al., 2010; Olive et al., 2021; Wilson & Little, 2008).
Considering the way participants define their mountaineering and strate-
gies to promote rhizomatic bodies, I have identified four relevant strata
(see Table 7.2). Even if each participant experiences the mountain differ-
ently, some concurrences identified refer to vulnerability embodied
through physical and emotional endeavours. For Maura, Melina, and
Minerva Mexican-mestiza mountaineers are regarded as the “other” and
their participation is compared to men (Mexican and foreigner), but also
other women (foreign women). The finding is consistent with Hillman
(2019), who pointed out a narrative that hinders and promotes mountain-
eering as a subjectivity that is gendered and racialised, as well as locally and
globally embedded. In this case, due to the mestiza characteristic of par-
ticipants, the racialised subjectivity compares Mexican-mestiza women
120 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

with foreigners, while the gendered subjectivity appears in reference to

men and participants’ cisgender identity.
Figure 7.1 resumes my own interpretation of the question of how sis-
terhood and solidarity can promote a rhizomatic body in Mexican-mestiza
women mountaineering. This graphic exercise aimed to depict the most
relevant findings rooted in scholarship regarding gender and mountain-
eering tourism from a Mexican and mestiza perspective. The comparison
of theoretical assumptions against main findings has been arranged to
visualise the more relevant dynamics in the experience of the rhizomatic
body. By recreating a decentralised rhizomatic structure, each stratum
holds the potential for heterogeneity—thus, multiplicity and rupture to
nurture new egalitarian significances. For example, Mexican mountaineers
consider cisgender participants but can be expanded to analyse transgen-
der experiences, and the mestiza perspective can also include Afro-Mexican

Fig. 7.1 The rhizomatic Mexican-mestiza women mountaineer body.

(Source: Author)
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 121

or Indigenous women to promote more inclusive practices. As noted by

Markula (2006), in this framework the mestiza and women mountaineer-
ing body pursue the promotion of heterogeneity, multiplicity, and rup-
ture; several assemblages are (and will be) under construction too. As a
consequence, crafting processes will materialise in multiple ways, allowing
new approaches and elements. This has been noted by Minerva and Melina
when they remark on the recent consideration of Mexican-mestiza moun-
taineers or when Maura suggests that young Mexican mountaineers do
not necessarily need men as gatekeepers.
Expanding the analysis of “otherness”, it is important to note that soci-
etal norms still play an important role in defining women’s vulnerability;
as it has been stated by interviewees, womanhood is defined by what soci-
ety expects and the unexpected is named as the “other”. However, some
scholars have identified remarkable possibilities of “otherness” as a protest
element for women (Rodriguez Castro et al., 2021; Hillman, 2019; Olive
et al., 2021). Maura, Melina, and Minerva seem to also use their “other-
ness” as a mechanism to negotiate societal norms. For instance, by facing
insecurity, experiencing freedom, or becoming strong, they promote new
significance to their rhizomatic bodies, and a new stratum can deterritori-
alise mestiza womanhood and adventure practices in the outdoors. As a
consequence, psychological needs and well-being challenge assumptions
related to “women’s vulnerability”, the “geography of fear”, and the “eth-
ics of care” can be re-territorialised by theoretical elements related to
mountaineering, such as adventure, freedom, or autonomy to offer new
reading of their rhizomatic bodies. By being the “other”, Mexican-mestiza
women mountaineers can generate reinterpretations about womanhood
in the outdoors. Markula (2006) has posed some insightful questions
about physicality, femininity, and the symbolic role of exercise as a mecha-
nism to control physicality. And by deterritorialising this stratum (being a
short woman, such as Minerva) can open new interpretations to embody
risk, freedom, and vulnerability for mestiza mountaineers. Plus, if Mexican-­
mestiza women can surpass the idea of exercise involved in mountaineer-
ing as a control mechanism to fulfil standards of attractiveness and define
it as an exercise to promote well-being, they will be re-territorialising the
stratum. This process is illustrated again in Minervas’ opinion about pay-
ing less attention to aesthetics and centring in training, while dynamics
related to well-being and mountaineering can provide new significance to
risk, strength, comfort, or freedom. In this sense, women can also re-­
territorialise emotions experienced during the practice of adventure
122 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

activities (to feel power but also fragility, or fear as well as calm). By doing
so, women would be able to disrupt societal norms used to regard them as
fragile and not suited for physical efforts.
Another relevant issue is identified by Fullagar and Pavlidis (2017) and
Rodríguez Castro and colleagues (2021) about the “ugliness” experi-
enced by women while practising a sport or activity; scholars have empha-
sised a range of emotions that women face and how some of them are
contradictory. This is important because a rhizomatic body is character-
ised for all ranges of practices that materialise emotions, stereotypes, and
behaviours, among others; therefore, struggles are considered vital to
negotiate societal norms. In this regard, Maura’s experiences with her
bodily changes and emotions during/after pregnancy, or Melina’s experi-
ence, about feeling safe, reflecting emerging contradictions that make par-
ticipants, their families, and society ponder about how fixed societal norms
are. As recognised by Rodríguez Castro and colleagues (2021) or Fullagar
and Pavlidis (2017), participants experience and face their contradictions
as an exercise to deterritorialise and re-territorialise the rhizomatic body.
The above is relevant because, despite the increasing involvement of
women in adventure and tourism activities, several scholars have shed light
on entrenched attitudes and practices that restrict their participation as
mountaineers (Doran, 2016; Frohlick, 2006; Hall, 2018). Some scholars
have suggested the relevance of promoting the entrance of more women
as a positive strategy; regarding this, sororal spaces to increase women’s
participation can be used to strengthen the strata and intertwine individ-
ual rhizomes with collective rhizomatic bodies. For example, when Melina
mentions how important it was to introduce a friend to the activity or to
avoid a competitive style of summiting, she might be re-territorialising
mountaineering with new significance.
Indeed, some scholars have emphasised how open spaces for women
can foster others’ introduction and participation (Comley, 2016; Díaz-­
Carrión et al., 2020; Olive et al., 2021). In this regard, sororal spaces can
promote solidarity on two levels: personal and at an aggregated-­community
level (by attracting other mountaineers); this might be beneficial to the
rhizomatic body, particularly to cement advances for future women moun-
taineers. An increase in the number of participants can promote their vis-
ibility and strengthen the opportunity of promoting less restrictive outdoor
and adventure activities (Comley, 2016; Doran, 2016; Knijnik et al.,
2010). Finally, as noted by Markula (2006) the rhizome is always evolv-
ing; therefore, an empty space appears in the figure to both deterritorialise
 7 EXPLORING THE GENDERED AND RACIALISED EXPERIENCES OF MEXICAN… 123

and re-territorialise the Mexican-mestiza women mountaineer. By using

the rhizomatic body to analyse mestiza women’s engagement in adventure
activities, I have been able to advance resignification of “otherness” (deter-
ritorialisation and reterritorialisation) in relation to gender and ethnicity
from the Global South. The core of Deleuze and Guattari’s (2019) pro-
posal has been proved useful to identify societal restrictions and capture
the negotiations and advances in the practice of the activity.
Regardless of advances some restrictions remain and place inquiries for
future research. Even if participants can configure and re-territorialise
strata related to the rhizomatic body through practices of freedom,
strength, or confidence, how do we promote more inclusive mountaineer-
ing practices? As it has been noted by Doran et al. (2020), that women
mountaineers have to increase their presence, and relying on women can
be an important strategy. Scholars can explore the role of solidarity and
sorority as a mechanism to open mountaineering to women and to pro-
mote their negotiations. Diverse gender or ethnic identities and their
access to mountaineering can also provide relevant knowledge to advance
the rhizomatic body to promote an inclusive activity.

Conclusion
During the 2021 mountaineering season, newspapers reported some mile-
stones in mountaineering: an incredible number of climbers are summit-
ing the highest mountains and women’s presence is increasing at important
rates (Fernández, 2021; ONU Mujeres, 2021). Bloggers and writers have
been pointing out massification in mountaineering, a situation addressed
by several scholars (Higham et al., 2015; Sanders, 2020), whose efforts to
capture the so-called mountaineering tourism phenomena made evident
the commodification and colonialism of emblematic locations such as the
Andes or the Himalayas. As an amateur mountain climber, I do experience
conflicting emotions while reading the news: I am concerned about the
future of mountaineering, as a sport, and also about the mountains; on the
other side, as a gender and tourism scholar, I feel admiration for those
women who defy societal norms and find in the mountain joy and
satisfaction.
Despite their increasing participation, women are still considered as the
“other” in diverse outdoor and adventure tourism. To participate in the
“white man’s world”, women try out diverse strategies to gain access and
to stay in the activity to surpass personal, socio-cultural, and practical
124 I. A. DÍAZ-CARRIÓN

constraints. In this regard, the rhizomatic body episteme appears relevant

to promote new insights in mountaineering practices to include gender or
ethnicity from the Global South. In this exercise it plays an important role
to articulate content and stratum landed through mountaineering; there-
fore, new reterritorialisation and meanings are developed. The chapter
proposed an alternative understanding of negotiating restrictions and pro-
moting sororal rhizomatic bodies to cement individual rhizomatic bodies.
To gender and tourism scholars, the rhizomatic body episteme can also be
used to generate a critical analysis for cis or transgender activities realised
during leisure time. Regarding theoretical assumptions, one question
remains: What will happen with the “other” once Mexican-mestiza women
mountaineers have plenty of access to the mountain? Will the category
disappear? Will it be dignified? Future scholars can also analyse the evolu-
tion of the theoretical concept.
Practical implications can be used by adventure organisations interested
in materialising inclusive tours, particularly for only women tours. Findings
can also be considered by public policies to promote actions centred in
women mountaineers to address multiple womanhoods and their
meanings.

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 CHAPTER 8

(Re)naming Routes: A Tale

of Transformation in the Outdoor Rock
Climbing Community

Jennifer Wigglesworth

Introduction
Rock climbing is shaped by, and shapes, society. It does not happen in a
vacuum. An illustrative example of this is how the advocacy around the
issue of discriminatory route names in outdoor sport climbing gained
momentum in the summer of 2020 alongside transnational calls for racial
justice with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
With the resurgence of the BLM movement came a powerful reminder
that names can change. In the summer of 2020, I witnessed statues and
monuments that long honoured racist and colonial figures be toppled and
spray-painted, and racist sports team names be expunged across Canada
and the United States. In June 2021, as a result of much Indigenous-led
activism, I watched on the news as construction crews removed a statue of

J. Wigglesworth (*)
University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, BC, Canada
e-mail: jennifer.wigglesworth@unbc.ca

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 129

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_8
130 J. WIGGLESWORTH

Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, who is known
for introducing Indian residential schools and a nationwide programme of
assimilation (Hopper, 2018), from a park in Kingston, Ontario; the statue
was not far from where I lived and worked for much of my doctoral work.
However, these things happened not only because of the activism of 2020.
For instance, the Washington Football team finally dropped its racist name
after a decades long battle, which most recently has been led by Diné
woman, Amanda Blackhorse. Other significant name changes included the
Cleveland Baseball and the Edmonton Football teams dropping their rac-
ist names. A group of bird watchers also began the initiative, Bird Names
for Birds, which seeks to change honorific common bird names, such as
those named after confederate generals; they pointedly describe these
names as ‘verbal statues.’
There are a lot of parallels between the conversations about toppling
statues and changing names. Statues and names stand and map our land-
scapes (although their physical removal does not necessitate that they are
erased from the nation-state’s cultural memory). Names and statues can
be particularly useful texts for thinking about the present sociocultural
context, and in addition to telling us about the current moment, names
offer us a way to think about how to build a better future.
In contemplating how to build a better future, several grassroots climb-
ing organisations, such as Climbers of Color, Brown Girls Climb, Climb
the Gap, Melanin Base Camp, Collective Liberation Climbing, Adaptive
Climbing Group, and BelayALL, called for changes to discriminatory
route names across Canada and the United States. While debates over
route names have been taking place for a while (Anderssen, 2019), I was
encouraged when, in July 2020, I found myself attending an online webi-
nar hosted by Brown Girls Climb on route names and the future of climb-
ing culture (Walker, 2020). Momentum was building. Climbers and
climbing organisations were turning their gaze onto the larger institu-
tional players, such as publishers and advertising companies, which had
long avoided transparency and accountability for keeping offensive names
in circulation, and BLM’s powerful reminder that names can change
reached outdoor climbing. I argue that the successful renaming of dis-
criminatory routes is one example of how to create transformation in rec-
reational spaces and support different ways of being at the crag.
In this chapter, I use an analysis informed by feminism, anti-racism, and
settler colonialism to discuss the implications of naming practices within a
shifting cultural terrain and a settler-colonial state. I begin with a
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 131

discussion of key theoretical concepts. Next, I provide background on the

conditions that make route naming possible in climbing before revisiting
data I collected in 2018 that examined climbers’ reactions to misogynistic
route names. From here, I document significant route name changes that
took place within the outdoor climbing ‘community’ in Canada and the
United States since the summer of 2020, and I highlight people and
organisations that are reclaiming and transforming climbing spaces. My
chapter aims to weave together a tale of collective grassroots resistance and
oppressive naming practices. I conclude with a discussion of the impor-
tance of documenting resistance in climbing and leisure more broadly.

Key Theoretical Concepts

In my work, I put feminist perspectives into conversation with poststruc-
tural analyses, and I utilise theories of anti-racism and settler colonialism
to analyse how gender, race, and the settler state frame understandings of
the land and outdoor recreation practices. Together, these theoretical per-
spectives embolden me to think about the different ways gender discrimi-
nation and interlocking oppressions manifest in climbing.
One of the most powerful things that feminism has taught me is that
privileges and oppressions related to gender do not work independently of
other systems of oppression. As Flavia Dzodan (2011) has famously said,
“my feminism will be intersectional or it will be bullshit” (para. 1).
Intersectional feminism is a movement and an intellectual tradition that
recognises that access to gender equality varies according to other aspects
of one’s identity, including race, class, sexuality, age, ability, nationality,
ethnicity, and religion. Systems of oppression are interlinked, occur in
concert with one another, and manifest together. Therefore, for me, femi-
nism is more than working towards gender equality. I subscribe to the
American feminist and social activist bell hooks’ (2000) articulation of
feminism, that it is “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and
oppression” (p. viii).
I position myself within a poststructural epistemology, so I am inter-
ested in knowledge and power. Poststructuralism is about meanings, con-
tests over meaning, and how power makes things meaningful in certain
ways; it questions whose knowledge has power and in what ways (King &
McDonald, 2007; McCormick, 2007). Poststructuralists contend that
there is no one knowable reality; instead, they suppose that there are mul-
tiple, competing truths in our world (King, 2016). Subsequently, I
132 J. WIGGLESWORTH

recognise all knowledge as situated, partial, contingent, and interpretive.

As a feminist and poststructuralist, I historicise experience and analyse
how discourses—or systems of thoughts—produce subjects and their
experiences (Scott, 1992).
My understanding of anti-racism is influenced by the Black feminist
scholar and activist, Angela Davis, who famously said: “In a racist society,
it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” For me, anti-­
racism means fighting against racism. It is a person’s conscious decision to
make equitable and consistent choices every day, which necessitates self-­
awareness and self-reflection (National Museum of African American
History and Culture, 2022). In her book, Living a Feminist Life, Sara
Ahmed (2017) wrote that “so much of feminist and antiracist work is the
work of trying to convince others that sexism and racism have not ended”
(p. 6). Ahmed’s words resonate with me, because throughout my research,
I called for an end to discriminatory route names, which several climbers
did not recognise as existing. Beyond underpinning my politics and
encouraging me to call out racist slurs in climbing route names, an anti-­
racist lens helps me make sense of settler colonialism.
Settler colonialism is intimately tied to white supremacy, which is a sys-
tem of power that privileges white people above all others. Discourses of
whiteness shape settler colonialism, where whiteness is an ‘invisible’
racialised category that functions to continuously subjugate Black,
Indigenous, and other racialised people. Whiteness is constantly defined
and reproduced through anti-Blackness, and it is a global phenomenon
that has been used to justify European imperialist conquest and exploita-
tion in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania (Cole, 2020).
Settler colonialism is about land, resource extraction, and wealth gen-
eration. Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (2012) explained that settler colo-
nialism helps us to see how racism was invented to justify stealing peoples’
land and labour. The settler state wants Indigenous land, so it clears
Indigenous peoples out of the way to turn Indigenous land into property
(Smith, 2012). In Canada and the United States, European settlers used
the processes of displacement, spatial confinement, and restricted move-
ment to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their land and destroy their cul-
ture and group cohesion (Norman et al., 2019). Settler colonialism is an
ongoing system of oppression, not an event in history, that produces ideas
about the nation and who is welcome in the national imaginary (Tuck &
Yang, 2012; Tuck & Gaztambide-Fernández, 2013). Settler-colonial
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 133

frameworks help me consider the politics of the land upon which outdoor
leisure takes place.
Finally, my conceptualisation of power includes both oppression and
resistance. Power is who exerts influence in a particular sphere, but “power
works through will, not simply against will” (Ahmed, 2017, p. 75). So,
with power comes contestations of power, or challenge and resistance. An
example of a contestation of power would be developing a new technol-
ogy for naming routes in the climbing community, which is currently
underway by Melissa Utomo and a team of racialised women (Saatchi,
2021). It is through these contestations that more is learned about how
power operates. When people try to transform institutional norms, we see
how techniques of power operate (Ahmed, 2017). Thus, it is important to
pay attention to both oppression and resistance to achieve a nuanced anal-
ysis of power.

Outdoor Climbing Context

In outdoor climbing, the ‘first’ person who successfully ascends and sets
up a route—the first ascensionist—gets to choose a name for it. Some first
ascensionists use misogynistic, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or ableist
names for routes. At one of the crags I studied for my doctoral work, I
learned of the names Pussy Whipped, She Got Drilled, Tampon Applicator,
Hispanic Panic, and Eskimo Brothers. These names are not an isolated
occurrence. Discriminatory route naming practices extend across North
America, Australia, and the United Kingdom (Climb the Gap, 2022;
Wigglesworth, 2021). Moreover, this issue is a complex one—the first
ascent (FA) tradition is made possible by settler colonialism—with a long
history; TA Loeffler (1996) wrote about sexist and homophobic routes
published in climbing guidebooks across the United States more than 20
years ago. Problematic route names are rarely challenged because of the
widely accepted tradition of FA naming rights, and because the names are
not well known outside the climbing community. In contrast to ski hill
runs, signposts do not indicate climbing route names, and many routes are
in the backcountry. For example, most of the discriminatory route names
I found were at the furthest end of the cliff on difficult climbing terrain
(Wigglesworth, 2021).
Setting up a route is a difficult, risky, and time-consuming process.
Because of gendered caregiving responsibilities, family time, and financial
costs, it can be difficult for women to afford to carve out time for outdoor
134 J. WIGGLESWORTH

leisure and technical skills development (Warren & Loeffler, 2006). This
is seen in the data. The American Alpine Club’s (2019) found that 67 per
cent of outdoor climbers identify as men, while only 33 per cent identify
as women. In addition to structural constraints, historical bureaucratic
barriers have hindered the development of women’s climbing (Bell &
McEwan, 1996; Blum, 1980), and gendered discourses construct femi-
ninity as weak and at odds with adventure sport (e.g., Davis, 2007). These
discourses and circumstances produce a climate where women are less
likely to have the time, technical skills, confidence in those skills, interest
in confronting risk, and comfort in the outdoors, all of which are neces-
sary for setting up and naming a route.

Conditions That Make Route Names Possible

There are a few conditions that make discriminatory route names possible:
the cultural construction of wilderness spaces; racist and misogynistic top-
onyms issued by the state; and a laddish or toxic masculinity permeating
through the outdoors.

Cultural Construction of Wilderness

Outdoor climbing cannot take place without access to the land. Climbers
require wilderness spaces to set up, name, and climb routes. However,
wilderness spaces are not natural; they are culturally constructed. The wil-
derness had to be created before it could be preserved (Spence, 1999).
Settler colonialism upholds a human-centred approach that views the non-­
human environment as inferior, silent, and empty, which validates claims
for imposing on the land and serves to restrict Indigenous peoples’ resis-
tance (Plumwood, 2003; Erickson, 2020).
Canada’s and the United States’ national parks were made possible
through the dispossession and colonisation of Indigenous peoples. The
North American ‘conservation’ movement is entangled with histories of
conflict, displacement, cultural loss, and notions of racial purity (Mason,
2014, 2021). Yellowstone National Park is the first example of the govern-
ment’s removal of communities to preserve nature, and it provided a
model for the displacement of Indigenous peoples from national parks
(Mason, 2021). This removal was not an isolated occurrence; rather, a
pattern of exclusion emerged that became part of regional and national
policies, including Banff-Bow Valley in Canada. In the words of Jolie
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 135

Varela (2020), Paiute and Yakut founder of the Indigenous Women Hike
outdoor advocacy group: “Talking about the history and future of
National Parks without acknowledging the removal of Indigenous people
is erasure.” Land was appropriated from Indigenous peoples to create wil-
derness spaces for Western interpretations of “recreation,” such as sport
hunting. As scholar Ian MacLaren (2011) asserts, “Parks and protected
areas are often heralded for the species they protect, but are seldom exam-
ined for the ideologies or cultural values that they protect and project”
(p. 340). Settler-colonial policies continue to operate through parks, the
areas they protect, and the people and activities that take place in these
spaces. Eugene Arcand (2020), an Indigenous advisor to the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, emphasised the implications of these policies:
“Today, National Parks and Parks Canada have a larger land mass than all
of the reserves in Canada put together” (para. 12). Furthermore, the idea
of wilderness existing in one space and civilisation existing in another is a
uniquely settler-colonial construction because for Indigenous peoples wil-
derness and civilisation exist as one (Baldwin et al., 2011; Braun, 2002;
Erickson, 2003, 2020; Hermer, 2002; Lowan-Trudeau, 2021;
Spence, 1999).
This relationship between settler colonialism and wilderness is bol-
stered by the processes of mapping and naming. The coloniser maps and
names land to exert dominance and ensure a visible presence, where the
coloniser exerts control over so-called wild places by mastering them, r(e)
mapping them, and navigating them (Clayton, 2000; Gendron, 2021;
King, 2013; Monmonier, 2006; Whetung, 2019); however, there have
been and continue to be important forms of Indigenous resistance in con-
testing colonial land claims (Laurendeau, 2020).
Within outdoor climbing in Canada and the United States, the tradi-
tion of FA naming rights represents a colonial logic. First ascents are pred-
icated on the notion of ‘untouched cliffs.’ The idea that the land is a blank
canvas is a harmful colonial narrative that conditions climbers and facili-
tates climbing’s tradition of FA naming rights; climbers presuppose that
they are the first to climb cliffs, which erases Indigenous peoples’ histories
with the land and Indigenous peoples’ names for cliffs and mountains.
Furthermore, the association of white masculinity with unfettered mobil-
ity discursively produces privileged access to travel, cliffs, and, conse-
quently, FAs and route naming rights for white men (Erickson, 2003;
Frohlick, 2005).
136 J. WIGGLESWORTH

Racist and Misogynist Toponyms

A second condition that has facilitated the imposition of discriminatory
route names is state sanctioning of racist and misogynistic toponyms or
place names. Place names assert ownership, brandish control, and legiti-
mise conquest. Places names not only give both authorship and ownership
to the colonising nation, but they also erase the Indigenous knowledge of
the land, including that which grounds land claims (Clayton, 2000;
Erickson, 2003; Gendron, 2021; Monmonier, 2006). Racism and misog-
yny are deeply intertwined, so we cannot talk about one without talking
about the other—and this shows up in toponyms that refer to natural
geographic places.
There are many geographic features that have been named with a racist
and misogynistic slur that refers to Indigenous women, the s-word. In the
United States, King (2013) found that 938 geographic features bear the
name in 37 states, including the location of the 1960 Winter Olympics.
King (2013) argued that the s-word toponyms re-inscribe violence and
conquest on Indigenous women’s lives and bodies, encourage toxic mas-
culinity and heteronormativity in the public sphere, and illustrate the sig-
nificance of settler colonialism to the knowledge of the landscape.
According to the Canadian Geographical Names Database (2021), the
same slur is used to name 20 geographic features in Canada. Twenty-six of
these names have been rescinded. The geographical names, whether offi-
cial or rescinded, evidence two states—Canada and the United States—
that are sexist and racist and have a sexist and racist past.
However, alongside oppressive naming practices, there is collective
grassroots resistance. People are pushing for change. A lot of advocacy
work and activism is taking place. For instance, Stoney Nakoda chiefs and
elders successfully advocated to change the name of a mountain in
Canmore, Alberta, that had used the s-word (Valleau, 2020). While the
slur continues to be used in some hiking and climbing guides, on Google
maps, and on various trail websites, it has been changed on some of these
platforms. The new name for the mountain in Canmore is Bald Eagle
Peak, which recognises the Stoney Women who are historically known as
healers and warriors (Valleau, 2020). In Fall 2020, it was also announced
that the name of the American resort that served as the site of the 1960
Winter Olympics, which included the s-word, will be changed to ‘Palisades
Tahoe’ after the spring 2021 ski season (Mossburg, 2020; Patel, 2021).
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 137

Laddish/Toxic Masculinity
A third condition that makes these discriminatory route names possible is
a climate in which laddish or toxic masculinity is allowed to flourish. My
thinking is supported by other scholarship that documents how toxic mas-
culinity and heteronormativity permeate outdoor culture across a range of
informal sport contexts (Erickson, 2003; Olive, 2016; Olive et al., 2018;
Wheaton, 2004; Wigglesworth, 2021). TA Loeffler (1996) wrote about
sexist and homophobic route names in climbing guidebooks across the
United States and theorised that a “laddish masculinity” makes these
names possible. For Loeffler (1996), laddish masculinity is defined as
intensive fraternal bonding—where men share experiences, fun, and
humour to develop relationships—that frequently involves sexually aggres-
sive, sexist, or racist jokes. Feminist studies of shortboard surfing and
windsurfing also report findings of toxic masculinity and heteronormativ-
ity (Olive, 2016; Olive et al., 2018; Wheaton, 2004). Within windsurfing,
Belinda Wheaton (2004) observed that verbal put-downs of women and
homophobic slurs towards less proficient men reinforce a heteronormative
male sports landscape.
I also heard a homophobic slur and observed laddish masculinity while
conducting fieldwork for my doctoral research (Wigglesworth, 2021). It
happened while I was on a weekend climbing trip with a university climb-
ing club. On the first night of the trip, as our group of 14 hiked into the
woods to set up camp, we walked past a rock face that had “Bob likes
cock” spray-painted onto it, and one of the men yelled: “Bob’s a faggot!”
This man’s homophobic slur was irritating and impaired my own and, I
assume, others’ enjoyment of the outdoors. This experience jarred me into
seeing the cross-cutting power systems at play in outdoor climbing—that
a white, male-dominated, hypermasculine, homosocial climate supports
the formation of misogynistic route names. Now that we know better
what makes route names possible, in the next section I revisit data I col-
lected in 2018 to contextualise the practice of renaming routes.

Collecting and Mobilising Data

In my doctoral work, I wanted to know how a group of women climbers
negotiated misogynistic route names, so I specifically asked about this in
my semi-structured and focus group interviews (Wigglesworth, 2021). I
spoke with 34 self-identifying women aged 19–34, who were
138 J. WIGGLESWORTH

predominantly white and middle class and who represented a wide range
of climbing abilities. Upon analysing the transcripts, six themes emerged
in relation to the topic of misogynistic route names: frustration, helpless-
ness, exclusion, internalised sexism, pushback, and the intersection of sex-
ism and settler colonialism (Wigglesworth, 2019, 2021).
Of all my interview questions, the most impassioned responses I
received were in response to my question about the route names. Several
women felt that nothing could be done to change discriminatory names
because of the strong tradition of FA naming rights. They explained that
they were apprehensive to advocate changing route names for fear of their
climbing reputation being criticised or being called an angry feminist
(Wigglesworth, 2021). There were also a few women who defended the
FA tradition and found the misogynistic route names funny. Conversely,
several participants condemned the route names for making women feel
uncomfortable and pushed back against the defence of FA naming rights;
they wanted to see change, and they suggested renaming misogynistic
route names and rewriting online climbing guides. One participant even
refused to climb these routes until they were renamed.
Several of the women encouraged me to write a newspaper article to
expose the misogynistic route names and lobby for change. This exchange
was the impetus behind me writing a public sociology blog about the
route names (Wigglesworth, 2019), which got picked up and published
on the front page of a national Canadian newspaper (Anderssen, 2019).
The newspaper article democratised public access to information about
misogynistic naming practices in climbing, and it permitted me to forge
connections with other people looking to make climbing more inclusive.
For instance, my media exposure led to an informal interview with a jour-
nalist, Anaheed Saatchi, who was writing for Alpinist about Black and
other racialised women’s climbing experiences. Saatchi (2020) was not
interested in debating whether sexism existed in the climbing community;
they contended that we had spent too much time trying to convince
everyone that sexism exists, and instead, now it was time to shift our focus
to the work already being done to make climbing better. Saatchi’s piece
reminded me of the importance of looking for moments of resistance, and
beginning in the summer of 2020, I found much evidence of this in the
climbing community.
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 139

Name Changes
For those in the climbing community wanting to enact change, their first
step was developing a list of discriminatory names. Climb the Gap, a col-
lective whose mission is to cultivate more equity and diversity in climbing,
developed an open-source spreadsheet for compiling a list of discrimina-
tory route names and their first ascensionist(s), locations, and the guide-
books in which they appeared. This document, which is mostly US-based,
catalogues over 300 route names. Other lists were compiled by Womxn
Who Climb and Dominique Davis (Climb the Gap, 2022). Climb the Gap
reviewed the names and reached out to authors and publishers of climbing
guidebooks in an effort to change them. They also reached out to the
companies who advertise in these guidebooks and the retailers who sell
these guidebooks to put more pressure on the authors and publishers to
change the discriminatory names.
The most well-known climbing application in the industry, Mountain
Project, recently included a crowd-sourced feature for flagging discrimina-
tory route names on its climbing website. The flagging feature led to route
names being redacted on the online climbing guide. However, there were
issues around how a racialised woman climber, Melissa Utomo, was not
credited or compensated for her labour in developing this feature (Saatchi,
2021; Walker, 2020). This reminds me of Ahmed’s (2017) note: “I have
learned about how power works by the difficulties I have experienced in
trying to challenge power” (pp. 89–90).
Progress is neither linear nor smooth, but as evidence mounted and
advocacy gained traction, route names were redacted, abbreviated, and
changed. Popular media articles documented some of the route name
changes that occurred at Ten Sleep Rock Ranch in Wyoming, at Clear
Creek Canyon in Colorado, and at Squamish in British Columbia (Buhay,
2020; Pullan, 2020). At Ten Sleep Canyon, Slavery Wall, Aunt Jemima’s
Bisquick Thunderdome, 40 Acres and a Mule, and Happiness in Slavery
were changed to Downpour Wall, Bisquick Thunderdome, Broken
Promises, and Happiness, respectively (Buhay, 2020); at Clear Creek
Canyon, Towelhead, Welfare Crack, and Smack that Bitch Up were abbre-
viated to T-Head, W-Crack, and Smack, respectively (Buhay, 2020); and
at Squamish, Plugging a Dyke, Women in Comfortable Shoes, and
Whorehouse were changed to Plugging Along with My Friends,
Comfortable Shoes, and War House, respectively (Pullan, 2020). It is
arguable whether these changes create more inclusive climbing spaces, but
140 J. WIGGLESWORTH

these examples highlight the interconnection of racism, misogyny, and

homophobia in naming practices.
I also observed two routes be renamed at a crag that I researched, one
of which is a route name I called out in a public sociology blog
(Wigglesworth, 2019). The first ascensionist issued the name changes in
the summer of 2020. The Reacharound was changed to The Big Reach,
and Donkey Punch 2.0 was changed to Donkey See, Donkey Do. These
two name changes illustrate how some discriminatory route names dis-
guise their oppression behind colloquial language, puns, and inside jokes.
I had to refer to an online slang dictionary (Urban Dictionary, 2022) to
uncover the possible double meanings of some of the route names. I origi-
nally flagged Donkey Punch 2.0 as misogynistic, but I decided to with-
hold this route name from my interviews and analysis because I was not
sure of its intended meaning. However, given its name change, I think I
can be more certain of its misogynistic origins. A takeaway here is the need
to include diverse people in the conversation to understand how names are
harmful. However, with respect to the labour of changing route names,
we should not lean on the free labour of marginalised climbers to call out
oppressive names one by one, as it is exhausting, and these climbers are
often the recipients of the pain caused by these names.

Climbers and Organisations Reclaiming and Transforming

Climbing Spaces
Alongside compiling evidence and campaigning for name changes, climb-
ers organised events to discuss ways forward for transforming climbing
spaces and making the sport inclusive. As I mentioned, in July 2020 I
attended a webinar hosted by Brown Girls Climb on problematic route
names and the future of climbing culture (Walker, 2020). The webinar
panellists discussed how discriminatory route names are a form of hate
speech or violence that generates embodied responses; they encouraged
people to use the term ‘oppressive’ rather than ‘offensive’ to describe the
route names in order to highlight how they are a systemic form of oppres-
sion rather than a series of individual, isolated events. Bethany Lebewitz,
who is the co-founder of Brown Girls Climb, expressed how climbing has
been significant for her physical and mental development, but that encoun-
tering misogynistic and racist route names was traumatising (Walker,
2020). Despite this, Lebewitz still saw a path forward for change:
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 141

It often seems so big, like we don’t have control because we weren’t the FA
(First Ascensionist), that we couldn’t change it … Now we’re like ‘Oh!’ It’s
like understanding white supremacy for the first time, we are understanding,
‘this isn’t actually my [climbing] culture, this is something I have the power
to dismantle or uproot and create something different’. (Walker,
2020, para. 16)

Another panellist, Erynne Gilpin, similarly wove together a tale of oppres-

sion and resistance when discussing the route names. She mentioned that
when she attended the Flash Foxy Festival (a multi-day women’s and gen-
derqueer climbing festival), she came across a misogynistic route name:
“There was this [climb] we were trying called Up Her Skirt and we were
like … ‘we’re not calling it this, there’s no way,’ so we called it Up Yours
Misogyny and we had an amazing time climbing” (Walker, 2020, para.
21). Lebewitz and Gilpin’s quotes demonstrate the oppression inherent in
the names but also the refusals available to climbers. Therefore, this webi-
nar shed light on the substantial, collective, grassroots resistance within
the climbing community and the transformations already taking place on
the ground.
Beyond the successful change of discriminatory route names, the climb-
ing community has been reflecting on larger questions about the politics
of land. This was evident throughout the Brown Girls Climb webinar, as
panellists discussed the issues of recreating on land that the American and
Canadian states stole from Indigenous peoples. During a brainstorming
session at the end of the webinar, participants proposed several strategies
for climbing that consisted of including Indigenous Territory acknowl-
edgements in the introductions of climbing guidebooks, posting Territory
acknowledgements at the beginning of trailheads, developing strong col-
laborations between climbers and Indigenous communities grounded in
Indigenous values, repatriating land, and respecting sacred Indigenous
sites (Wigglesworth, 2021).
The issue of climbing on sacred Indigenous sites resurfaced in the
media in April 2021 when an American climber, Richard Gilbert, drilled
bolts into a rock wall in Utah and defaced a 1000-year-old Indigenous
cultural site (Nelson, 2021). Gilbert said that he did not know that he was
compromising prehistoric petroglyphs, but his actions revitalised long-­
standing debates about climbing’s problematic history, which entails peo-
ple spending decades fighting to climb wherever they please, and often
succeeding (Nelson, 2021). Gilbert’s bolts were removed from the wall,
142 J. WIGGLESWORTH

but his actions and admissions sparked backlash within climbing and
beyond. In response to Gilbert’s actions, The Access Fund—a not-for-­
profit climbing organisation that keeps climbing areas open and conserves
the climbing community in the United States—hosted an online webinar
titled “Climbing on Sacred Land: Understanding and Respecting
Indigenous Culture.” The Access Fund’s cited goal was to host a conver-
sation about understanding and respecting Indigenous culture with panel-
lists discussing practical ways to ensure that climbers do not harm sacred
land and its ongoing legacy.
In addition to the above two events, I also want to spotlight four climb-
ers who are contributing to the ongoing activism and advocacy in the
world of climbing. First is Melissa Utomo. Utomo is an Asian American
climber and web developer in Boulder, Colorado. She is also a member of
Brown Girls Climb. In Fall of 2020, she crowd-funded six thousand dol-
lars to hire a team and begin designing a brand-new digital climbing
guidebook, called Project Beta, which focuses on universal design and
accessibility (Saatchi, 2021). Project Beta is largely coordinated by
racialised women, and according to Utomo, its goal is to move beyond
one-dimensional depictions of climbers as white, cis-gender, able-bodied
men and to create a diverse user experience (Saatchi, 2021). Second is
Erynne Gilpin. Gilpin is a mixed Cree Métis, Filipina and Celtic climber,
activist and academic in Victoria, British Columbia. She is the founder of
Indigenous Womxn Climb, and she locates her climbing within Indigenous
cosmologies and place-based knowledge about the land. Along with
Indigenous youth climbers, Gilpin set routes named: 7 Generations
Boulder, Moccasin Telephone, and BIPOC Bloc (Smart, 2021). These
new route names flip oppressive naming practices on their head, showcase
a concrete moment of resistance, and give Indigenous youth self-­
determination. Gilpin also plans to produce Indigenous outdoor stories
that showcase climbing as safe for all people: “the long-term goal is trans-
formation” (Smart, 2021, para. 12). The third climber is Anaheed Saatchi,
whose writing has been crucial to the resistance within the climbing com-
munity. They wrote a piece for Alpinist and Melanin Base Camp on dis-
criminatory route names, and they also co-founded the grassroots
organisation, BelayALL. This summer 2022, Saatchi helped organise the
Drag at the Crag event in Squamish, British Columbia, which celebrated
“the intersections of gender, queerness and rock climbing, in a space
where diverse queer folx have been historically excluded, and/or not
intentionally included” (BelayALL, 2022, para. 5). Fourth is Ashleigh
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 143

Thompson. Thompson is an Ojibwe climber and Indigenous rights advo-

cate in Tucson, Arizona. Throughout her graduate studies, she’s written
papers and presented on the cultural appropriation found in route names.
One of her proposals for addressing racist and discriminatory route names
is an Indigenous climbing festival (Walker, 2020). Utomo, Gilpin, Saatchi,
and Thompson showcase that climbers have begun the work of addressing
discrimination and making the sport more inclusive.

Discussion
It is telling to revisit my data from 2018 within the current context, where
climbers’ advocacy has led to a plethora of route name changes (Climb the
Gap, 2022). It begs the question of what shifted between the time I inter-
viewed the women in 2018 and the summer of 2020. As I emphasised at
the beginning of this chapter, climbing does not take place in a vacuum.
Climbing is shaped by society, so when the BLM movement resurged in
the summer of 2020, with it came calls to rename racist place names,
change racist sport mascots, and remove statues of confederate generals
and other colonial vestiges of the past. Sport climbing was influenced by
BLM, and alongside calls to remove anti-Asian, anti-Black, and anti-­
Indigenous racist route names also came the demand to remove homo-
phobic, transphobic, misogynistic, and ableist route names.
One thing that climbers’ activist and advocacy work has not yet dis-
mantled is FA naming rights. This tradition continues to wield power.
Because of this, climbers and climbing organisations had to be creative
and smart in tackling the issue of discriminatory route names; they used a
multifaceted approach to lobby guidebook publishers, advertising compa-
nies, online climbing websites, and retailers, in addition to asking first
ascensionists to rename routes. However, while the defence of FA naming
rights still lingers, I would say that the defence of discriminatory route
names, especially racist names, lost significant traction. Any defence of
discriminatory route names makes me think of Ahmed’s (2017) comment:
“freedom has become reduced to the freedom to be offensive, which is
also about how those with power protect their right to articulate their own
views, no matter what, no matter whom” (p. 262). Given this, I would say
that climbers’ power to articulate white, straight, male, cis-gendered, and
able-bodied views weakened as of summer 2020. Some oppression sub-
sided and made way for resistance, and with this, name changes took place
144 J. WIGGLESWORTH

that helped transform sport climbing and support different ways of being
at the cliff and in the mountains.
What climbers and grassroots climbing organisations did well was
directly address the problem of discriminatory route names. There was no
skirting around the issue. In the words of Ahmed, “we need to engage
with the world—know it, understand it—if we are to transform it. We can-
not withdraw from sexism and racism” (cited in Mehra, 2017, para. 9). I
observed several climbers who did not withdraw from difficult and com-
plex conversations. And people pushed the agenda past the issue of route
names to confront the settler-colonial logic upon which climbing rests.
This is encouraging, and it reveals that work for one cause has the poten-
tial to reverberate through other causes too.
Within the vein of reverberating through other causes, I also want to
point out that climbers’ strategies for renaming routes and developing
inclusivity apply to other outdoor cultures. For instance, discriminatory
trail names are also widespread in mountain biking (Chambers, 2020).
During a media interview, I learned about a trail named B-line on Squamish
Mountain in British Columbia, where mountain bikers frequently nail
women’s underwear to a tree next to the trail sign. The journalist, Melanie
Chambers, explained to me that the trail is named B-line because it is a
beginner trail, so nailing women’s underwear to the tree insinuates that
women ride this trail because they are not as advanced as men. Over the
past few years, underwear has been repeatedly removed and replaced
(Chambers, 2020). Climbing is not exempt from this tradition; male
climbers have hung panties from belay bolts and placed dildos on rock
walls (Taylor, 2010), and in skiing and snowboarding, a similar custom
unfolds where skiers riding a chair lift throw bras and panties onto a tree
underneath the left, calling this a “panty tree” or “bra tree” (Shafer,
2018). It is discouraging to learn about how outdoor practitioners devalue
women’s bodies and achievements in various ways, but by understanding
the problem, people can offer better tangible solutions. These examples
point to the significance of documenting tales of oppression and resistance
so that lessons can be learned, shared, and used elsewhere, with the goal
of making the outdoors safer for all people.
Instead of only trying to convince academics and practitioners that
oppression exists in climbing, I have also emphasised grassroots resistance.
According to Ahmed (2016), the archive of evidence is already full of
examples of marginalisation and exclusion:
 8 (RE)NAMING ROUTES: A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION… 145

Add it to the archive is an expression that allows us to think that an experi-

ence however difficult might have use value as evidence (we have some-
where to put it; we have a place for it to go). But of course when I say “add
it to the archive” I say so with a degree of scepticism; if that archive is
already stuffed, more evidence might be what we do not need. (para. 34)

Therefore, my analysis matters because I’m adding more stories of resis-

tance to the archive. According to Ahmed (2016), I am creating an
“archive of rebellion” (para. 31). By highlighting how resistance takes
place through various organisations, events, and individuals, I offer a femi-
nist and anti-racist exploration of grassroots advocacy and activism work.
Another significant takeaway of the chapter is that power can be shifted
through technology. For example, Utomo’s new digital climbing guide-
book and Gilpin’s Indigenous outdoor films expect to transform how
power operates in climbing. Climbers are creating technology to allow
communities to name and represent themselves in certain ways and chal-
lenge traditional structure, while also making changes to physical guide-
books and having discriminatory names redacted in online climbing
guides. This puts more power into the hands of climbers. Here we see
climbers contesting the power of the structure and revolutionising the
sport through new technology.

Conclusion
Names tell us about the current moment and offer a way to think about
how to build a better future. During the height of the BLM resurgence,
Angela Davis spoke to Democracy Now (2020) about the issue of chang-
ing names and striking down statues:

I think this reflects the extent to which we are being called upon to deeply
reflect on the role of historical racisms that have brought us to the point
where we are today … Attention is being turned toward the symbols of
slavery, the symbols of colonialism … . I think that these assaults on statues
represent an attempt to begin to think through what we have to do to bring
down institutions and re-envision them, reorganise them, and create new
institutions that can attend to the needs of all people.

Taking Davis’ argumentation and applying it to my work, I claim that

discriminatory route names act as an entry point into a larger discussion
146 J. WIGGLESWORTH

about the intersection of gendered and colonial power and how they shape
landscapes and recreation practices in the American and Canadian context.
Furthermore, discriminatory route names act as a springboard to reorga-
nise sport climbing, support different ways of being at the crag, and create
transformational recreational spaces.

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 PART III

Transforming Leadership,
Participation and Praxis: Climbing the
Mountain of Equity
 CHAPTER 9

Climbing Mountains Together: Developing

Gender Parity Pathways in Mountaineering
Leadership and the Role of Men

Cressida Allwood and Linda Allin

Introduction
This chapter contextualises the issue of gender parity in outdoor leader-
ship and considers the role of men in actively advancing women in out-
door leadership contexts. We draw from research into gender and
leadership in organisations, outdoor leadership pathways, and male ally-
ship. To this, we add our knowledge of current gender parity strategies in
mountain leadership and training in the UK. We propose that addressing
the issue of gender parity in mountain leadership can be started by build-
ing bridges across the gender divide and creating inclusive and psychologi-
cally safe spaces for conversations around gender. We provide examples of

C. Allwood
Manchester, UK
L. Allin (*)
Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
e-mail: linda.allin@northumbria.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 153

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_9
154 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

practical strategies that can be implemented in mountain leadership con-

texts and suggest how male allies, particularly those in positions of power,
can create meaningful change in organisational and leadership cultures.

Women, Gender and Leadership in the Outdoors

To understand the issue of gender parity in outdoor leadership, it is impor-
tant to recognise that despite progress in outdoor participation and the
appointment of some high-profile women at CEO level, men continue to
hold most senior decision-making positions in outdoor organisations
(Rogers & Rose, 2019). Whilst precise figures in the UK are hard to come
by, research by Allwood (2015) for the Institute of Outdoor Learning
(IOL) found that 77.5% of CEOs in outdoor organisations were male,
with more men being employed full time and more male freelance staff.
The proportion of female outdoor leadership instructional staff in Outward
Bound UK is less than 30% (O’Brien & Allin, 2021). In mountaineering,
whilst figures at lowest levels, such as lowland leaders, are showing evi-
dence of progress with women making up over 40% of those qualified, the
ratios at Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor (MCI) level have
remained relatively unchanged for the last 20 years and lie at around 10%
(Sharp, 2001, Mountain Training England (MTE) 2020 personal com-
munication). A recent large-scale demographic analysis in the UK by
Christian et al. (2022) reinforces the ongoing asymmetric pattern of
women in adventure sport coaching in the UK, as a whole and at the
higher end of qualifications. They showed 27.1% of males qualified in the
top four coaching levels compared to 10.1% of women. Women with dif-
ferent intersections of gender identity in outdoor leadership, such as
women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, low socio-economic
status or with disabilities, alongside those who identify as LBTQ+, are also
visibly lacking. This position should be untenable in contemporary society,
where social justice in outdoor leadership has long been called for
(Humberstone, 2000; Warren, 2002). Diverse perspectives are also
increasingly recognised as beneficial for organisations and leadership prac-
tice (Adamson et al., 2021; Allen-Craig et al., 2020).
Many outdoor organisations including the Institute of Outdoor
Learning (IOL) and the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) recog-
nise the need for the sector to better understand the potential impact of
improved gender balance in leadership and have clear prominent equity
statements on their websites. The issue of diversity and inclusion across
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 155

the outdoor sector has been further highlighted, with the publication of
the INclusivity in the OUTdoors report (Anderson et al., 2021), which
provided learning from a webinar series on the topic alongside recommen-
dations for action. The report found that perceptions and understanding
were identified as the biggest ‘barrier’ to INclusivity in the OUTdoors.
However, in a systematic review of women in sport organisations, Evans
and Pfister (2021) found that even where gender equity policies exist, and
despite men in leadership roles recognising the under-representation of
women, organisational cultures and selection processes that favour men
continue to reinforce inequity. This suggests the need for more work in
supporting leaders to understand the complexity of gender parity and how
to reach it.

Understanding the Issue: Women

and Outdoor Leadership

Examining the complexity of gender parity in outdoor leadership can be

done through critically reflecting on what is termed the ‘leaky pipeline’
(Aman et al., 2018). The ‘leaky pipeline’ refers to the fact that many com-
petent women in the outdoors often leave at an earlier stage in career or
leadership progression. As Christian et al. (2022) highlight, women who
do work in the industry are predominantly younger, less qualified and
coach (or lead) beginners, and do not progress up the coaching or leading
levels. Numerous papers highlight ongoing issues with longevity for
women leaders in the profession (see Jordan, 2018; Warren et al., 2018;
Wright & Gray, 2013). Challenges include lack of confidence in technical
skills, concerns around combining career, motherhood and family, feelings
of self-doubt, feeling the need to prove themselves or a lack of a sense of
belonging, or financial constraints (Allin, 2003, 2004; Davies et al., 2019;
Rao & Roberts, 2018; Whittington, 2019). The fact that many women
leave outdoor leadership careers early, however, can lead to assumptions
that they are not interested or motivated to progress. This often means
narrow strategies for gender parity that focus on individuals or a ‘fix the
woman’ approach, rather than looking to change wider cultural or struc-
tural barriers.
Some of the cultural issues in outdoor organisations that deter wom-
en’s progression are associated with long-ingrained racial, class-based and
hegemonic masculinity values and ways of working that have dominated
156 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

the history of the outdoors (see Humberstone, 2000; Rao & Roberts,
2018). Warren et al. (2018) show that questioning of technical compe-
tence, gender stereotyping, sexual harassment, heterosexist norms, and
inequity in the workplace still exist within the outdoor field. The existence
of ‘old boys’ networks and homosocial reproduction in hiring practices
have long been identified as key components of gendered organisational
cultures that hinder progress (Acker, 1990, 2006). The ‘leaky pipeline’
phenomenon also means that there becomes a lack of opportunity for
women at the beginning of their leadership pathway to see effective role
models ‘like them’ (Rao & Roberts, 2018) or create the kind of social
networks that are also useful for progression. Similarly, a long hours cul-
ture and lack of family friendly or flexible working practices can impact on
the careers of women who become—or wish to become—mothers, par-
ticularly if they lack wider support (Allin, 2004; Whittington, 2019).
Rogers and Rose (2019) also explored gendered experiences of diverse
women outdoor leaders in higher education contexts to show how historic
masculine conceptions of leadership involving toughness, dominance and
challenge still prevailed, leading them to self-question their preferred lead-
ership styles. Other studies have shown how some women mountaineers,
whether novice or relatively experienced, can be deterred from progres-
sion through mountain qualifications by feeling ‘too slow’ on the hill in
comparison to male counterparts (Hall & Doran, 2020). This feeling can
also be influenced by dominant discourses of outdoor leadership which
emphasise the importance of reaching the summit rather than enjoying
the journey, or by constantly being with male company who have a longer
stride and pace, and so this becoming the ‘norm’ by which all may be
judged. Whilst conceptions of leadership have moved on, remnants of
these traditional ideas around gender and leadership remain, despite our
knowledge that leadership is more complex set of skills, behaviours and
characteristics, and that it can incorporate many different but equally
authentic approaches which can be inclusive and empathetic, and not
match any binary or simplistic model (Luthans et al., 2006; Gray et al.,
2020; Smith & Penney, 2010; Smith, 2021).
Over 20 years ago Sharp (2001) noted how the utility of the contents
of the summer and winter mountain training scheme at the time were
rated differently, with women valuing more the knowledge base of moun-
tain leadership. Yet there has been continued emphasis on physical and
technical (or ‘hard’) skills in mountaineering culture and assessments.
Critical reflection on women’s experiences of qualifications and certain
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 157

elements of being a mountain leader come to be prioritised or legitimised,

can also help explain why some find progression more difficult or decide
to take a different route. For example, O’Brien and Allin (2021) found
that women on an outdoor leadership course tended to put the Mountain
Leadership qualification on a pedestal, having internalised views from male
peers and the outdoor culture that it was difficult to reach and far from
their abilities. Accurate feedback from multiple others in a supportive
environment revealed this was not the case. Recent findings have also con-
tinued to find that more women prefer to feel ‘completely ready’ through
enhanced preparation before they put themselves forward for mountain
leadership assessments (Hardy et al., 2019). The same study by Hardy
et al. (2019) found that different genders typically cited similar kinds of
reasons for not continuing in the schemes, but women identified more
barriers to progress.

Supporting Women’s Leadership in Mountaineering

In terms of gender parity specifically, the sector has identified the need for
identifying and developing practical steps to encourage women (from all
identities and backgrounds) through the outdoor leadership pathway.
Relevant recent interventions by mountain leadership organisations
include a Skills and Training Fund offered in 2021, whereby MTE awarded
grants to encourage ethnic diversity. Organisations such as Wanderlust and
Black Girls’ Hike have benefitted from such training bursaries, enabling
them to attend courses. The resultant increase in confident female role
models will hopefully encourage a broader uptake of women on such
courses and in outdoor contexts. More broadly, with greater diversity of
voices being heard in outdoor related media, the future looks more
positive.
In the summer of 2022, for the first time, the Walking Leader Awards
syllabus outlines key competencies based on transformational leadership.
It explicitly advocates that candidates develop their own ethos and beliefs
alongside those of Mountain Training (MT) and have knowledge of a
range of leadership styles. Words such as empathy and emotional intelli-
gence appear in the candidate handbook (MTE, draft document, personal
communication). These interventions represent a significant shift by the
UK awarding body for mountain leadership qualifications:
158 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

“We have recently updated our leadership competencies to a more inclusive

model based on transformational leadership. We are also investigating
whether our requirements for our trainers and assessors can be more broadly
defined to allow a greater breadth of talent to represent us. Female leader-
ship statistics are growing near to 50% for some of our qualifications but we
know we have more work to do to encourage this through all levels of our
sector.” (Guy Jarvis, MTE 2022)

It will be important to monitor how these changes are experienced in

practice by those passing through the mountain leadership pathway and to
share feedback.
In addition to the above actions, the importance of mentoring as a
strategy for women in leadership has been recognised across many male-­
dominated organisational settings, including sport and sport coaching
(Banwell et al., 2021). Yet, Sawiuk et al. (2022) note there remains limited
evidence of effectiveness or optimum mentoring programme design. They
also highlight the potential for formal organisational mentoring schemes
aimed at meeting institutional agendas (such as targets or access to fund-
ing) to be problematic and can serve to reinforce particular social and
cultural norms or coaching ideologies if taken uncritically (Leeder &
Sawiuk, 2021; Sawiuk et al., 2018). Research reviewed by Leader
and Sawiuk (2021) identifies a need to move away from dyadic mentoring
to multiple mentoring, where the mentee can gain from different ways
from different mentor types. These authors also suggest research is needed
on the usefulness of multiple mentors (peers as well as more qualified) and
role modelling as well as challenging problematic assumptions around the
mentoring of women.
Examples of positive outcomes from female mentoring schemes do
exist. Banwell et al. (2021) used ecological systems theory to explore the
benefits of a specific Female Coach Mentorship scheme in Canada under-
pinned by Zachary’s four-stage model of mentoring (preparing, negotiat-
ing, enabling growth and coming to closure). They found most benefits
were at the personal and interpersonal levels rather than organisational or
socio-cultural levels. That is, mentoring improved women’s overall devel-
opment as coaches and as people, including their confidence, and they also
enhanced networks in the coaching community. The women also per-
ceived improved relations with the sporting organisation, which they per-
ceived viewed them as more professional or having more of a voice.
However, their research supported other critiques of mentoring
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 159

programmes for women in that mentees did not perceive any new oppor-
tunities or changes to organisational practices or norms that would help
overcome wider organisational or socio-cultural issues. To have greater
influence, Banwell et al. (2021) suggest organisations need to build and
embed mentorship into their infrastructure and culture by linking it to
their overall mission and equity policies, involving staff across the organ-
isation and cultivating “new coaching opportunities that challenge socio-
cultural barriers” (p. 79).
In recent years there have also been mentoring schemes put in place for
women in outdoor leadership in the UK. Hardy et al. (2019) also sup-
ported the use of such mentoring, suggesting that, in the mountain lead-
ership scheme, enhanced goal-setting through an effective coaching
relationship with training providers can improve pass rates. One such
scheme was when Mountain Training UK (MTUK) introduced a women-­
only leadership mentoring programme in 2017 for their Mountaineering
and Climbing Instructor (MCI) scheme. Unfortunately, negative feed-
back from male trainees discouraged MTUK from offering women-only
support. Criticism of women-only (now often termed women-specific)
initiatives to support women’s leadership are often underpinned by the
belief that such courses encourage separatism, despite considerable
research that shows them to be highly supportive and effective for learning
(Avner et al., 2021; Banwell et al., 2021; O’Brien & Allin, 2021). MT
then developed a more general mentoring scheme which has grown in the
last few years. Providing skills training for mentors and facilitating ‘meet
your mentor’ sessions have been positive developments and online ses-
sions have also evolved as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. There has
also been significant investment in support between training and assess-
ment, though the outcomes of these initiatives need to be continually
evaluated.
As with most sport mentoring schemes, MTE also aims to match same-­
sex pairings in their mentoring scheme where these are requested, although
there is a high percentage of male mentors. In the women’s outdoor lead-
ership course run by the Outward Bound Trust UK in 2019, mentoring
was also incorporated as an explicit part of the course. Mentors were
matched to mentees on the basis of their profiles and perceived ‘fit’ and
were also predominantly male. The mentoring of women by men is con-
troversial as researchers suggest cross-gender mentoring can reinforce
unequal gender power relations or there can be greater potential for
clashes in style, personality or approach (Leeder & Sawiuk, 2021; Sawiuk
160 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

& Groom, 2019). However, the evidence is inconsistent. For example,

O’Brien and Allin (2021) found that many women on the women’s lead-
ership course felt it made no difference to them whether their mentor was
male or female, whilst others preferred a female mentor. What seemed to
be most important was the ability of the mentor to show empathy and
understanding of women’s perspective as well as to provide support in
goal-setting, accountability and opportunities to shadow leaders with
more experience, skills and qualifications. Feedback from women men-
tored by male mentors on the MTE scheme has also been positive. It is
hoped that these mentoring case studies are shared and celebrated,
acknowledging the potential beneficial impacts for all and providing
greater insight into ‘what works’.
Diversity within the mentor workforce is also important for enabling
women mentees from different intersectional identities to see themselves
in higher leadership positions (Rao & Roberts, 2018). In their pro-
gramme, MTE are also mindful of the lack of racial diversity when trying
to meet requests. As with research on women mentees, however, there is
a lack of research on the lived experiences of other underrepresented
groups in mentoring and mentoring effectiveness (Leeder & Sawiuk, 2021).

The Role of Male Allies

Allwood (2015) further highlights a disparity between the sexes, when it
comes to agreeing who is responsible for gender parity amongst the lead-
ership in outdoor activity organisations. As those most likely to be in posi-
tions of power, men are well placed to offer support, guidance and practical
help to those who would like to progress further in their careers. The role
of male leaders, including CEOs, in improving gender equality has also
become an increasingly asked question in the wider world of business
(Kelan, 2022). This may be because, as Gray et al. (2020) highlight so
well, “Transformational change rarely happens unless those in leadership
positions buy into the espoused model of transformation” (p. 104). Spoor
and Hoye (2014) showed that where sport organisations had a positive
culture and valued equity from senior leadership downwards, this led to
more positive outcomes for all in terms of commitment and engagement.
Men also have less to risk in stepping forward to challenging sexist behav-
iours or practices, and when seen to be doing so they can change the
attitudes of others and shift cultural norms (Masden et al., 2020), middle
managers can also help drive change through their activities with more
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 161

junior staff (Harding et al., 2014). Another way men play an important
role is therefore through the concept of male allyship.
Masden et al. (2020) explain how to be a male ally involves being aware
of the power and privilege men have as a member of a dominant social
group and also of the injustice experienced by those who are not. Male
allies can take intentional action to disturb or “interrupt sexism or gender
injustice” (p. 241). Research on male allies has shown that having a male
ally supportive of gender equality can reduce prospective feelings of isola-
tion and increase anticipation of a respectful, positive and supportive cul-
ture within male-dominated settings (Moser & Branscombe, 2021). In
her PhD thesis Heffernan (2018) determined that gender allyship existed
in the sport industry and that it began with self-awareness of the recogni-
tion of the power to create change, leading to personal investment in
doing so. Personal experience suggests that such allyship also exists in the
outdoor industry, but how much awareness there is of this has yet to be
explored. Recent outdoor publications have also called for more male
allies to become ‘champions’ and ‘incorporate themselves into the conver-
sation’ around gender and leadership in order for there to be sustained
cultural change (Gray et al., 2020, p. 108).
Whilst many outdoor male leaders support gender parity, they can feel
they lack sufficient knowledge, are concerned they may do something
‘wrong’ or do not know how to move forward (Allwood, 2015; Rogers,
Taylor & Rose, 2019). Humbert et al. (2019) found that essentialist views
of gender by male senior leaders can also make it more difficult for them
to be effective. For change, it is important for all to recognise gender as a
social construction and ongoing act rather than a set of fixed ‘differences’.
That is, gender is acted, constructed and reconstructed not only through
structures and cultures but also in the interactions which take place
between people and the language used. Obtaining a shared understanding
of gender, the language of gender and leadership and how to discuss the
issue is paramount, for as Kelan (2022) recognises, senior leaders “will
lead others through their talk” (p2) and middle managers can either “do
or undo” gender in their everyday actions (Kelan, 2022). Hence, the sec-
tor needs practical strategies and ways of talking about gender that are
inclusive and can lead to action which improves the gender balance.
Working with men on gender parity involves challenging the categories
of ‘us’ and ‘them’, focusing on mutual understanding and complexity, and
unearthing differing unconscious biases or misunderstandings which hin-
der progress. One way to do this is through creating psychologically safe
162 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

cultures where all members can safely speak up on any issue without expe-
riencing negative repercussions (Allwood, 2015; Edmondson, 2003; Gray
et al., 2020). Creating psychologically safe spaces for all genders to engage
in critical discussion around understandings of gender parity and the issue
of gender imbalance in the outdoor sector can reveal some of the myths,
tensions and contradictions that exist in relation to the issue. The signifi-
cance of how gender stereotypes also impact on men’s and other minority
experiences of the outdoors can also be discussed and help remove the
conflation of gender with ‘women’. A recent publication by Kennedy and
Russell (2021) critically re-examines the issue of hegemonic masculinity
and alternative masculinities in outdoor education, calling for more men
to show leadership in attending to gender in the outdoor field.
A pilot project to engage five male stakeholders from the British
Mountaineering Council in a workshop and coaching session to explore
understandings of gender parity was undertaken by Allwood in conjunc-
tion with IOL and Liverpool John Moores University. The project high-
lighted both the desire by male leaders to understand better how to
contribute to change and also revealed the vulnerabilities some men can
feel in exposing their views. The project used vignettes or short ‘stories’
and examples of typical scenarios that involve women in outdoor leader-
ship to highlight potential actions based on understanding of how gender
operates. These can be a useful tool to engage men in conversations and
have been well used by Kelan (2015) to support managers in a variety of
organisational settings. Vignettes can be co-constructed, made relevant to
the world of mountaineering leadership or tailored to a particular outdoor
leader audience. It is inevitable that raising ideas that challenge organisa-
tional norms, beliefs or values, which have existed for many years, can
elicit questioning or even resistance (Bleijenbergh, 2018; Lombardo &
Mergaert, 2013). However, Bleijenbergh (2018) reflected that initial
resistance can be a signal of greater psychological engagement and in her
experience some of the male leaders who were initially resistant went on to
become important allies.
In an American study, Masden et al. (2020) surveyed 243 men and
women to identify strategies and behaviours male allies had engaged in to
advance women in the workplace. They found that developmental rela-
tionships including mentoring were mentioned by 61% of men and 78.5%
of women. Mentoring was viewed as the most significant action under-
taken by men in supporting women’s leadership. For women this included
introduction to networks, communicating confidence or belief in them
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 163

and providing feedback and help with future career planning. In moun-
taineering leadership qualification pathway, similar ideas may be in facili-
tating appropriate networks to connect with (male and female), giving
accurate feedback on abilities, helping view qualifications and assessments
as within reach, and planning and encouraging applications to progress or
go for assessment. For male allies who wish to be mentors, we suggest
training and support in mentoring is also useful, along with understanding
others’ perspectives and ensuring an appropriate and effective relationship
can be built. More research and feedback on women’s diverse experiences
of male and female mentors in the outdoors can help develop a sense of
good practice for the mentoring of all genders in outdoor leadership.
Other strategies by male allies identified by Masden et al. (2020) were
providing leadership development opportunities, addressing HR processes
(such as inclusive recruiting, flexible working, childcare and parental
leave), recognising the contributions of women (publicly and privately)
and ensuring women’s voices were heard. Men also identified helping
other men become more aware of gendered assumptions, such as ques-
tioning a woman’s ability to maintain a work-life balance or asking the
only female present in a room to be secretary. In the mountain leadership
pathway, this may mean men challenging assumptions around technical
competence, the ‘right’ way to lead or that women will automatically drop
out from the pathway due to having children. Masden et al. (2020) also
highlighted that women noted a shift in attitude between generations,
with younger men more likely to take it for granted that women saw pro-
fessional success as important. This points to the value of intergenerational
conversations as well as actions.
These actions are supported by researchers such as Kelan (2015) who
identifies a number of clear responsibilities and practical strategies leaders
can engage in to support and promote gender parity. They cite creating
accountability, building ownership, communicating, leading by example,
and initiating and driving culture shifts. Kelan (2015) further presented
four key practices for middle managers, who can be crucial to the success
of strategies in reaching and being effective in enabling change. These are:
celebrating and encouraging women, calling out bias, championing and
defending gender and other targeted support initiatives, and challenging
working practices. Allwood and Hardie (2019) propose some key exam-
ples of good practice for leaders in the outdoors. These include ensuring
gender parity is a priority in the strategic plan, talking to the CEO or
Board about the ‘cost’ of gender inequality (or the benefits of gender
164 C. ALLWOOD AND L. ALLIN

parity), acknowledging the positive impact of female role models, review-

ing organisational images, listening to how others speak about women,
setting up a working group and investing in unconscious bias training.
Having identified male allies on Boards is to be welcomed. Ensuring their
contributions towards gender parity are consistent, constructive and help-
ful for all will depend on their commitment. We recommend such influen-
tial figures are both supported and held to account. We hope that more
awareness of these strategies, alongside open discussions of how they can
work in practice, will be useful in providing some practical guidance.

Conclusion
This chapter aimed to contextualise some of the issues around gender and
mountain leadership by exploring research around gender and leadership
in outdoor organisational and leadership pathways. We sought to high-
light the key role of male outdoor leaders as mentors and allies in promot-
ing gender parity and endorse positive actions taken by organisations. We
suggest that it is important to engage male stakeholders in the kind of
conversations around gender parity which, over the past five years, have
begun to take place in the outdoor sector, but have often been by and
among women. We recognise the progress that is being made in the out-
door field but continue to advocate that gender parity (and overall diver-
sity and inclusion) in mountain leadership is an ongoing issue that can be
best addressed by working together across gender divides. This includes
creating psychologically safe spaces for conversations and practical strate-
gies for ways forward. We have identified several strategies that have been
highlighted in the research from other disciplines and workplace contexts,
with the hope that it provides some direction and ideas for those in moun-
taineering leadership contexts to consider.

“This is an important issue and an important book/chapter that highlights

the necessity of gender parity if mountain leadership is to be truly represen-
tative and thereby support the aspirations of the whole population. Mountain
Training recognises that this is a strategic priority that needs to be addressed
by encouraging and supporting potential female leaders, as well as looking
at our own systemic biases that may filter out potential female leaders.” Guy
Jarvis, MTE 2022.
 9 CLIMBING MOUNTAINS TOGETHER: DEVELOPING GENDER PARITY… 165

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 CHAPTER 10

A Critical Postfeminist Lens as a Tool

for Praxis

Emily Ankers

Introduction
Women’s experiences of gender inequality and power dynamics are com-
plex. There are claims that women now have “‘self-possession’ of their
active bodies” (Dworkin & Heywood, 2003, p. 87), and as we move fur-
ther into the twenty-first century and away from the late twentieth cen-
tury, women are more frequently realised as agentic and empowered
(McRobbie, 2004; Toffoletti et al., 2018). However, the notion that
women are liberated is inaccurate and gives rise to further complexity. The
recent attack on women’s bodily autonomy within the overturning of Roe
vs Wade in the US, consequently ending constitutional rights to abortion
(BBC, 2022), demonstrates how hard-earned gains are easily retracted.
Women’s position in our society and so-called ‘liberation’ is much more
fragile than perhaps we would like to think. Considering contradictions
between freedom for and attempts to subjugate women, feminist

E. Ankers (*)
Brunel University, London, UK
e-mail: emily.ankers@brunel.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 169

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_10
170 E. ANKERS

sentiments for the advancement of women are still relevant. Contentions

between advancement and marginalisation complicate lived experiences,
as well as different articulations and epistemologies of feminism.
There are a growing number of diverse women leading change in their
own way within mountaineering and climbing adventure, leisure and the
outdoors more broadly, and it is impossible to deny the agency of women
(Ankers & Watson, in press; Kay & Ankers, 2022). Yet, as in wider Western
society, women continue to face inequality in the mountains and outdoor
environments (Doran & Hall, 2020; Evans & Anderson, 2018; Kay &
Ankers, 2022; Rak, 2021). I suggest that implementing a critical post-
feminist lens helps to account for complexity and contention in research
related to gender inequality in the outdoors and beyond. I give my own
conceptualisation of a critical postfeminist lens as a theoretically informed
critical approach that allows for a longitudinal understanding of women’s
experiences, allowing perceptions and understanding of improvement and
advancement for women, whilst simultaneously acknowledging that
inequalities exist.
As a PhD student, I am on a steep learning curve in comprehending
and defining my own academic perspective on issues. Thus, I attempt to
write in a style that reflects my own sense-making processes, offering ideas
on interpreting praxis and critical postfeminism, and connecting the two.
I disclose this because I believe that junior academics would benefit from
greater transparency in sense-making and writing processes. In addition, a
large element of my ‘dot connecting’ of theoretical concepts with the gen-
der and outdoor context is informed by real-world experience and my
position as a cultural insider (Berger, 2013; Fletcher, 2014; Skillen &
Osborne, 2015). I have held various roles within the climbing and out-
door industry. My interests in mountaineering, climbing and outdoor set-
tings are grounded in my involvement in projects and organisations
connected to gender, women and climbing. Although mountaineering
and climbing can be classified as their own sub-cultures (Ankers, 2020),
lifestyle (Wheaton, 2004) or leisure activities (Dilley & Scraton, 2010),
experiences of women in these cultures can also be translated and applied
as useful for more general adventure, leisure and outdoor pursuit contexts.
They may even be applied to the field of wider sport management.
In this chapter I occasionally draw on examples from previous work,
namely during my Masters by Research (MRes) project on ‘everyday’
women’s experiences of climbing (Ankers, 2020), to draw illuminative
examples of how a critical postfeminist lens can be useful in research. I
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 171

draw on a variety of sources, including traditional academic literatures,

alongside informal sites of information, such as podcast conversations
(Hutchins et al., 2021) and discussions with colleagues, as these are valu-
able sites of information and inspiration.
The discussion in this chapter is divided into two main sections: critical
postfeminism and a critical postfeminist lens as a strengthening tool for
praxis. I first outline my experience of attempting to understand postfemi-
nist sensibility, a feat that ultimately led me to construct a critical postfemi-
nist lens as a structured approach to research that draws on complex
aspects of postfeminist sensibilities. I then discuss the term praxis, what it
means and how it has the potential to be a useful tool for conducting
meaningful research. Finally, I will provide suggestions of how a critical
postfeminist lens may be used as a tool for strengthening praxis, particu-
larly in processes of reflection and collaboration in work regarding issues
of gender inequality in outdoor contexts.
Stanley (1990) argues that praxis “is an indication of a continuing
shared feminist commitment to a political position in which knowledge is
not simply defined as ‘knowledge what’ but also as ‘knowledge for.’ The
point is to change the world, not only to study it” (Stanley, 1990, p.15).
Stanley’s (1990) argument holds true for this chapter. A critical postfemi-
nist approach should strengthen real-world action required to tackle gen-
der inequality in mountaineering, climbing, adventure and leisure outdoor
environments. The next section will introduce postfeminism and offer
ideas around postfeminist sensibility and critical postfeminism that serve as
building blocks, leading to my own conceptualisation of a critical post-
feminist lens as a tool for praxis.

Critical Postfeminism
Postfeminism is a contested concept; it is multifaceted, with contradic-
tions and confusion over meaning(s), use and relevance to feminist theo-
rising (Cooky, 2018b; Depper et al., 2019; Gill, 2007). Postfeminism is
defined, used and framed in different ways by different authors (Rahikainen,
2020), often according to disparate contextual specificities, for instance, in
popular culture, media and feminist analyses (Cooky, 2018b). Firstly,
there are several interpretations that accept the ‘post’ in postfeminism as a
non-critical movement into a new period. For example, postfeminism can
be identified as a movement away from feminist political activism (Cooky,
2018b; Gill, 2007) into a new era in Western culture where women and
172 E. ANKERS

girls are reimagined as agentic, empowered and active subjects—in a post-

feminist and neoliberal context (Toffoletti et al., 2018), marking a belief
that we live in a world where ‘feminism’ is no longer needed (Cooky,
2018b). Scholars have critiqued this rhetoric; for example, Depper et al.
(2019) interrogate the UK-based This Girl Can campaign, a national cam-
paign that appears to channel postfeminist 1990s ‘girl power’ sentiments—
placing an emphasis on individual agency as means of participating in
physical activity. Depper et al. (2019) identify a sentiment that focuses on
the neoliberal everyday, micro-governance of women’s bodies that make
women accountable for their ‘choices,’ while the campaign disregards the
materialities that women must negotiate in gendered leisure spaces (p. 3).
Postfeminism as activism, such as the This Girl Can example, can be
characterised as a move away from second-wave feminism to a neoliberal
strand of feminist activism which shifts responsibility onto women them-
selves (see Cooky, 2018b).
However, postfeminism can also be understood as a more complex
framework than the aforementioned versions. Gill (2007) argues that the
term postfeminism can be used to indicate a historical shift within femi-
nism or as a backlash against certain types of feminisms and feminist epis-
temologies (Gill, 2007; Markula, 2018). Building on Gill (2007), Cooky
(2018b) articulates postfeminism as existing in some ways alongside other
‘post’ paradigms such as postmodernism, poststructuralism and postcolo-
nialism—due to its use as a term to signal an epistemological break (p. 24).
“Post” instead represents a process of critical transformation and change
(Brooks, 1997, p. 1). There are overlaps between a more critical approach
to postfeminism and other ‘posts,’ including poststructuralist feminism.
Particularly in the sense that the “post” in poststructuralist feminism may
not refer to a complete dismantling of feminism, but an internal critique
leading to the redefinition of some of its premises (Markula, 2018, p. 402).
Poststructural feminism and a critical postfeminist approach are similar in
how they reject the idea of a neo/liberal feminist world that has achieved
a binaried goal of equity with men (Markula, 2018, p. 405).
Yet, poststructural feminism is more explicitly concerned with under-
standing and attributing that power is not objective or acquired, it is an
“interplay of nonegalitarian and mobile relations” (p. 214) and tied to the
production of knowledge (Markula & Pringle, 2006). This is particularly
useful for analysing power structures within sporting and outdoor organ-
isations. As I interpret these two theories, although a critical postfeminist
approach is similar in how it accepts gender relations as complex and
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 173

situated within dynamic power relations, it differs in how it is less preoc-

cupied with dissecting discourses of power and focuses more closely on
understanding how subjects of study are caught up in contradicting ideas
of agency and subjugation. In addition, poststructural feminisms reject the
concept of gender as static and reveal inherent contradictions of binaries
like masculinity and femininity (Knoppers & McLachlan, 2018). Similarly,
my version of a critical approach to postfeminism does not accept gender
binaries as a given, but it does leave space for participants/subjects to
express their own views that may or may not prescribe to gender binaries,
without contradiction to the theory or framework of critical postfeminism.
As we can see, there are some close similarities and overlaps between post-
structural feminism and a critical approach to postfeminism. I will now
continue to build on the potential for a critical approach to
postfeminism.
Gill’s (2007) seminal work can be considered a turning point for realis-
ing the usefulness and relevance of postfeminism. Gill (2007, 2016) takes
an alternative line to the three main uses of postfeminism, arguing that
“debates about postfeminism are debates about transformations in femi-
nism and media culture.” Instead of being conceptualised as an epistemo-
logical or historical shift, or a backlash “in which its meanings are
pre-specified […] Rather postfeminism should be conceived of as a sensi-
bility” (Gill, 2007, p. 148). A postfeminist sensibility is an approach to
research that captures the rapidly changing context of gendered powered
relations, political activism, media and popular culture’s projections of
feminism, femininity, empowerment and agency (McRobbie, 2004).
For several years, scholars have been discussing representations and
treatment of females in sport drawing on theories and ideas that overlap
with postfeminist sensibility, observing tensions and contradictions within
representations of athletes (Bruce, 2015; Cooky, 2018a; Dworkin &
Heywood, 2003; Markula, 1995; Thorpe et al., 2017). Toffoletti (2016)
argues it is becoming more difficult to talk about women as objects of a
patriarchal economy, in a postfeminist context that characterises women as
active/knowing agents in the creation of their own subjectivities. Due to
a woman’s own role in the creation of her representation, we cannot sim-
ply argue that she is being objectified or has no power, even if she is
involved in the production of problematic representations. Examining
media images of women can provide a visual representation of what post-
feminism or postfeminist sensibility might mean for women in mountain-
eering, climbing and outdoor sporting environments. For instance, the
174 E. ANKERS

participation of professional rock climber Sasha DiGiulian in an advertis-

ing campaign for Agent Provocateur (Toureille, 2020) can be scrutinised
as problematic due to DiGiulian’s role in co-creating images that can be
interpreted as perpetuating historic practises of sexualising women within
a climbing context (Osborne & Ankers, 2021). To illustrate, in one image,
DiGiulian is wearing a black lingerie set with a cheeky style brief and baby-­
doll style skirt over her climbing harness on an artificial sport climbing
wall (Toureille, 2020). This is not a typical representation of a female
climber, due to its nature as an advertisement, and in one sense, highlights
the continued commodification of female sporting bodies (see Hargreaves,
1994; Pressland, 2012). DiGiulian has posted images from the campaign
on her public Instagram profile, sharing that she felt empowered by the
campaign. DiGiulian has also publicly addressed her personal relationship
with femininity and climbing, explaining that she personally enjoys wear-
ing makeup and presenting as feminine simply because she wants to
(DiGiulian, 2020).
Gill (2016) expresses postfeminist sensibility as an analytical category, a
tool that can be used to highlight “complexities of a cultural movement
seemingly characterised by a multiplicity of (new and old) feminisms which
co-exist with revitalised forms of anti-feminism and popular misogyny”
(p. 612). The representation of DiGiulian sits in line with forms of poten-
tial “anti-feminism and popular misogyny” (Gill, 2016, p. 612) due to
historic representations of women and gender inequality in climbing
(Ankers, 2020). The production of the image must be viewed as problem-
atic due to potential wider impact, as it can be perceived to reinvent his-
toric sexualisation and gender inequality within climbing and the outdoors
(Dworkin & Heywood, 2003; Gill, 2016; Hargreaves, 2000; Osborne &
Ankers, 2021; Pressland, 2012). Yet, simultaneously, the agency of
DiGiulian should not be undermined. An expression of postfeminism as
an analytical category accounts for complications and multiplicity in rep-
resentations and experiences. Although this chapter is not focused on
media representations of women in the outdoors, discussing representa-
tions is illustrative, and the meanings we draw from visual representations
can be seen reflected in society’s views and treatment of women.
I drew on the aspect of co-existing contradictions observed using post-
feminist sensibility (Gill, 2007, 2016) whilst conducting my research on
‘everyday’ women’s experiences of climbing. I fell into a pattern of express-
ing the application of a critical approach to postfeminist sensibility as a
“critical postfeminist lens” (Ankers, 2020). The framing of a critical lens
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 175

provided me with an accessible tool for directly examining this complex

‘postfeminist’ world of climbing. It draws on Gill’s (2016) use of post-
feminism as an analytical category but is more explicit. The term helped
me to remain focused and critical of the concept of a complicated ‘post-
feminist’ era for female climbers, but it also allowed for the examination of
complex and contradicting experiences, the new and the old, to comfort-
ably sit together, without undermining one another. I propose that a criti-
cal postfeminist lens reminds us to think about experiences within their
appropriate time context (Hargreaves, 1994, 2000), acknowledge devel-
opment (Toffoletti et al., 2018) and remain critical of perceived change or
improvement given our understanding of historical context, and looks for
historical threads that may indicate knotty issues. Postfeminist sensibility
used as an analytical category is found more commonly in conversations
around representations of sportswomen in media (Thorpe et al., 2017;
Toffoletti, 2016; Toffoletti et al., 2018) than other areas. I believe that my
conceptualisation of a critical postfeminist lens has the potential to be
extrapolated into outdoor sport management, reviews, education
and beyond.

A Critical Postfeminist Lens as a Strengthening

Tool for Praxis
Praxis is central for feminist research (Olive, 2018; Scraton, 2018; Stanley,
1990) and the application of a critical postfeminist lens for understanding
the realities of women’s lived experiences, works in union with processes
of effective praxis. This can be applied to understanding how women
experience gender inequality in mountaineering, climbing and outdoor
environments and cultures.
At first glance, the term praxis refers to the melding of theory and real-­
world practical application. Yet, like postfeminism, it is used differently
across varying contexts, often without authors themselves acknowledging
the evolution of the term. I would therefore like to offer my interpretation
of praxis to contextualise how I see a critical postfeminist lens being used
to strengthen praxis or integrate into processes of praxis. Merriam-­
Webster’s Dictionary gives two definitions for praxis: action or practice,
for example, of an art, science or skill, or the practical application of a
theory (2022). The concept of praxis can be found in the writings of Marx
(1845/2009) and Freire (1970), amongst others. These scholars are
176 E. ANKERS

connected in the way they articulate praxis as processes of action, with

Marx and Freire’s conceptualisations of praxis being strongly connected to
revolutionary action to transform the world (Freire, 1970). Despite differ-
ent notions of praxis, agreement may be found in the idea that praxis is
concerned with the space between theory and practice, where ideas are
translated into ‘concrete’ activities (Hall, 1997, p. 5). Praxis can be
described as representative of the process of [academic] theory becoming
practice (Lather, 1986) to enact change.
Many consider Paulo Freire’s (1970) development of praxis to be the
most impactful and influential (Darder, 2011; Glass, 2001). In Freire’s
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), he writes that “to no longer be prey to
oppression, one must emerge from it and turn upon it. This can be done
only by means of the praxis: reflection and action upon the world in order
to transform it” (Freire, 1970, p. 51). Freire (1970) tells us that it is the
oppressed who must “confront reality” critically and that it is not about
explaining matters to others but dialoguing with them (p. 52). Feminist
scholars further problematise this definition. Stanley (1990) asserts that
the meaning is to “understand the world and then change it” (p. 12) and
Olive (2018) identifies that particularly in feminist research, “imagining
potential for change is defining for feminist and cultural work” (p. 337),
but it is also difficult.
Drawing on Freire’s (1970) concern with dialogue, it is important to
note that feminist research cannot successfully understand or change the
world without dialogue, exchange and collaboration with those who are
‘oppressed.’ Scraton (2018) reflects on the challenges of translating theo-
retical understandings into transformative practices in the context of
Physical Education (PE) and gender. Scraton (2018) observes a significant
gap between PE and research, noting that despite research, little has
changed in girls’ experiences of PE, alluding to a lack of praxis taking
place. Subsequently, she argues that researchers need to incorporate young
people and teachers into methods, rather than regarding them only as
respondents (Scraton, 2018). In a recent episode for The Media Sport
Podcast Series (Hutchins et al., 2021), Olive and Wheaton speak about
their research concerning experiences of blue spaces in Aotearoa (New
Zealand). Despite Olive and Wheaton not using the term ‘praxis’ during
this specific conversation, I interpret their ideas and methods as an exam-
ple of praxis being enacted in an effectual way and find their conversation
illuminates effective processes of praxis. They discuss working to under-
stand how different knowledge systems speak to one another, identifying
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 177

where they collide, where there are gaps and where there is conflict
(Hutchins et al., 2021). Olive and Wheaton (Hutchins et al., 2021) give
the examples of engaging with the work of other research projects in
Aotearoa concerning fresh water, working with ecologists, scientists and
Māori communities as a meaningful way of doing research.
As Freire (1970), Scraton (2018) and Olive and Wheaton (2021) all
allude to, speaking and collaborating with those at the centre of an issue is
key for effective processes of praxis. My position as a cultural insider
(Berger, 2013; Fletcher, 2014; Skillen & Osborne, 2015) greatly strength-
ens my ability to facilitate dialogue with outdoor sector professionals. I
asked a colleague who works within a long-established outdoor organisa-
tion for their thoughts on the gap between academic research and the
industry. They said that they think the gap still exists, but it is closing,
particularly through collaborative projects that empower organisations.
They drew on a specific example of an academic report being placed on
their desk without any prior conversation between researchers and their
organisation, resulting in the outdoor organisation feeling unsure of how
to act or where to begin, because they were not consulted during the
research. By sharing my conversation with a colleague who is an outdoor
industry professional, I am attempting to demonstrate in a small way the
importance of collaboration with the wider community who is impacted
by research. Smith et al. (2022) argue that to bridge the deficit in research
surrounding experiences of forced migration, refugees and asylum seekers
themselves should be treated as the experts. I echo Smith et al.’s (2022)
stance for research with real world implications more broadly, and argue
that those working at the centre and directly impacted by issues should be
treated as experts. Although my example here is humble, I believe actively
involving those working at the centre of issues of gender inequality in the
outdoors is key.
A critical postfeminist lens as an ingredient for praxis has the potential
to bridge the gap where there may be a lack of conversation between the
academy and industry relating to understandings of multilayered and
complex gender inequality in the outdoors. I can see the potentiality of a
critical postfeminist lens in mountaineering, climbing and outdoor con-
texts for industry professionals; however, I am not sure of the exact
mechanics that would be involved in applying it directly into an industry
setting due to the level of complexity implicated in the concept of post-
feminism. This is in part due to the confusion and multiple epistemolo-
gies, definitions and interpretations of postfeminism (Cooky, 2018b; Gill,
178 E. ANKERS

2007, 2016)—as well as the varying ways it can be applied to research. In

addition, my experiences of working within the outdoor industry have
shown me that industry professionals tend to favour ‘fast and simple’ solu-
tions. Using a critical postfeminist lens to tackle and understand issues will
undoubtedly reveal complexity that positivistic approaches are less well
equipped to deal with. Yet, a critical postfeminist lens could be taken in
different directions for effective praxis. Misener et al. (2022) argue that
within sport management to attempt analysis of change and social prob-
lems without understanding historical and social concepts is disingenuous
(Misener et al., 2022). A critical postfeminist lens’ ability to facilitate a
longitudinal view of gender issues would help to account for complexity
when designing, implementing and evaluating strategy and policy in the
outdoors and wider sport management. Existing systems for designing
strategies that are ‘data driven’ focus on quantitative measures and navi-
gating the ‘policy push’ often translates into not accounting for the com-
plexity of issues. For instance, Avner (in press) argues that strategies to
increase numbers of female leaders may be positive in some ways; it does
not account for other complexities such as issues around reinforcing the
idea of gendered management styles and the promotion of binaried divi-
sions in sport coaching. Furthermore, female leadership representation is
more complex than simply having more women present; organisations
should be seeking to meaningfully increase the diversity of female leaders.
As such, Rao and Roberts (2018) highlight the need for shifts in organisa-
tional culture to ensure that the needs of women of colour are being met
in outdoor leadership. During my various roles within the outdoor sector,
I have been involved in and witnessed reviews and implementations of
‘data driven’ strategies and I have seen the simplification of numerical data
to inform strategy development—which has resulted in complex issues not
being conveyed effectively and simplified significantly.
Particularly in research that takes a longitudinal view, long-term pro-
cesses have a continued and evolving impact on gender dynamics, and
these must be reflected upon (Mansfield, 2007). Hargreaves (2000)
argues for the importance of examining women’s experiences within rele-
vant cultural and historical contexts, that is situated on a timeline. For
example, a conversation taking place at one moment in time about a per-
son’s feelings and opinions on the issue of gender inequality in mountain-
eering and climbing is likely to sound different to a conversation happening
five years later with the same person on the same issues. People change
their minds and opinions as they gain different experiences, meet new
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 179

people, learn information and share ideas. As a critical postfeminist lens

seeks to interrogate experiences within their context and connect historic
threads to events to highlight problematic engagements, reflection from a
given place on a timeline is key. This enables researchers to historicise the
production of knowledge and call into question what is ‘truth.’ It allows
us to look beyond surface-level change and move past liberal feminist sen-
timents and reflect on multiple and oftentimes historic layers that impact
on women’s experience simultaneously and continuously. In a practical
sense, a critical postfeminist lens could be employed to evaluate positive
changes and identify instances where women have advanced due to acting
on their own agency, as well as instances where women may be restricted
by continuing structural issues.
Connected to this is a critical postfeminist lens’ ability to centre real-­
world, lived experiences. Without accounting for complexity and data that
could be considered potentially ‘messy’—like qualitatively recorded lived
experiences and if those directly impacted by issues are not having their
experiences represented accurately—are researchers and policy makers in
the outdoors really doing ethical work (Smith et al., 2022; Spaaij et al.,
2018)? Dialogue and collaboration with those affected by issues is an inte-
gral aspect of effective and ethical praxis (Freire, 1970; Olive & Wheaton,
2021; Scraton, 2018). The reality of doing research collaboratively on
women’s lived experiences in adventure and leisure contexts is messy.
Toffoletti et al. (2018) argue that postfeminist sensibility allows for the
recognition of “contradictory constructions” (p.36), and I found this to
be true when interviewing female climbers (Ankers, 2020). Many women
said things during their interviews that felt contradictory. For example,
one participant expressed her opinion that women should wear whatever
they choose when climbing, but then proceeded to say:

I think sometimes the way people present themselves at the [climbing] gym,
sometimes I’m just what are you do-o-o-ing? Why have you taken your
t-shirt off and you’ve got the skimpiest sports bra on, why are you doing
that and … sorry that sounds really old-fashioned but…

This participant shared the idea that women should wear whatever they
want according to individual agency but that she also disapproved of
dressing immodestly even though she acknowledged it was a contradic-
tion, an ‘old-fashioned’ point of view that fits into historic expectations of
what is acceptable (gendered) behaviour for women. Viewing this example
180 E. ANKERS

through a critical postfeminist lens allows for conflicting views to exist

together and connects back to the postfeminist sensibility approach that
acknowledges that women have increased agency, but their experiences are
still tied to historic and problematic notions around gender, sexuality and
femininity (Gill, 2016; McRobbie, 2004; Toffoletti et al., 2018).
By holding space for potential contradiction, researchers can work col-
laboratively and openly with women to find out about their experiences
and opinions in full without undermining either side of advancement or
hindrance. For example, the lens could help researchers and industry pro-
fessionals to host and analyse data generated in focus groups with women
where open discussion is encouraged. The allowance for contradiction in
both data gathering and analysis is valuable for creating a richer, shared
understanding of women’s experience, which can subsequently inform the
development of solutions for addressing gender inequality that consider
these complexities. Researchers, outdoor professionals, national govern-
ing bodies and policy makers should be working collaboratively with
women (Rao & Roberts, 2018; Scraton, 2018) to not just understand
barriers but to develop solutions, programmes and interventions. These
should include planning, action and reflection. Although it is beyond the
scope of this chapter, there is great potential in methodologies of co-­
creation, codesign and participatory action research for facilitating effec-
tive praxis in feminist research (see Donetto et al., 2015; Mansfield, 2016;
Mansfield et al., 2019). Collaboration as a key element that critical post-
feminism allows for within its framework, has the possibility to be applied
to outdoor leisure and sport contexts, as well as sport management more
generally, to more effectively navigate processes of policy making and the
enactment of change to address gender inequality in relevant and accu-
rate ways.

Conclusion
Given the argument that praxis is central to feminist research (Olive, 2018;
Scraton, 2018; Stanley, 1990), a critical postfeminist lens can strengthen
the work of those seeking to understand and sustainably address unequal
gender power dynamics and lived experiences for women in mountaineer-
ing and climbing. Ideas of praxis and postfeminist sensibilities are not new
but discussing how they may operate together may serve as a foundation
for new methods of working with those impacted by gender inequality in
 10 A CRITICAL POSTFEMINIST LENS AS A TOOL FOR PRAXIS 181

the outdoors, to develop more robust and accurate strategies and policies
for addressing issues.
In this chapter I have discussed the tangled and complex nature of the
concept of postfeminism. Postfeminism being interpreted differently by
different people, it can be understood as a term that indicates a movement
into a neoliberal world of empowerment and equality. However, more
usefully, a postfeminist sensibility can be applied as a mechanism for a criti-
cal process of transformation (Brooks, 1997, p. 1). In other words, a tool
that can be used to yield an understanding of the complexity of current
gender dynamics, which considers historical and social issues, whilst allow-
ing space for the acknowledgement of progress. I have also discussed the
notion of praxis, as a process that enables scholars to do more than create
knowledge but work collaboratively with those impacted by issues and
address societal issues (Freire, 1970; Olive, 2018). The discussion has cul-
minated in how the two concepts of a critical postfeminist approach and
praxis complement one another. Firstly, the power of a critical postfeminist
lens to account for complexity that often gets missed in processes involved
in addressing gender inequality such as policy making and strategy devel-
opment. By performing praxis through a critical postfeminist lens,
researchers and industry professionals are empowered to translate complex
ideas, giving a more accurate depiction of the reality of gender issues. This
enables those designing actions for change to be less constricted by a data-­
driven approach that focuses on quantitative measures that fail to account
for complexity. Secondly, the role of a critical postfeminist lens in facilitat-
ing a longitudinal view of issues, situated instances on a timeline and
reflecting critically, using knowledge of historic issues. If during processes
of praxis, researchers and industry professionals could take a longer-term
perspective, it would reduce the narrative on gender inequality ‘going
around in circles’—as per my experiences of working in an Equity, Diversity
and Inclusion context where groups are constrained by narrow data sets
and evidence, without reflecting beyond the most current data. Thirdly, a
critical postfeminist lens has the potentiality to facilitate stronger collabo-
ration, particularly in how it allows space for contradictions within and
between voices, and in messy lived experiences. It helps researchers and
industry professionals walk a more balanced line, ideally never disregard-
ing information or feedback because the framework allows space for con-
tradiction. The space allows for ‘messiness’ and contradiction but creates
open opportunities if those directly impacted by issues are involved in
processes of praxis, including conversation, research, strategy planning,
182 E. ANKERS

implementation and evaluation. These ideas also have the potential to

inform the work of outdoor professionals in different contexts.
There is an urgent need for dialogue between researchers, industry pro-
fessionals and women in the outdoors to enact meaningful change. A criti-
cal postfeminist lens as an ingredient of processes of praxis will facilitate
sustained and meaningful engagement with women’s multifaceted, intri-
cate, contradictory, messy but real lived experiences. This approach
strengthens researchers’ ability to effectively convey more complex reali-
ties on gender issues, which may lead to potentially transformative ways of
approaching strategy and policy design in the outdoors and beyond.

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 CHAPTER 11

Leave Tracks: Gender, Discrimination,

and Resistance in Mountaineering

Kate Evans, Dorothy L. Schmalz, and Sasha C. Mader

“Leave No Trace” is a guiding principle in any outdoor pursuit. However,

as United States Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg contended, “Whatever
you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for your-
self…you will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived”
(ASHLEYCHANEY, 2020). There are times when leaving tracks is the
operative good. Research on outdoor recreation around the world has
consistently demonstrated that the outdoors, and mountaineering, specifi-
cally, is a space in which women are underrepresented and are often viewed
as intruders, outliers in a space reserved for men and is a space wrought
with presumed masculine superiority (Evans & Anderson, 2018; Lodes,
2022; Moraldo, 2013; Tulle, 2022). Women who pursue mountaineering
experience biases ranging from implicit assumptions of inferiority that

K. Evans (*) • S. C. Mader

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI, USA
e-mail: kevans@uwlax.edu; mader1710@uwlax.edu
D. L. Schmalz
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
e-mail: d.schmalz@health.utah.edu

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 187

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_11
188 K. EVANS ET AL.

make them question their abilities to overt discrimination (Evans et al.,

2020). The gendered nature of mountaineering creates a space where
women who participate cannot allow their presence to go unnoticed. By
simply being present, freely participating in this space, and sharing their
experiences with others, women become valuable instruments in opening
that space for all to feel welcome. In this chapter, we will examine why it
is important for women to consider how they can leave tracks in the
mountains to create a trail for other women to follow. By doing so, women
can simultaneously resist their own oppression while also being a party to
the future resistance of those to follow.

Gender, Difference, Similarity

To begin, we would be remiss if we did not discuss the importance of the
consideration of gender, difference, and similarity. There is more to leav-
ing tracks for those that come behind us than simply avoiding exclusionary
practices; we must also work with intention towards integrating inclusion-
ary practices into our outdoor spaces. Although this chapter is framed
through a lens that discusses cis-gendered women’s experience as profes-
sional mountaineers, it is important to acknowledge that guided wilder-
ness adventure trips, youth camps, and many outdoor recreation
programmes and places have historically used gender as a term of classifi-
cation. There are a myriad of barriers that gender-diverse individuals
encounter as a price of entry into outdoor and recreation spaces including
bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers (Oakleaf & Richmond, 2017).
Additionally, there is a hypervigilant effort put forth by these individuals
to pass, avoid detection, and manage risk including consistent scanning of
their environment and avoidance of certain activities or places. One par-
ticipant in a study about the experiences of transgender individuals in pub-
lic recreation shared that he would purposefully neglect to bring water to
the park in order to avoid the use of the public restroom, stating that he
“would rather be dehydrated later” (Oakleaf & Richmond, 2017, p. 114).
This example of the protective steps individuals must take when caught in
a society that views gender as distinctly either masculine or feminine high-
lights how important it is for us all to remain diligent in our efforts to cast
a wider net of inclusion in our scholarship, professions, and personal lives.
Understanding that gender classification in the outdoors is problematic
and works to “other” individuals who do not self-identify within the con-
straints of the gender binary is an important first step. Organisations like
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 189

The Venture Out Project speak to this exclusionary classification by calling

it “confusing, prohibitive, and offensive” (McDonald, 2022) and are leav-
ing tracks by creating wilderness trips specifically geared to be inclusive
towards trans, queer, and non-binary members of our gender diverse com-
munity. This chapter aims to discuss the discrimination experienced by
professional female mountaineers, the effects of that discrimination, and
how their resistance can help to clear the path for future generations.
However, it is with full awareness that we accept that the following discus-
sion may have great depth, but remains limited in its breadth due to being
framed through a female cis-gendered lens.

Discrimination Against Women in Mountaineering

A range of research has focused on women’s participation in outdoor rec-
reation. The findings of this research have consistently concluded that
women face an uphill battle to participation and acceptance within the
outdoors. A variety of factors play into this including a lack of early expo-
sure to the outdoors, socially normative gender expectations, and an
assumption of female inferiority (Culp, 1998; Denny, 2011; Little, 2002;
McDermott, 2004; Warren & Loeffler, 2006). For instance, “masculine”
traits such as strength and risk-taking are viewed as central to success in
the outdoors (Culp, 1998), and women are less likely to be exposed to
outdoor activities when they are young than men (Denny, 2011). When
they are exposed, they are more likely to take subordinate roles in their
participation (Evans, 2014), and the images historically proliferated in
outdoor recreation media of women in the role as romantic partner or
observer help to reinforce women’s “appropriate” role in outdoor pursuits
(McNeil et al., 2012). The result of these complex and layered gendered
experiences is that women who do engage in outdoor recreation, espe-
cially in leadership roles, face microaggressions aimed to keep them in line
with socially normative behaviour (Jordan, 1992).
In masculine leisure environments, microaggressions include restrictive
gender roles, an assumption of female inferiority, and sexual objectifica-
tion (Kaskan & Ho, 2016). Female mountain guides have reported expe-
riencing each of these including sexual overtures and come-ons from
clients and implied inferiority regarding their skills from both fellow guides
and their own clients (Evans et al., 2020). Additionally, guides have noted
not only personally experiencing microaggressions, but also witnessing
other women in the profession experiencing them. In response to these
190 K. EVANS ET AL.

experiences, guides have explicitly detailed reducing their femininity and

sexuality to avoid further objectification, to be taken seriously, and to
avoid the appearance that anything other than their skills and experience
earned them their current professional role (Evans, 2014; Evans et al.,
2020). This type of awareness and adaptation is necessary because micro-
aggressions are subtle and align with social norms. As such, microaggres-
sions tend to go unexamined and are allowed to proliferate because they
are often undetectable (Sue, 2010). Thus, when women in the outdoors
experience microaggressions, they often accept and, unknowingly, may
become complicit in normalising them.
Through managing the social nuances and expectations inherent in
their participation in mountaineering, women have found ways to navi-
gate discrimination in their participation. Yet, there remains a price to be
paid for the occurrence of discrimination. These costs are often behaviour-­
altering and have an impact not only on professional female guides, but
also on the sport of mountaineering more generally. The effects of preju-
dice on behaviour are insidious and interrelated. Social psychologists have
identified and labelled a number of prejudiced-based behaviours, and the
subsequent reactions that subjects of the stereotypes embrace. Four of
these are illustrated in the experiences of women in male-dominated out-
door recreation arenas: (1) emotional labour (Wharton, 2009), (2) stereo-
type threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995), (3) benevolent sexism (Glick &
Fiske, 2001), and (4) stereotype tax (Caruso et al., 2009).
Emotional labour is defined as “the process by which workers are
expected to manage their feelings in accordance with organizationally
defined rules and guidelines” (Wharton, 2009, p. 147). First emerging
from the work of Hochschild (1983), emotional labour is grounded in the
notion of feeling rules, or the socially appropriate emotions one should
demonstrate within particular contexts (e.g., feeling sad at a funeral)
(Hochschild, 1979). Emotional labour emerged more fully as the trans-
formation of the economy from one focused mainly on the production of
goods to one focused more on the purveyance of services. While moun-
tain guiding is based on hard technical skills, a focus on safety, and the
achievement of identified goals (e.g., summiting a particular mountain), it
is also firmly grounded in creating an experience for clients. Because of
this, women must meet the expectation of their clients (and the guiding
companies who employ them), so must they manage the discrimination
they face in a “professional” manner. In previous research on guides’ reac-
tions to discriminatory behaviour, an interesting theme emerged.
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 191

Regardless of how egregious the behaviour (e.g., being told “women

don’t matter”, denial of pay, and near mutinies), the response was always
to stay professional, shrug it off, and move on while avoiding the recogni-
tion that the interaction they had just endured was, in fact, discrimination
(Evans et al., 2020). What compounds the emotional labour female guides
face is the fact that they face it in their role working in the field with clients
and within the male-dominated guiding companies in which they work.
The next phenomenon, stereotype threat, was first investigated by Steele
and Aronson (1995). In their research, Steele and Aronson set out to
examine the effects of racial stereotypes on academic performance. They
noted that despite widely held stereotypes that Black people were less aca-
demically inclined than white people, there was in fact no statistical differ-
ence in academic performance between the races unless the stereotype was
brought to the attention of students in an academic situation. To assess
this, Steele and Aronson (1995) devised an experiment where the aca-
demic performance-based racial stereotypes were brought to the attention
of students prior to taking a test, and another situation where the stereo-
types were not brought to the fore. As the researchers predicted, Black
students performed poorly when they were reminded of the stereotype,
but found no difference in performance between Black and white students
when the stereotype was not highlighted. Steele and Aronson proposed
that the stereotype played out as a threat to the subjects of prejudice which
resulted in their poor test performance. Being reminded of a negative
perception of their group psychologically led to a self-fulling prophecy.
This phenomenon can be paralleled in mountaineering—when women are
treated as less-than, or reminded of social perception that they are inferior
to men when it comes to outdoor recreation, their performance can be
negatively affected, despite there being no statistical support for this being
the case. However, even recognition of the social stereotype that women
are not as good as men at the activity contributes to women questioning
their abilities. Self-doubt is insidiously effective at keeping, in this case
women, from seeking promotion or leadership positions. This phenome-
non plays out in the mountains as well. In research on mountain guides,
specifically, guides have identified the specific ways stereotype threat
slowed down their career progression (Evans, 2014). For some it meant
not taking on lead guiding responsibilities as early in their career as their
male colleagues, questioning their ability to take on leadership roles within
the guiding companies they work, or influencing the types of trips and
clients they took on (Evans, 2014; Evans & Anderson, 2018).
192 K. EVANS ET AL.

Another phenomenon of interest here is benevolent sexism. In this

instance, stereotypes that women need protection or to be cared for by
men (Glick & Fiske, 2001) create a somewhat sinister morass into
which women are just as susceptible as men (Hopkins-Doyle et al.,
2019). Hopkins-Doyle et al. (2019) theorised that is because benevo-
lence is seen as being warm and compassionate as compared to more
hostile forms of sexism. In a series of experiments, Dardenne et al.
(2007) determined that the chronic nature of benevolent sexism is in
fact more detrimental to cognitive performance and self-perception of
women than hostile or overt forms of sexism, making benevolent sex-
ism particularly perfidious. Again, research on female mountain guides’
experiences highlights how benevolent sexism seeps into their profes-
sional experiences. An investigation of how gender bias affected leader-
ship roles in mixed-gender climbing dyads showed that men were more
likely to assume leadership in dyads where the woman fit the gendered
stereotype and where the woman also upheld benevolently sexist ideals
(Kulich et al., 2020). The study also went on to conclude that women
were able to resist benevolent sexism by intentionally seeking the lead-
ing role. This reconfirms the notion that women play a critical role in
both the resistance and the reinforcement of discriminatory behaviour
and stereotypes.
A lesser-known, but empowering phenomenon that brings a tenor of
optimism to this discussion is stereotype tax. In this instance, Caruso et al.
(2009) drew from the mathematical theory of conjoint analysis to deter-
mine how people let implicit biases affect purchasing decisions, and the
“price” they pay. For example, when shopping for a television, people may
enter into the process with a preconceived conclusion that a particular
brand is best, despite price point, screen size, or added features. The con-
sumers’ commitment to the brand may mean that they spend more on a
smaller TV with fewer features and shorter lifespan simply because they
value the name brand. Of course, different people weigh different fea-
tures, but the central tenet is that people may spend more on something
they believe to be better, overlooking other qualities and features of a
lesser-known or considered quality.
Caruso et al. (2009) applied this concept to social behaviour, and found
the same practices came into play. If a hiring team had a preconceived
notion that a white man would make a better boss despite a Black woman
applicant with more expertise and leadership qualities, the company would
pay the price of a less experienced boss because of the implicit bias. In
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 193

mountaineering, especially in cases where women are as good or more

experienced and skilled than their male counterparts, everyone pays the
price of not having the better and more experienced guide.

Cost of Discrimination
The costs of discrimination are staggering and produce negative outcomes
for the individual who experiences the discriminatory behaviour, the
organisation within which the discrimination takes place, and the sur-
rounding community. These experiences at the most elite level of the pro-
fession also trickle down to even the most novice of participants—making
it less likely for women to find their way into the mountains. Clearing the
path for women in mountaineering must first require an understanding of
these costs.
The costs of discrimination to the individual can be measured in the
biology, cognition, emotional well-being, and behaviour of the women
who experience it. These consequences present in ways that can ultimately
lead to negative implications for their overall health (Kaskan & Ho, 2016).
These can include enhanced risks associated with prolonged stress (e.g.,
heart disease/hypertension) (Sapolsky, 2004), lowered levels of perfor-
mance (Sue, 2010; Beilock et al., 2007), and lower body esteem/eating
disorders (Roth & Basow, 2004; Robinson & Ferraro, 2004). One other
consequence of microaggressions and gender-based discrimination is that
women often participate in apologetic behaviour, both verbally and non-­
verbally. This means that women “apologise” for non-gender normative
behaviour (e.g., mountain guiding) through overemphasising gender-­
normative dress, actions, and behaviour outside of the professional con-
text including hyper-sexualisation and overt displays of heterosexual
behaviour (Davis-Delano et al., 2009). This apologetic behaviour is
embraced by the media (Carty, 2005; Musto & McGann, 2016) and wit-
nessed by other women who, in turn, internalise their need to align with
gender-normative and heteronormative behaviour and expectations. This
creates a cycle that reinforces gender-norms, and undermines efforts for
resistance through non-normative pursuits (Morgan & Davis-Delano,
2016). As Davis-Delano et al. (2009) concluded, when women them-
selves accept and subscribe to socially constructed gender and heteronor-
mative behaviours, they are their own microaggressors, perpetuating
gender discrimination even further.
194 K. EVANS ET AL.

Organisational and community costs must also be considered as nega-

tive outcomes of discrimination. In research focused on microaggressions
in a professional context, Biggs et al. (2017) found that perceived sexist
climates, in this case at professional academic conferences, play a central
role in women’s intention to leave academic careers. Research on work-
place gender diversity is not without complications, not least of which is
defining gender as two unique categories and assuming a base-level of
consistent marked difference between “men” and “women” as outlined
previously in the chapter and as highlighted in workplace-focused research
(e.g., Annis & Nesbitt, 2017). The far-reaching implications of gender
discrimination in the workplace have been consistently demonstrated to
negatively impact job attitudes, psychological and physical health, and
work-related outcomes (Triana et al., 2019). When applied to mountain-
eering, research on workplace gender diversity suggests that cultivating
such diversity would help to enhance occupational well-being, reduce sex
discrimination, reduce the focused androcentrism in mountaineering
experiences, and improve overall organisational and climbing team perfor-
mance (Fine et al., 2020). Furthermore, when viewing mountaineering
from the organisational perspective, it is important to note that research-
ers posit that female leaders in professional settings are more in tune with
the needs and interests of consumers, are more committed to meeting the
needs of employees throughout the organisational hierarchy, and are asso-
ciated with higher levels of community engagement (Glass & Cook,
2017). Thus, the resistance of societal norms and the increase in female
participation and leadership in mountaineering means all will reap rewards.

Leaving Tracks: Women as Resistors

What complicates this situation further is that to maintain status in spaces
in which they are non-normative, subordinate group members must, at
least to some extent, embrace the notion that they do not belong in the
space. Schwalbe et al. (2000) referred to this as defensive othering, or a
subordinate group member’s acceptance of the dominant group’s devalu-
ation of their status. To illustrate this phenomenon, Ezzell (2009) cap-
tured the complicated psychological process this requires: individuals will
align themselves with the dominant group (thereby shedding the negative
connotations related to their subordinate group membership), while
embracing the stereotypes the dominant group holds of subordinate
group members, and accepting the idea that “dominant group members
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 195

are, and should be, dominant” (p. 112). To force microaggressions and
stereotypes inherent in mountaineering into the light—to force them to
begin to be examined—it is incumbent upon everyone involved in the
mountains to “leave tracks” by resisting expectations. While both domi-
nant and subordinate group members must be a part of the solution,
women who have forged the path have a unique opportunity to clear a
path for those who follow in their footsteps.

Allies or Adversaries?
Coping mechanisms for gender-based discriminations are often the unfor-
tunate response of women in male-dominated spaces who feel cornered
into self-preservation. While one would hope the opposite, research on
male-dominated spaces has found that while women might be expected to
be greater advocates for supporting other women’s advancement than
men, it is often not the case. The historic hypermasculine nature of out-
door recreation creates an environment in which women feel the need to
protect their seemingly fragile acceptance, and they often perceive that
there are a finite number of opportunities for women (Evans, 2014). This
self-protection can cause women to demonstrate an implicit preference for
men over women (Kaiser & Spalding, 2015) and may even go so far as to
penalise female colleagues (Bergsieker et al., 2021). This occurs for a wide
range of reasons, but most boil down to self-protection—of self-esteem
(Parks-Stamm et al., 2008), to maintain the perception of competitive
advantage (Lee, Kesebir & Pillutla, 2016) or as a sanction for women who
align with their subordinate group status (Bergsieker et al., 2021). This
phenomenon is evident in outdoor recreation professions. For example, in
a study of experiences with sexism in recreation, a female whitewater kay-
aker recounted that the biggest constraints she faced in her professional
career were often the women she competed against (Evans, 2014). In her
explanation, she contended that women were protective over their spots
on teams and within competitions, a behaviour which has been supported
in other research (Parks-Stamm et al., 2008). She described that female
competitors with a high level of skill were seen as threats induced by the
male-dominated nature of the sport. Similarly, a female mountain guide in
the same study identified that one of the most overt negative interactions
she had with a fellow guide was a woman with whom she led a trip (Evans,
2014). She recounted having her expertise questioned in front of clients,
her co-guide contradicting decisions she made while summiting the
196 K. EVANS ET AL.

mountain—all, she surmised, because her co-guide was not secure in her
own skills, so felt the only way to elevate herself was to denigrate the
women around her (Evans, 2014).
This research and the experiences of these professional outdoor athletes
align more broadly with the literature on how women in male-dominated
workplaces, especially those in power, tend to treat other women who are
at lower levels of skill and organisational hierarchy. The phenomenon has
been studied enough to be coined the queen bee phenomenon (Faniko
et al., 2016). First identified by Staines et al. (1974) to describe a more
general resistance some women held towards a shift away from traditional
gender roles, the idea has since been applied liberally in understanding
how women treat other women in the workplace. The queen bee phenom-
enon, when applied to the workplace, describes how women who find
professional success, particularly in male-dominated spaces, either actively
weaponise the stereotype threat phenomenon and work to prevent the
success and upward mobility of other women, or do so when other women
challenge their status (Faniko et al., 2016). In addition, Thayer-Bacon
(2011) highlighted the chilly climate created by women in positions of
power, particularly when those women held racial privilege (p. 23). In
theory, a chilly climate also includes acts of exclusion, dehumanisation, and
isolation of members of the non-dominant group (Thayer-Bacon, 2011).
The results of this included the targeted women feeling less confident in
their own ability, and that women who tried to speak up against those in
positions of power were blamed for their own experience, requiring an
enormous amount of emotional labour while keeping the chilly climate
firmly in place. Additionally, the stereotype tax paid by the organisation by
excluding potentially impactful female leaders is a self-inflicted wound suf-
fered by the queen bees who create said chilly climate. Thayer-Bacon’s
(2011) findings are not surprising given the consistent finding by the
Workplace Bullying Institute that women bully other women at twice the
rate of men and the vast majority of individuals who are bullied are in non-­
management, non-leadership positions (WBI, 2022). Related research
indicates that an additional barrier towards advancement was the fact that
women are often hesitant to discuss the barriers they face (Magee &
Penfold, 2021). Although the research specifically examines behaviour in
corporate environments, mountain guides have described these phenom-
ena in detail. When confronted with overt discrimination—from men or
women—women guides were quick to dismiss the incidents and to
describe their own sensitivity as the issue rather than the problematic
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 197

behaviour of clients, co-guides, or supervisors (Evans et al., 2020). While

research points to these negative outcomes associated with how women
treat one another in professional spaces, there has been a recent focus on
a broader understanding of the phenomena that come together to create
women’s experiences in the mountains.

Allies
Placing an acute focus on the tendency of women to undercut peers or
create a chilly climate, the queen bee syndrome, or bullying of female peers
as the essential issues hindering women’s professional advancement
reduces a complex and layered issue into one that is oversimplified
(Sobczak, 2018). Doing so places the blame for women’s experience in
mountain guiding to the actions of other individual females. Even when
efforts are being made to improve organisational climate, research has
unearthed the complexity of outcomes related to the inclusion of diversity
programmes and gender equality practices in organisations. For instance,
Shin and Kim (2022) found that in organisations with female executives or
in which men are encouraged to use parental leave, diversity programmes
improved supervisor/employee relationships among both male and female
supervisors. However, in organisations that hosted only diversity training
and programmes without these other elements, relationships between
female supervisors and their female staff were actually harmed. Thus,
arguably, the first step towards leaving tracks for women to follow is to
understand the environment that causes women to feel they must protect
their positions within the hierarchy, and then how individual-level actions
work together with socio-political and cultural values to weave an intricate
web of experience. Understanding and encouraging non-normative stan-
dards and practices will allow for great integration of women into moun-
taineering. This idea relates to previous research on how the outdoors can
be made more inclusive to women by helping to once again reinforce the
idea that gender discrimination and under-representation is not a “wom-
en’s” issue, but one that is created and recreated by outdoor recreation
participants, and ultimately negatively impacts them too.
What is reassuring is that research on professional guides has found that
though women have experienced the queen bee phenomenon, bullying,
and the chilly climate, they are interested in turning the tide—in providing
the mentorship and support they did not experience while entering the
professional mountain guiding ranks (Evans et al., 2020). Based on the
198 K. EVANS ET AL.

experiences of female guides and on relevant research on professional lead-

ership, there are a number of steps that can be implemented within the
mountain guiding profession to create a trail for women to follow to
achieve their own professional goals. These steps include creating a collec-
tive understanding, fixing a broken system, focusing on intersectionality,
and recognising female peers as allies.

Collective Understanding
First, and maybe most simply, it is important that female guides acknowl-
edge that the constraints to achieving professional success exist, are expe-
rienced by others, and have a real impact on their careers (Magee &
Penfold, 2021; Rogers-Adkinson & Feldhaus, 2022). Acknowledging and
giving voice to the gendered experiences they are facing on a daily basis as
mountain guides, women can begin to work towards a collective under-
standing of what the barriers are to professional entrance in the field and
how to successfully navigate them. As it currently stands, women too often
feel what they are experiencing is unique or is just the way things are—that
the only way to navigate the experience is to grin and bear it (Evans et al.,
2020). However, research on leadership in a range of professions indicates
that a key to creating a more welcoming environment for women is to cre-
ate an open dialogue through both formal and informal channels through
which women are able to openly discuss their experiences and strategies
for overcoming the hurdles along the way. Examples of these are formal
mentoring programmes or informal discussions both within particular
guiding companies, but also in the broader professional guiding commu-
nity. Once created, these collective acts can refocus on supporting indi-
vidual women in their particular circumstances by connecting them to the
most relevant mentors, creating or providing support for advancement
opportunities, or providing support in particular elements of the profes-
sion (Magee & Penfold, 2021).

Fixing a Broken System

Next, as suggested previously, rather than focusing on individual women
as perpetrators or receivers of negative gendered treatment, it is important
to focus on the guiding profession as a whole (Rogers-Adkinson &
Feldhaus, 2022). To begin, this means that men and women (again, this
essentialisation of the gender binary is problematic and will be addressed
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 199

more fully in the next section) should be employed as a part of the solu-
tion. This aligns with previous research in which female guides described
a desire to avoid women’s only opportunities or focus in mountaineering
(Evans & Anderson, 2018). It is unlikely that a female-only mountaineer-
ing space will ever exist, so it is important that both men and women are
a part of the experience in the mountains and the solution to women’s
often disparate reality. This begins with including men in the conversa-
tions during which a collective understanding is arrived upon and the dis-
cussions surrounding creating and increasing inclusivity (Rogers-­Adkinson
& Feldhaus, 2022). With this shared ownership of identifying the issues
and the possible solution(s), then, the system as a whole—the mountain-
eering profession—can be a part of improving the experience of all of
those that participate at any level of mountaineering.
Specific actions the profession can take towards this end include creat-
ing and abiding by a code of ethics that details, specifically, how to reduce
gender bias, how to be fully inclusive of all users in the mountains, and
elucidates specific expectations on how guides, themselves, are expected to
perform their professional duties. The International Federation of
Mountain Guides Associations (IFMGA), for instance, already has a Code
of Professional Conduct that includes provisions that bump up against
these issues, but do not go as far as specifically identifying them as topics
of focus (IFMGA, 2022). Articles 7 and 10 of their current code detail
that, respectively, guides are expected to “uphold the status of the profes-
sion and [are to be] mindful of the consequent obligations and issues of
professional integrity at all times” and to be “friendly and helpful to other
Guides and mountaineers” including by being “polite and helpful” to all
they encounter professionally (IFMGA, 2022). The IFMGA’s current lan-
guage does not, however, focus on inclusion, disparate gendered treat-
ment, or a specific focus on cultivating female leaders in the profession.
The IFMGA’s code of conduct is not the only place these could be
included as each country’s mountain guides association, or even individual
guiding companies could codify gender inclusion into their own codes of
ethics—if it is a principle that the profession values (Rogers-Adkinson &
Feldhaus, 2022). In addition to overarching expectations certifying bodies
could implement, individual companies and organisations that serve the
mountaineering profession can also play an important role by addressing
workplace bias and microaggressions—other central components that help
to create the environment in which female guides have disparate profes-
sional experiences (Kaskan & Ho, 2016; Magee & Penfold, 2021; Sue,
200 K. EVANS ET AL.

2010). Again, these initiatives can come from any level in the field and can
include both formal (e.g., mandated diversity and inclusion training) and
informal (e.g., networks that hold an ongoing dialogue surrounding these
topics) channels.

A Focus on Intersectionality
A third core component in addressing gendered experiences in mountain-
eering is to recognise that the various identities mountain guides hold will
impact their experience of discrimination. Thus, any successful inclusion
efforts must, at their core, focus on experiences that vary based on the
various identities (e.g., sexuality, race, gender, religion, disability, etc.) a
guide may possess. This understanding and recognition of personalised
experiences is an important aspect of both achieving a collective under-
standing and fixing a broken system. In turn, guides who hold dominant
group membership (e.g., men, white women) can move forward from a
place of understanding in leveraging their own privilege to work towards
improving the collective good (Rogers-Adkinson & Feldhaus, 2022). An
individual’s gender identity or expression would likely be a main focus,
especially if either is considered non-normative related to the gender
binary. This is why, as outlined early in this chapter, while we often essen-
tialise gender for ease of discussion, it is incredibly important to keep a
focus on gender beyond the binary in understanding how individual
guide’s experiences are created and impacted in doing the work of increas-
ing inclusion in the field.

Female Peers as Allies

Finally, it is important that women begin to distinguish their female peers
as allies and supporters rather than as adversaries who will replace, rather
than work alongside, them (Rogers-Adkinson & Feldhaus, 2022). One
woman’s advancement does not mean another loses her position—rather
it means that more women are advancing in the profession and moving
into leadership roles. Expanding upon the previous discussion on growing
collective understanding, women can act as the mentors and role models
for other female guides, in other words, they can lift as they climb. Not
only is this idea impactful in principle, but research bears out female
guides’ desire to support other guides in this way. For instance, an IFMGA-­
certified guide and examiner described providing specific and substantive
 11 LEAVE TRACKS: GENDER, DISCRIMINATION, AND RESISTANCE… 201

feedback to up-and-coming guides as she acknowledged the harm it

caused to her own advancement when she did not receive formal mentor-
ship or specific feedback early in her career (Evans, 2014). Other IFMGA-­
certified guides have described inviting practicum guides along on trips to
assist in their education and providing specific, formal education of skills
rather than relying on more informal on-the-job training they were often
provided (e.g., “watch how I do it”) while learning the ropes of guiding
(Evans & Anderson, 2018). These guides recognised that training young
guides would not mean they would be replaced in the profession, but,
rather, that doing so would provide them the opportunity to work along-
side more women in the future (Evans, 2014).

Conclusion
Issues of gender discrimination and inequity in the workplace, be it a cor-
porate or outdoor environment, are complex. Research has shown that
subjects of discrimination can simultaneously be their own best advocates
and their own worst enemies. However, nothing is as simple as it seems:
neither the problems nor the solutions. For many organisations, diversity
training courses are the primary resolution to check the proverbial equity
and inclusivity box. But data show that such courses can do more harm
than good if they are not backed up with supportive cultural practices.
Arguably, outdoor recreation broadly, and mountaineering specifically, are
slower to introduce efforts towards gender equity and integration because
of its highly (masculine) gendered nature. Being well-informed about how
psychological biases and defensive attitudes negatively impact behaviour is
imperative for women to, first, understand their own experiences and, ulti-
mately, to leave tracks that will guide women towards reaching their own
professional summits.

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 PART IV

Transformational Pedagogies:
Creating New Spaces to Mountaineer
 CHAPTER 12

Into the Mountain: Challenging Hegemonic

Discourses of Mountaineering
and Expanding the Relational Field

Simone Kenyon and Margaret Kerr

Introduction
Historically, the discipline of mountaineering and its literature has tended
to emphasise hegemonic narratives of conquest and competition. Within
this, a notable exception is Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain (2011).
Shepherd offered a relational vision of kinship with the mountains and
emphasised presence over pursuit of a goal. Her work has become visible
in recent years due to a growing cultural awareness of our interdepen-
dence with the rest of nature.
Our research addresses how, as women working with people and moun-
tain environments, we might contribute to emerging, and less

S. Kenyon (*)
University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
M. Kerr
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee,
Dundee, UK

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 209

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_12
210 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

anthropocentric narratives. We highlight embodied arts practices which

are ecological in their approach. As an exemplar, we describe our collab-
orative work on ‘Into the Mountain’, a site-relational performance in the
Cairngorm mountains, the area that inspired The Living Mountain. This
project expanded upon Shepherd’s writing to further explore our bodily
and experiential relationships with mountain environments.
We draw on interdisciplinary arts practices—haptic and somatic-based
facilitation from dance and performance contexts, ecopsychology and out-
door education. This intersection of approaches allows a flexible and inter-
connected way of being in the mountains, and working with each other.
Both mountaineering expeditions and performances require close collabo-
ration between people. However, performances like the one we describe
call for a relational field that expands more widely to include not only
performers and audience, but also the more than human. They invite and
make conscious a deep resonance with the ephemeral but potent experi-
ence of immersion in the mountain environment. This kind of relational,
ecological praxis offers the possibility of subverting orthodox narratives of
conquest and competition in mountaineering.
We seek to illustrate how cross-disciplinary research and site-related art
events can help re-address the gendered and anthropocentric imbalance,
inherent in mountaineering histories. Walking alongside each other, we
can begin to make visible the multitudinous experiences of women and of
the mountains themselves.
Historically, the discipline of mountaineering and its literature has
tended to emphasise hegemonic narratives of conquest and competition
(Purtschert, 2020; Rak, 2021a). Within this, a notable exception is Nan
Shepherd’s The Living Mountain (2011). Shepherd offers a relational
vision of kinship with the mountains and values presence over pursuit of a
goal. Her work has become visible in recent years due to a growing cul-
tural awareness of our interdependence with the rest of nature (Fleming,
2022; Shepherd, 2011; Walton, 2020).
Our research addresses how, as women working with people and moun-
tain environments, we might contribute to emerging decolonial and less
anthropocentric narratives. We highlight embodied arts practices which
are ecological in their approach. As an exemplar, we describe here our col-
laborative work on ‘Into the Mountain’, a site-relational performance in
the Scottish Cairngorm mountains, the area that inspired Shepherd’s work.
The project which we describe in this chapter draws on interdisciplinary
arts practices, haptic (sensory) and somatic (bodily)-based facilitation
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 211

from dance and performance contexts, ecopsychology and outdoor educa-

tion. This intersection of approaches allows a flexible and interconnected
way of being in the mountains, and working with each other. Both moun-
taineering expeditions and performances require close collaboration
between people. Performances like the one we describe also call for a rela-
tional field that expands more widely to include not only performers and
audience, but also the more-than-human.
Working in this way invites and makes conscious a deep resonance with
the ephemeral but potent experience of immersion in the mountain envi-
ronment. We would suggest that this kind of relational, ecological praxis
offers the possibility of subverting orthodox narratives of conquest and
competition in mountaineering. It challenges historical discourses of colo-
nialism and patriarchy, which set up a binary of rational, disciplined, effec-
tual and strong masculine versus emotional, undisciplined, ineffectual and
weak feminine (Nandy, 1983; Rak, 2021a). These hegemonic discourses
still linger in the contemporary valorisation of linear ‘progress’ and act as
foundation myths for our industrial culture (Merchant, 1990; Worthy
et al., 2019).
In this chapter, we seek to illustrate how cross-disciplinary research and
site-related art events can help redress the gendered and anthropocentric
imbalance inherent in mountaineering histories. Walking alongside each
other, we can begin to make visible the many and varied experiences of
women and of the mountains themselves.
The sport of ‘mountaineering’ started to emerge in Western Europe in
the mid-nineteenth century as industrialisation created transport links to
the Alps and made mountainous areas accessible to recreational travellers,
particularly from England. From an early stage, ’summiting’ mountains
were advocated in popular public writings as a preparation for colonial
exploits. As Hansen (1995, pp. 322–323) notes:

Mountain climbing helped to legitimise exploration and the broader impe-

rial expansion by transforming imperialism from an abstraction into some-
thing tangible and readily accessible to ambitious professional men…
adventure stories became “the energising myth of imperialism”, inspiring
Englishmen “to go out into the world and explore, conquer and rule… the
British conquest of the natural world came to symbolize British imperial
domination of other territory during the nineteenth century.
212 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Integral to the British Empire’s ‘civilising mission’ was the conquering

and ‘taming’ of ‘wild nature’ and other races of people, who were equated
with wildness and savagery (Bayers, 2003; Elkins, 2022). The devastating
ecological and human costs of this ‘conquest’ are two sides of the same
coin (Ferdinand, 2022). In the context of mountaineering, a successful
conquest was achieved by applying “the rational masculine imperial mind
that cooly and systematically manages the challenges of the natural envi-
ronment or the indigenous people encountered and used on expeditions”
(Bayers, 2003, p. 5).
Just as Imperialism objectified and exploited people, Mountains were
secularised and objectified as: “passive, interchangeable summit-objects to
be classified and collected” (Galanis, 2019, p. 83). From Victorian times
to the present day, European, and latterly North American mountaineer-
ing literature has described how expeditions have ‘conquered’ mountain
sites sacred to indigenous peoples (Driscoll & Atwood, 2020; Frohlick,
2005; Galanis, 2019).
The bodies of mountaineers were also a site for taming and ‘improve-
ment’: accounts of bodily mortification in the service of building character
and virility are common in the literature of colonial times. As Bayers says,
“although their bodies are emaciated and pushed to their limit, it is pre-
cisely their bodies’ ability to endure the hardships of mountaineering that
defines their masculine virility” (Bayers, 2003, p. 57). In the spirit of opti-
mistic industrialisation, which historically ran parallel to ‘improvement’,
the body of the white male mountaineer was seen as a machine that was
satisfying and invigorating to inhabit when it was in good working order
(Rak, 2021b).
After the First World War, the fiction of the British warrior’s strong and
resilient body was crushed by industrial warfare, the widespread circula-
tion of literary and visual imagery from that war, and the return of
wounded and debilitated men to civilian society. Mountaineering offered
a site for redemption of vitality and heroic masculinity, perhaps even a site
in which inter-war culture could turn its back on the all too obvious vul-
nerability of men’s bodies and minds (Bayers, 2003).
The narrative of the White male hero has continued in elite mountain-
eering contexts into the twenty-first century. For example, Frohlick (2005)
identifies many of the tropes of colonial-era discourse still alive and
robustly thriving at a mountaineering film festival in 2002. Films almost
exclusively depicted white male heroic adventurers conquering, excelling,
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 213

risk-taking and engaging in extreme bodily hardship. Frohlick (2005,

pp. 179–180) described the films as:

Heterosexualised spaces upholding a masculine-feminine binary… which

[suture] tropes of adventure closely with white masculine unfettered mobil-
ity, colonialist desire, elite athleticism and male fraternity… and ‘’reinscribe
the integral themes of colonial adventure fiction, fashioning them for
today’s audience.

Over 20 years after Frohlick’s study, Georgie Abel (2017) notes the
same biases persisting in the media of elite climbing. From the second half
of the nineteenth century until the late twentieth century, the membership
of the elite British Alpine, Climbers’ and Scottish Mountaineering Clubs
remained exclusively male. From the early 1900s, much smaller exclusively
female clubs were established in Scotland and England. Women rarely
wrote publicly of their mountaineering exploits during this time, and often
when they did so, it was under assumed male names. Occasionally, their
experiences were written about by men (Moraldo, 2020).
Women were seen as minor players in the Victorian and Edwardian elite
mountaineering establishment and mountains that could be, or were,
climbed by women were often relegated in prestige. Women were con-
structed as physically weak in comparison with male mountaineers, or in
rare cases, portrayed as super-human. The first part of the twentieth cen-
tury saw more women becoming involved in elite mountaineering, but at
least until the 1930s they were expected to play second fiddle to their male
climbing partners, with few claiming the position of mountaineers in their
own right. Perhaps their fear of ‘going public’ was influenced by the not-­
uncommon derision, and invocation of gender stereotypes that public
commitment to the mountains might bring (Moraldo, 2020).
As late as the 1940s Samivel in France was writing: “Ah! We know
them, these unfortunate ‘pic ladies’, these lonely owls who haunt refuges
and rock faces like men, handle like men the hard tools of the mountain-
eer… Nay, real women are too gentle for the bitter mountains” (Moraldo,
2020, p. 736).
Even today, elite mountaineering clubs’ female membership is around
10% at most. Although the sport has opened up to women slightly more,
there are still obvious residues of male hegemony. Rather than the overt
contempt of earlier ages, it lingers for example, in women not being men-
tioned in written accounts by male mountaineers, apart from as wives
214 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

waiting anxiously at home. Female mountaineers on the other hand

describe endeavouring not to show fatigue or discomfort and to be ‘one
of the guys’. As Moraldo (2020) notes: “Mountaineering is still today the
place of hegemonic masculinity… a domination of men over women
through a set of practices and symbols… the whole history of mountain-
eering… bears the weight of this hegemony” (p. 743).
There is little doubt that the early hypermasculinised imperialist moun-
taineering discourses of the Victorian era have survived and are still active.
However, the picture is more nuanced and complex than that, and closer
examination shows multiple discourses coexisting historically and in the
present day.
The historian Clare Roche (2013) examined private correspondence
and alpine mountaineering logbooks from 1850 to 1900. She found evi-
dence that many women climbed and hiked in the Alps and that focusing
on published, mainly heroic, accounts written by men has led to an over-
simplification. Many British middle-class women enjoyed ‘first ascents’,
winter climbs and long mountain expeditions, and were physically fit.
Mixed parties of men and women and women-only parties were both
common, and included varying intentions to climb, walk, sketch and study
flora and fauna. Much as today, women started off with shorter walks and
graduated to more challenging mountaineering trips.
These women resisted male constructs of frailty, needing male guid-
ance, or being incapable of sustained physical exercise, or exercise during
menstruation. There are reports of competitiveness between women
climbers. However, there is also much evidence of relationality: many
women’s unpublished accounts from this time show a non-competitive joy
in physicality, of the mountain environment and ecology and human com-
panionship in the mountains. In contrast, to the rather self-aggrandising
and weighty tone of many men’s published accounts, women’s private
correspondence about their mountain experiences was more self-effacing,
humorous and light-hearted.
Frohlick’s (1999–2000) examination of alternative masculinities in the
elite world of contemporary high-altitude mountaineering also reveals the
emergence of a more embodied and relational alternative discourse in
men’s recent mountain writing. This discourse normalises every day, and
sometimes visceral descriptions of physical experiences of vulnerability. For
example, Frohlick (1999, p. 16) quotes the mountaineer, Venables: “then
my strength gave out and I collapsed, wetting myself and suffocating in
another fit of hyperventilation” and: “I was physically exhausted and had
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 215

just ridden an emotional rollercoaster” (p. 16). Frohlick (1999–2000)

also contrasts the dispassionate, conquering, competitive nature of some
descriptions of mountaineering experience to the presence in many other
accounts of the deep bonds of friendship between male mountaineers and
the existential importance of being together, encapsulated in another
climber’s heartfelt lament, “why couldn’t they just give the dying man the
comfort of their presence?” (p. 17). As Frohlick (1999–2000) reminds us:
“Masculinity is neither tangible nor an abstraction whose meaning is
everywhere the same. In practice, people operate according to many dif-
ferent notions of masculinity” (p. 17).
Salovaara’s (2015) study of mountaineering films shows evidence that
different notions of masculinity are becoming more prominent in the con-
temporary canon. While the mainstream hypermasculine tropes are still
prevalent, there are also depictions of masculine physical and mental vul-
nerability and connectedness with the rest of nature. A more recent study
by Salovaara has investigated how the outdoor sports retailer, Salomon,
invokes a discourse of masculine connectedness to, and intimate identifica-
tion with the mountain environment in their advertising videos (Salovaara,
2021). Their use of a more nature-connected discourse of masculinity
does suggest that the ways in which male mountaineers can think of them-
selves in relation to the mountains is changing. However, Salovaara and
Kennedy (2022) have identified a ‘hybrid masculinity’ among privileged
men participating in (and educating others in) outdoor sports. While
overtly ecologically conscious, caring and rejecting of hypermasculine
behaviour, many of these men still reinforce tropes of hegemonic mascu-
linity such as risk-taking, physical strength and skill and endurance in the
face of pain.
Although Abel (2017) points to the persistence of hypermasculine
tropes in mountaineering, she also affirms the presence, in the contempo-
rary climbing world, of women of colour and women with different abili-
ties, sexual orientations and backgrounds. The diversity that Abel writes of
is gradually starting to be acknowledged in the climbing media. For exam-
ple, the Banff mountain film festival recently included a panel entitled
‘Climbing Through Barriers’, which focused on diversity and intersection-
ality (Croston, 2021; Rak, 2021a).
Women writers have recently offered new way markings in mountain-
eering literature and outdoor recreation. They have highlighted the lived
experience of relationships and challenges that some women face, includ-
ing navigating mountaineering and motherhood (Mort, 2022), spiritual
216 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

and somatic perspectives on the nature of adventure (Kerr, 2021), and the
role of race in experiences of outdoor activity (Davis, 2019). A recent study
illustrated how women experience, negotiate and resist discriminatory
names given to rock-climbing routes, that are rooted in patriarchal and
settler-colonial ideologies and ‘laddish masculinity’ (Wigglesworth, 2022).
This evidence of different discourses coexisting in mountaineering is
reminiscent of Bakhtin’s and later Anna Tsing’s evocations of polyphony
(Robinson, 2011; Tsing & Ebron, 2015). Attending to this multiplicity of
voices opens up a chance for a creative loosening of the hegemonic tropes
that still persist in mountaineering. It allows the possibility of a ‘third
space’ where communication can take place and the wider ecological, rela-
tional and spiritual elements of mountaineering can be openly explored
(Solomon, 2008).
Nan Shepherd’s literary work The Living Mountain (2011) opens into
just such a space, and provides an early alternative representation within
Scottish mountaineering literature. Whilst not outrightly criticising ath-
leticism and the competitive nature of racing up mountains, she offers
experiential alternatives to the conquering mindset of pitting oneself
against the wilderness. She refers to a learning in the mountains which
evolves over time; from having a thirst for the summits in her youth to
exploring and lingering in places less trodden as she comes to know them.
At the time of writing, in the 1940s, Shepherd was advised by her friend
and colleague, the Scottish writer Neil Gunn, that her work would likely
not find a publisher, so she closed the manuscript away in a drawer and did
not publish it until 1977, towards the end of her life (Walton, 2020).
However, the fact that Shepherd was writing, in the way that she did in the
first half of the twentieth century, illustrates clearly that it was possible to
go into the mountains at that time, as it is now, without being hidebound
by contemporary norms. Her approach to writing from her mountain
experiences may have been deemed by some as inferior, against the heroic
and dramatic accounts of most memoirs where mountains were reified and
conquered, where the body was something to be controlled, and the cha-
otic other-than-human was to be subdued through the application of rea-
son and force. However, we would argue that The Living Mountain is a
rare and foundational text in mountaineering literature, in that it captures
an indigenous ‘herstory’ of the mountains ‘from below’ (Robinson &
Slemon, 2018).
The lyrical prose in Nan Shepherd’s collection of 12 essays weaves
together many strands of her embodied experience of mountaineering in
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 217

the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. Her writing combines playful,

philosophical, poetic, sensual, elemental and deeply relational aspects of
how it felt to walk, explore and linger among the mountains. The relation-
ships described by Shepherd are, however, not only human—they are with
everything in the field of her experience: with friends, rocks, water, body,
feelings, movement, plants, animals, weather and the experience of Being.
She constantly weaves herself into the mountain, and is constantly woven
in by it. Outer and inner worlds are implicit in each other—as she writes:
“It is a journey into Being; for as I penetrate more deeply into the moun-
tain’s life, I penetrate also into my own” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 108).
There is a sense of continuity and interconnectedness in the description
of Shepherd’s experience, as if she feels in her body the greatest and tiniest
of folds in the fabric of the place, and of herself (Deleuze & Strauss, 1991).
These folds are pleated upon themselves, and open into hidden chambers
and realities. And yet there is an infinite openness and spaciousness to her
descriptions that cannot be conveyed only by the metaphor of enfold-
ment. The constant fluidity and exchange between Shepherd and the
places she inhabits are reminiscent of Karen Barad’s (2003) description of
“open ended practices” which “are perpetually open to rearrangements,
re-articulations and other reworkings” (p. 817) and are shaped by the
constant intra-action of dynamic forces. Like Barad’s (2003) agential real-
ism, Shepherd’s embodied exploration of the mountain does not solidify a
boundary between “human” and “non-human” but rather, she partici-
pates with the mountain as “part of the world in its open-ended becom-
ing” (p. 821).
“Part route guide and part word map” (Andrews, 2020, p. 185),
Shepherd’s writing offers alternative ways in, taking us off the well-­trodden
paths and focusing on the sense of interior, rather than the rush for the
“tang of height” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 9). It is her invitations to linger in
places, to take time and develop ways in which “to apprehend things”
(Andrews, 2020, p. 20) that make this book also a guidebook for the
movement-minded outdoor practitioner and choreographer. Shepherd
writes with movement at the forefront of her experience. Even while
grasping for words to express the intangible feeling of her relationship
with the mountain, she knows that “something moves between me and it”
(Shepherd, 2011, p. 8). Robert Macfarlane, in his introduction to the
2011 edition, writes of Shepherd using “attention as devotion” (p. xiii).
She searches and explores the interiority of the mountain as well as her
own interior, in her close attention to the movements of both.
218 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Nan Shepherd’s focus on movement as a touchstone, and her devoted,

embodied attentiveness resonate strongly with our work as somatic practi-
tioners. Somatic work and embodied experiences of the environment
bring keen attention to self and things: they are devotional practices that
impress a sense of responsibility to know and understand the other.
Through movement awareness and choreographic approaches, we, like
Shepherd, go into a deeper exploration of the inner and outer landscapes
of both body and environment. The permeable boundaries between us
and place become less distinct so that there is “little to indicate where the
human ends, and the mountain begins” (Andrews, 2020, p. 181).
Through dancing, walking, mountaineering and ecological practices we
attempt to find the possibility of a transmigration … an exchange of some
kind of essential matter between the human and the lithic—a vital, and
vitalising, petrification (Andrews, 2020, p. 180, emphasis ours). But it is
not only the lithic that interpenetrates our bodies as we move in the moun-
tain environment. It is all life. In Shepherd’s words: when the aromatic
savour of the pine goes searching into the deepest recesses of my lungs, I
know that it is life that is entering (Shepherd, 2011, p. 52).
It was from our engagement with Shepherd’s work, as movement prac-
titioners that the project Into the Mountain came into being. The project
took the form of a curated programme of events spanning 12 months, and
included creative workshops, with ecological movement and mountain-­
based retreats, exploring words in the landscape (with Scottish author,
Linda Cracknell), public talks (e.g. with Erland Clouston, Nan Shepherd’s
literary executor) and educational workshops across schools, working with
the Cairngorms National Park Authority. A symposium day brought artis-
tic and mountain culture experts together for a dynamic meeting of dis-
cussion and exploration. Free training opportunities were offered, in
collaboration with Mountaineering Scotland, and these included the
Summer Mountain Leader training for two women.
This programme of events developed the context and audience for the
culminating outdoor performance event. The performance Into the
Mountain, in May 2019 was a site-relational work which took place in the
Glen Feshie area of the Cairngorm Mountain range. This performance
included a newly formed women’s choir, a group of five dancers and three
mountain leaders paired with somatic (bodily)/movement practitioners
who guided the audience on three different walking routes to the perfor-
mance site. The performance and programme were managed, produced
and delivered by an all-women team.
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 219

The trans-disciplinary approach of the project allowed for a widening of

participation and included the voices of many women, whose diverse
knowledge and experience helped shape the project both creatively and
politically. This intersectional approach, working with cross-sector collab-
orations through the variety of supporting partners, was primarily publicly
funded within the creative arts, by Creative Scotland. For the project’s full
scope of events, activities, partnerships and funders, see: www.intothe-
mountain.co.uk
As creative practitioners working with embodied, choreographic and
ecological arts, we (the authors) are committed to considering and explor-
ing what our contributions could be when offering new perspectives on
mountains and an evolving mountaineering culture. Into the Mountain
was an attempt to devise alternative ways for people (whether experienced
mountain lovers or not) to engage with the Cairngorm Mountain ecology
as a social, embodied and poetic experience.
Into The Mountain sits within the wider context of site-specific perfor-
mance and dance. This discipline emerged from postmodern arts practices
including the Land Art movement of the 1960s onwards (Kloetzel &
Pavlik, 2011) and developed by writers, like Lippard (1997) who expanded
the notion of place-specific to include the traces of historical and social
contexts in creative process and research. Dance artists working with site-­
specificity are wide-ranging. Trisha Brown’s choreographic communica-
tions across a U.S. cityscape in Roof Piece (1971) (see Graham, 2013),
Tess de Quincey’s (2021) expansive Australian desert project, Triple Alice
(1999–2001) and Simon Whitehead’s walking in the Welsh rural environ-
ment (2006) are just a few examples within this broad field. Site-related
dance methodologies explore local and global (Barbour et al., 2019;
Hunter, 2015) and more recently, New Materialist perspectives
(Hunter, 2021).
UK artists working, training or making performance in relation to
mountain environments are few, but include the environmental perfor-
mance maker and scholar, Louise Ann Wilson’s walk-performance, The
Gathering/ Yr Helfa (2014) in Snowdonia (Wilson, 2022) and Kate
Lawrence whose approach incorporates vertical dance and climbing prac-
tices (2019). The 2020 publication, Performing Mountains (Pitches,
2020.), maps the territory where mountain and performance studies meet.
This includes how the physical, metaphorical and cultural understandings
of mountains have influenced methodologies in performance training,
design and conceptual approach.
220 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Beyond public performance making, dance training focused on the

ecological body and movement practices has been widely explored within
the Western tradition (Reeve, 2011). Somatic training and artistic devel-
opment taking place within mountainous environments are exemplified by
the Body Weather dance practices, which were key to the making of Into
the Mountain. Japanese artist, Min Tanaka developed Body Weather
(Fuller, 2018) in the context of a working farm in rural Japan and will be
described later in this chapter. Notably, Kenyon’s longstanding training
with dance artists, Frank van de Ven and Katerina Bakatsaki (Body Weather
Amsterdam, 2022) and Christine Quoiraud (Kenyon & Quoiruad, 2021)
(all original members of Tanaka’s, Maijuku dance company) influenced
the development of methodologies and choreographic approaches for the
performance of Into The Mountain.
As Shepherd (2011, p. 1) states in her opening paragraph of The Living
Mountain, “to know the mountains, essential nature…is not done easily
nor in an hour”, and the same can be true for art making that is process
driven, socially as well as environmentally engaged. Over six years this
work developed from an individual artist (Kenyon, 2019a) following in
Shepherd’s footsteps, becoming familiar with her words, coming to know
the Cairngorms in all seasons (Kenyon, 2019a), then connecting with a
diverse group of women to discuss mountaineering more widely, and ulti-
mately create a collaborative, interdisciplinary performance which drew on
the experiences of many women in relationship with the mountains.
From these interactions it was apparent that the nuances of women’s
experiences were invisible within mainstream, professional narratives. Julie
Rak (2021a) poses the question, if we challenge the hierarchy and obses-
sion with summiting, ever present in mountaineering stories, then what
new potential narratives can emerge and “who would get to be a climber
if other stories of climbing start to matter?” (Rak, 2021a. p. 7). Rak is
referring to the lack of diversity in elite international mountaineering
endeavours, but Scottish hill walking and amateur mountaineering are still
bound to colonial and patriarchal narratives where subaltern discourses
remain relatively invisible.
This project sought, through a creative process, a space in which to
generate and witness alternative narratives that expressed the multitude of
ways we go into rather than onto the mountains: making performance
work that gave voice and visibility to women’s lived experiences in the
foothills of the mountain environment. It created a frame in which partici-
pants could spend time together outdoors and witness their collective
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 221

experience; to see, in ourselves and each other a glimpse of what Shepherd

(2011) described as “a journey into Being” (p. 108).
The journey of transmigration was a thread that wove throughout the
performance. As the audience travelled through the landscape to the per-
formance site, there was a transmigration from one state of being to
another; from a focus on ‘getting somewhere’ to an unfolding experience
of ‘being here’. As well as the physical and experiential transmigration,
there was also perhaps an ontological one: a movement from the sense of
‘soul’, or life being encapsulated in the physical body to an awareness of
the ensoulment and vitality of the whole landscape (Fig. 12.1).
Echoes of transmigration also haunted the landscape in which we
worked. The mountain environment is not a blank pristine wilderness,
‘cleansed’ of any trace of indigenous people like those uninhabited land-
scape scenes depicted by artists of the colonial era—see for example
descriptions by Abramson (2009) and Thomas (1987). Until the Highland
clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scotland’s glens
were thronged with people, who lived and worked there. The walking
routes within the performance followed the paths that generations of

Fig. 12.1 Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)

222 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

humans have made. We felt our forebears’ movement and endeavours

through the groove we collectively cut or eroded into the mountainsides.
Whether we are comfortable with this physical impact or not, we added to
those human traces as we walked together.
Participants followed three distinct routes through the mountain land-
scape, gradually circling in and following ridge lines to converge at the
performance site, where two streams (burns) also converge, deep in Glen
Feshie, a valley that cuts through the Cairngorm mountains. The sense of
movement of lines of water and lines of people converging formed part of
a larger choreographic mapping through the performance (Fig. 12.2).
The design of the audience’s facilitated journeys to the site of the per-
formance was informed by a trans-disciplinary approach that included
methods from Body Weather dance training, eco-somatic practices,
awareness-­ through-movement approaches such as The Feldenkrais
Method® (Feldenkrais, 1977), (Buchanan & Ulrich, 2001), sensory
interoception (Farb et al., 2015) and mindfulness (Gibson, 2019). Three
separate walks were designed to bring pace, rhythm, time for following
curiosity, exploration of individual bodily senses and a collective sense of

Fig. 12.2 Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)

 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 223

wonder in the micro and macro details of the mountain environment. The
walks offered a frame in which to embody the quality of contemplative
experiencing that Shepherd describes in her work; “Thus, the senses must
be trained and disciplined, the eye to look, the ear to listen… I can teach
my body many skills by which to learn the nature of the mountain. One of
the most compelling is quiescence” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 90)
The three walking routes to the performance site differed in length and
difficulty, to accommodate people with various fitness levels and access
needs. The routes were 5 hrs, 3 hrs and 1.5 hrs, respectively. We acknowl-
edge here that although these routes were designed with various levels of
prior hill walking experience in mind, mountain performances are, by their
nature, limited in the degree of accessibility they can offer to audiences of
more diverse physical ability. A full discussion of this important area is
regrettably not in the scope of this chapter.
The walks were structured to introduce people to the place, creative
themes through embodied ways of knowing, whilst moving along a path
collectively. Each group was led by an experienced mountain leader and a
somatic practitioner who facilitated sensory, embodied and poetic explora-
tions en route. This involved reading extracts from The Living Mountain
to suggest ways of getting to know the immediate environment. The shift
in perspective that Shepherd’s work brought helped participants under-
stand more-than-human points of view. (For an example of a somatic prac-
tice and reading used and developed for the project’s education pack, see
Fig. 12.3.)
The approach was often light and playful, as exemplified in this quote:

By so simple a matter as altering the position of one’s head, a different kind

of world may be made to appear. Lay the head down, or better still, face
away from what you look at, and bend with straddled legs till you see your
world upside down…Nothing has reference to me the looker… This is how
the earth must see itself. (Shepherd, 2011, pp. 10–11)

Shepherd’s mountaineering practice could be described as Stravaiging,

a Scottish term for strolling about (Thomson, 2018, p. 217). This inten-
tional wandering shifts the focus away from goal-orientated pursuits such
as summiting, towards an exploration of ecological encounters, kinship
and relational understanding. She writes: “often the mountain gives itself
more completely when I have no destination, when I reach nowhere in
224 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Fig. 12.3 Education pack example. Into the Mountain. 2019. (Design Maeve
Redmond)

particular, but have gone out merely to be with the mountain as one visits
a friend with no intention but to be with him” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 15).
It is illuminating to contrast Shepherd’s stravaiging to the observational
position of Baudelaire’s predominantly male, urban Flâneur (Tester, 1994)
so often referred to within the history and context of Walking Arts (Smith,
2015; Richardson, 2015), and as a research method (O’Neill & Roberts,
2019). Far from the detachment of the Flâneur, Shepherd is intimately
and somatically engaged with the places she finds herself in. She surren-
ders to their mystery and is transformed in the process.
While staying true to the idea of stravaiging in each group as they made
their way through the mountains, it also was important to the overall cho-
reography of the event that each group might witness each other from a
distance, arriving at the place of the performance. The practicalities of this
design had many uncontrollable elements so the idea of a seamless folding
together of groups at times felt like a fragile possibility. Even so, these ideal
macro choreographic journeys were kept in mind, always with the acknowl-
edgement that one might need to let go of a fixed idea of how events
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 225

could develop. The mountain leaders took responsibility for pacing and
adaptation to weather changes while the somatic facilitators adjusted the
time devoted to group explorations and readings, to fit with the overall
schedule (Figs. 12.4, 12.5 and 12.6).
As participants listened to readings of Shepherd’s words, got to know
each other, and engaged with somatic practices along the way, the quality
of relationships in the group often shifted, becoming quieter, closer, more
attentive. As the journeys progressed along paths, over streams and rough
ground, walking styles changed in response to the terrain; knees and feet
up higher, attention turned downwards, to avoid not only the hidden
sunken holes but also the newly arrived frogs that were present there.
Attention and softer steps were needed to take care, to notice the startling
movements of the camouflaged inhabitants and to avoid the untouched
lush mosses and lichens. As Shepherd describes: “Eye and foot acquire in
rough walking, a coordination that makes one distinctly aware of where
the next step is to fall” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 13).

Fig. 12.4 Saffy Setohy (group facilitator) reading extract from Shephers’s prose.
Into The Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)
226 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Fig. 12.5 Margaret Kerr and Kathy Grindrod (group facilitator and mountain
leader). Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)

Fig. 12.6 Participants during the walk explored ecological details. Into the
Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 227

The performance site itself is gentle, focused on dense mossy mounds

that rise above the heather and wind-scoured vegetation. Audiences were
invited to sit and rest, eat a sandwich, continue having a chat with their
group or read aloud a final section of The Living Mountain, shared casu-
ally amongst the group, whilst they waited for the other walking groups
to arrive.
Already present were a choir of between 15 and 21 women. The vocal
composition created by artist Hanna Tullikki and led with singer, Lucy
Duncombe, explored in part, the dynamics and complexities of mountain
water so often described and explored by Shepherd: “The sound of all this
moving water is as integral to the mountain as pollen to a flower. One
hears it without listening as one breathes without thinking… On one
short stretch of burn, the ear may distinguish a dozen different notes at
once” (Shepherd, 2011, p. 26).
Working with the mountain acoustics in live performances could be
considered as challenging, but again acknowledging the impossibility of
creating perfect conditions brought a new sense of performing with the
mountain ecology. The flexibility and porosity of the vocal and movement
scores mirrored and related back to one another, but the underscore was
always the place itself. The mountains were choreographing the experi-
ences of our human bodies through their contours, fauna, atmospheres
and climates. We saw their weather writ large, when we lost sight of the
dancers in the hanging fog, and when the mood of the work changed
dramatically from one day to the next. The mountain was the dramaturg
to the unfolding gathering (Fig. 12.7).
The length of sections, tempo and drive was determined by the ever-­
changing physical relationship between the dancers and the space. The
timing of one section for example would take as long as it took for the
dancers to run from all directions down the hillsides, navigating and nego-
tiating that uneven, heather-rung steep ground, “becoming rivulets, fol-
lowing gravity, gradually gaining momentum” (Kenyon, 2021, p. 224).
The choir sang with them for as long as it took for them to arrive in the
middle distance of the space. As Shepherd noted: place and a mind may
228 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Fig. 12.7 The choir in rehearsals. Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity
Crawshaw)

interpenetrate until the nature of both is altered (Shepherd, 2011, p. 8)

(Fig. 12.8).
As the dancers reached the now-quiet space where the audience were
sitting on the heather and moss, they looked up to the sky, their bodies
arching back, and falling slowly as the soft ground received them: the
body … keyed to its highest potential and controlled to a profound har-
mony deepening into something that resembles trance (Shepherd, 2011,
p. 106). Dreamlike, but keenly attentive, crouching low they moved
among the audience, slowly, exploring the ground, the moss, the heather
with their hands, their bare feet, their bodies: drawing all those who wit-
nessed into a sense of wonder at the plants and insects whose way of life
lies in the mountain’s way of life as water lies in a channel (Shepherd,
2011, p. 50). The audience and dancers surrendered to a shared mystery
and were held in its infinite folds.
How do we become beyond desire (Shepherd, 2011, p. 108) like this,
so we can come to rest in the ineffability of the mountain and its ecology?
How do we empty ourselves of striving, the urge to conquer, to reify, to
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 229

Fig. 12.8 Audience and dancers Keren Smail, Caroline Reagh, Petra Söör,
Claricia Parinussa, Jo Hellier. Into The Mountain.2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)

colonise, to own? Do we need to simply become passive receptors for all

that surrounds us?
The notion of ‘emptying oneself’ is widespread in somatic and well-­
being practices. It is often misunderstood as reducing the human body to
something that only receives information from the outside. Seeing the
‘emptied’ body as passive repeats the colonial artists’ trope of painting the
landscape emptied of its inhabitants, offering itself to the coloniser’s
desires.
In a parallel process to the misinterpretation of ‘emptying the body’,
the ‘emptiness’ (Sunyata) described in Buddhism (which may have influ-
enced Shepherd (Walton, 2020)) has sometimes been incorrectly rendered
in the West, as a lifeless void that leads to a nihilistic concept of ‘non-­
attachment’. However, the original Buddhist understanding of ‘Sunyata’
is visible in Shepherd’s prose: it describes not a lack, but a constant
‘becoming’, a deeply interconnected vitality (Fraser, 2022).
This vibrant understanding of ‘becoming’ in outdoor praxis is exempli-
fied in the Japanese dance method of Body Weather (Fuller, 2014; de
230 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Quincey & Maxwell, 2019). This practice endeavours to explore the

porosity of body and sense of place and to experience one’s constantly
shifting nature as part of the world in its open-ended becoming (Barad,
2003, pp. 820–821). Body Weather training challenges ingrained move-
ment and behavioural patterns, perceptions and ways of relating to other
bodies—be they human or more than human—and encourages us to open
outwards, through movement. This was a key methodology for the com-
pany of dancers in the Into the Mountain performance, and helped them
develop embodied attention as a means of expanding the sense of where
movement comes from and ends. When Nan Shepherd articulates her sen-
sation of having walked out of the body and into the mountain (2011,
p. 106), she echoes the experiences of dancers investigating the fluidity
and permeability of body, environment and improvisatory movement
practices.
The emptying of self that Shepherd (2011) describes is not the bleak
emptying of the “cleared landscape” (p. 108). Nor is it the desperate flirt-
ing of a heroic ego with the risk of annihilation, as it faces down the fero-
cious sublime. The kind of emptying described in The Living Mountain,
and that which we invited in the performance is much more complex,
yielding, fleshy and messier than any of these. It is not ecstasy, Shepherd
(2011) says, “that leap out of the self that makes man like a god. I am not
out of myself, but in myself. I am” (p. 108).
Perhaps one of the most deep-rooted legacies of patriarchy and colo-
nialism is an ontological one—the positivist notion that ‘nature’ and ‘self’
can be divided up into solid parts, objectively observed, exhaustively
understood, ultimately mastered and owned. Shepherd’s work, dance
practices like Body Weather and the Into the Mountain project and per-
formance event ask us to turn away from these notions of separation and
dominion, and immerse ourselves in the experience of a physical world
that is ever-changing, and into which we are deeply woven: a world that
we depend on for our very Being. We would suggest that when we can let
go into this immersion, we can start to know and care for our own lives,
the lives of each other and that of the mountains in all their fragility and
strength (Fig. 12.9).
We hope that the work we have described here might inspire new per-
spectives on how we, as outdoor practitioners, can experience and share
the mountain environment. Colonial, industrial and patriarchal discourses
are still so prevalent in mountaineering, and our society as a whole, as to
often be almost invisible. If we are educated in a certain way of being in
 12 INTO THE MOUNTAIN: CHALLENGING HEGEMONIC DISCOURSES… 231

Fig. 12.9 Claricia Parinussa, Into the Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity
Crawshaw)

the mountains, it can be hard to see another way. But sometimes we can
feel another way that tugs on us as we follow a route to the summit, an
invitation to linger and surrender to the mystery of the place we are in.
Perhaps we have always felt the pull of that other way as an insistent and
intuitive disquiet with a worldview that emphasises summiting, competi-
tion and the technical aspects of mountaineering.
It is important, and can be lifesaving, to learn the technical skills of
mountaincraft. It can be exhilarating to experience height and empower-
ing to make it to a summit if we are able. But in this chapter, we have
shared how we found a complementary way, with the help of Nan
Shepherd’s work. In doing this, we have given voice to the disquiet we
have often felt about narratives that objectify mountains and extol con-
quering them through reason and physical strength. We hope that by shar-
ing our journey, we might help others among us who feel this unease to
have the courage to find their own ways: to rebalance the focus of outdoor
practice towards a more interconnected, life-affirming and tender way of
being in the mountains (Fig. 12.10).
232 S. KENYON AND M. KERR

Fig. 12.10 Dancers: Keren Smail, Caroline Reagh, Petra Söör, Claricia Parinussa,
Jo Hellier. Into The Mountain. 2019. (Image Felicity Crawshaw)

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Professor Natasha Lushetich, Kate

Bell and Joe McManners for their insightful comments on the manuscript and all
the women who contributed to and created the wider Into The Mountain project.

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 CHAPTER 13

Transformational Learning on the Journey

to Mountain Leadership

Katherine O’Brien

Welling with tears, with pride, but why?

For this day I have endured, enjoyed, made me cry.
Alone I have been, seen wondrous things.
But am I selfish for not sharing with friends and kin…?
Welling with tears—so touched, that’s why.
Heartfelt notes from dear friends bring an itch to my eye.
Alone I have been, such an empowering thing.
Words don’t do justice to the feeling today brings.
Alexandra Ridge, 2021

Many educators believe that the ultimate goal of adult education is a

sense of self-empowerment (Freire, 1970; Mezirow, 2000) like that
described above by Alexandra. Her poem was written during her solo

K. O’Brien (*)
Outward Bound Trust, London, UK
e-mail: katherine.obrien@outwardbound.org.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 237

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_13
238 K. O’BRIEN

mountain experience as part of Outward Bound’s Women’s Outdoor

Leadership Course (WOLC), a ten-week programme for women working
towards their Mountain Leader qualification, as well as other outdoor
assessments such as Rock Climbing Instructor and Paddlesports Leader.
Despite being the first female mountain guide, Gwen Moffat, qualifying in
1953, there has been a gender imbalance in the Mountain Leadership
profession in the UK spanning decades (Hardy et al., 2019; Moffat,
2014). Women make up 46.8% of the Hill and Mountain walking partici-
pants in the UK (Sport England, Active Lives Survey, 2018); however, just
18% of Summer Mountain Leaders in the UK are female and the gender
gap in qualified leadership continues to decline as one progresses further
up the qualification levels (Hall, 2018).
The Outward Bound Trust (OBT) is an outdoor education charity,
which aims to “inspire young people to achieve more than they ever
thought possible” (OBT, 2022). With 50% of participants being female,
OBT has embarked on a journey to attempt to create and retain an instruc-
tor team that more closely reflects the demographics of participants, in
order to provide a better gender balance of role models. One of the core
qualifications to work within OBT is the Mountain Leader Award, as
mountainous day walks or expeditions are a core part of most courses.
The WOLC was created with the aim of “creating a nurturing envi-
ronment with opportunities for personal progression towards the techni-
cal, intrapersonal and interpersonal skills required to work within
Outward Bound UK and progress within the outdoor sector” (OBT,
2018). The hope is that the women completing the course will be more
able to actively pursue their Mountain Leadership qualification, as well
as others, and subsequently, the career pathways to which they aspire.
Since the course began in 2019 there have been over 70 applicants to the
programme, making it four times oversubscribed. There are women who
love being in the mountains and want to be enjoying a career in this area,
but who feel held back from doing so. A wealth of research also suggests
that there are many competent and motivated women who experience
gendered barriers to their progression in outdoor careers (see Gray &
Mitten, 2018b).
This chapter explores the experiences of eight women who have taken
part in the WOLC at OBT. It starts by considering the women’s narratives
and the types of challenges they have experienced on their journeys to
Mountain Leadership, as they arrive at the course. Transformational
Learning (TL) theory (Mezirow, 1978) is used to consider how the
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 239

gendered landscape can affect women’s journeys, potentially constraining

but also offering the possibility for change from within. Finally, some of
the key learning that resulted from participating in a single-gender course
is unpacked and insights concerning practice are shared to support the
development of female Mountain Leaders, who will be key role models for
those becoming involved in the sport in the future.

Methodology
The eight participants provided data at two different time points. Initially,
information on motivations, challenges and aspirations was gained through
written applications, with consent to use the content for research pur-
poses. Thematic analysis of these was undertaken, identifying themes con-
cerning the challenges and barriers to gaining qualifications such as the
Mountain Leader. Following the course research took a grounded theory
approach that aligned with Transformational Learning theory (see O’Brien
& Allin, 2021). Data was collected through semi-structured interviews
conducted by an external researcher in partnership with Northumbria
University as part of a research project, focusing on their experiences and
the impact of the course. All data has been pseudo-anonymised to protect
the identity of participants.

Transformational Learning (TL)

TL is a constructivist theory of adult learning (Mezirow, 1991).
Constructivism posits that people construct their own meanings and reali-
ties from within, through experience and social discourse, rather than
there being absolute truths out there to be discovered (Piaget, 1950).
Central to TL theory are “frames of reference” which are the structured
assumptions through which experiences are understood. For example,
ethnocentrism is when a person regards their own group as superior to
others. This leads to a complicated array of feelings, judgements and atti-
tudes towards specific individuals or groups, for example homosexuals,
people with tattoos, people of a different ethnic background or women
(Mezirow, 1997).
TL refers to the complex process of making changes to the beliefs,
thoughts and feelings which make up frames of reference, leading to sig-
nificant perspective shifts enabling learners to alter their worldviews and
different possibilities for new, more empowering ways of thinking and
240 K. O’BRIEN

behaving (Mezirow, 1978). In contrast to other types of learning, such as

informational learning, TL changes the way people see themselves, their
world and their place within it. This type of learning requires that learners
become aware of how their knowledge, values and perspectives are
arrived at.
Culture, media, socio-economic structures and ideologies often com-
bine to promote conformity and influence beliefs about one’s place and
role in the order of the world. Griffiths (1995) in discussing feminism and
the self asserts that

The self I am—the identity I have—is affected by the politics of gender, race,
class, sexuality, disability, and world justice… and the feelings I have, the
reasons I recognise, the wants I act upon—they are all deeply political. (p. 1)

The formation of identity, how we come to understand who we are and

what we deem possible for our lives, is a complex process, often happening
outside of our conscious awareness, with gender being a significant com-
ponent (Rippon, 2019). Mezirow describes how people generally adopt
their frames of reference without much thought, through socialisation
growing up. While this can help us to make sense of the world, out-of-date
frames of reference can also constrain potential (Dirkx, 1998). It is typi-
cally only once such meaning schemes and perspectives have been habitu-
ated that their validity can be questioned.
When consideration is given to how being female has been understood
historically in society and subsequently within the realm of the outdoors
and Mountain Leadership, the possibility that women may have come to
develop what Mezirow would call problematic frames of reference becomes
apparent (Mezirow, 2000).

Transformational Learning
and the Gendered Landscape
In the 1800s it was generally believed that women were inferior to men—
less strong, less intelligent and less courageous, making them unsuitable
for any kind of physical endeavours, responsibility or power (Darwin,
1886). This shifted in the twentieth century to the idea that women have
valuable and natural roles as carers, mothers and womanly companions of
men. Men were viewed as active and having a role outside of the home.
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 241

Women as more passive: there to be admired for their appearance, with

their main sphere being inside the home (Sheilds, 2007).
The mountains are not immune from this patriarchal socio-cultural
context and cannot be understood in isolation from it. Despite female
interest and participation in mountain pursuits first being recorded in the
1900s, women were subjected to very different rules and expectations
from men. Lizzy Le Blond and Lady Evelyn McDonnell were among the
first to undertake (what was so unusual it was required to be specially
named as) “manless climbing.” In the club scene it was commonplace for
women to be barred from entry, with the Alpine Club not allowing women
to join until as late as 1975 (Band, 2006).
OBT shares this gendered past, and it is worth turning briefly to the
history of the organisation due to its influence in how outdoor education
and subsequently Mountain Leadership are understood today, and to
understand the journey that it is on. Outward Bound was set up by men,
for men (or so the dominant narrative goes), in 1941, espousing the mas-
culine values of the day: rugged individualism, survival against the chal-
lenges of the elements and conquering of the natural world (Mitten,
2018b). Female participants were not initially granted access to such
courses, with the first girl’s course not taking place in the UK until a
decade later in 1951, and not until 1965 in the US. Even then there were
widespread concerns that women may not be able to cope with the
demands of the environment or even that women would become “de-­
feminised” by taking part in Outward Bound (Davis, 2019).
In recent years it has come to light that in fact one of the co-founders
of the organisation was female. Marina Ewald was Kurt Hahn’s partner in
planning and the co-director of Salem School, becoming director after his
departure for the UK. Despite the expeditionary model of outdoor educa-
tion being hailed as Hahn’s invention, he never completed a major expedi-
tion due to sunstroke in his late teens, and it was Ewald who pioneered
this way of working (Mitten et al., 2018). This is just one example of how
women’s adventure stories, where they did exist, have been side-lined or
remain outside the public consciousness due to gendered beliefs of the
time (Mitten et al., 2018).
Despite gender equality now being written into law in the Western
world, frames of reference which indicate women to be “lesser than” or
“only valued if,” remain firmly embedded in society and the culture of the
outdoors. Beliefs do not need to be encoded into words to hold power;
they can be embedded in repetitive interactions and generalised, often
242 K. O’BRIEN

outside of conscious awareness (Mezirow, 2000). Stuart (2018) reflects

on how developing a career within the masculine-gendered outdoor envi-
ronment can contribute to the development of problematic frames of ref-
erence for women which may limit their leadership potential. She writes:

In my autoethnographic account, I am reacting to the oppression that I

have experienced as a woman and am trying to live up to the machismo,
heroic, masculine outdoor norms. I was not aware of this at the time, and
Freire (1973) defined this as people’s naïveté rather than critical conscious-
ness. At this stage, people lack insight into the way in which their social
conditions undermine their well-being and so do not see their own actions
as capable of changing these conditions. (p. 239)

This draws parallels with research suggesting women working in the

outdoor industry do so in an environment where the traditionally mascu-
line norms that exist are taken for granted, leading to them assuming a
position as “one of the boys” (Lugg, 2003) or, if they do not, feeling out
of water and a sense of not belonging (Allin, 2003). Some specific exam-
ples will now be drawn from the research participants highlighting some
of the barriers which still exist today.

Women’s Initial Challenges as Mountain Leaders

To understand in more depth some of the initial challenges participants
faced in getting the Mountain Leader Award we will now delve into the
intra-personal themes which stood out from the women’s applications,
relating them to the literature.

Never Prepared Enough

One major theme research participants described was how they hold back
from career progressive training or assessments, waiting until they “feel
ready.” Several participants describe upholding high standards of them-
selves and wanting to be “overly prepared,” linking these to putting off
progressing skills and shying away from assessments.
In examining some of the challenges to women pursuing an outdoor
career involving Mountain Leadership, academic studies have noted
aspects such as lack of confidence in ability and issues around perceived
physical or technical competence (Allin, 2003; Allin & West, 2013; Jordan,
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 243

2018; Loeffler, 1995; Warren et al., 2018). Despite some positive changes
in the representation of women in the Mountain Leadership pathways
(Mountain Training, 2022), such challenges are still alive and well in the
2020s. Women continue to be judged against male standards and many
may have internalised the fear of being exposed as not “good enough” or
needing to prove themselves by being absolutely perfect and top of their
game with every skill in order to earn a seat at the table. There can be a
feeling and with that a weighty pressure, of representing the entire female
gender when taking part in training or assessment activities (Jordan, 2018).
Therefore, mistakes are perceived to have a much higher cost, than of pro-
viding proof (supporting deeply ingrained, outdated and false historical
beliefs) that women in fact do not have a place as leaders in the mountains.
Sophia describes in more detail how this can dissuade her from engaging
in the types of experiences that are useful for learning and progression:

Sometimes I will neglect to focus on a particular skill, such as micro naviga-

tion because I do not want to get it wrong in front of my friends.
Subsequently, I struggle to devote time to improving my personal skills and
logging quality mountain days, as opposed to social walks with friends.

Women can find themselves continually hypervigilant against any threat

of failure, a phenomenon which has become known as stereotype threat
(Steele & Aronson, 1995). A stereotype is defined by the Oxford
Dictionary of Psychology (Colman, 2015) as “a relatively fixed and over-
simplified generalisation about a group or class of people, usually focusing
on negative or unfavourable characteristics” (p. 730). Such ideas are per-
petuated by being widely held in society, for example women cannot read
maps or solve technical problems, men can’t multi-task and will never ask
for help (Rippon, 2019).
Stereotype threat occurs when a person fears that their actions will rein-
force negative views about a group to which they belong. Studies have
shown that this phenomenon contributes to achievement gaps based on
gender and ethnicity (Aronson et al., 1999; Aronson et al., 2002; Spencer
et al., 1999). More recently it has also been discovered that stereotype
threat invokes different processes in the brain bringing an additional cog-
nitive burden to the task for those affected, compared with those not ste-
reotyped (Rippon, 2019). Over-thinking, continual monitoring for
mistakes and the stress that stems from the perception of being judged
leads to different regions of the brain being activated instead of those that
244 K. O’BRIEN

would be most helpful for the task (Wraga et al., 2007). Stereotype threat
can be literally exhausting and have huge implications for a person’s real,
as well as perceived, competence.

Following Men Up Mountains

A few of the women go on to describe the impact of being in predomi-
nantly male training environments based on male standards and the impact
that differing pace can have on learning and in turn confidence. Amelia
observes,

So, every activity that I went and did was all male. So, I had to run up
mountains, you know … Following men up mountains, basically. And they
would work out all the navigation aspect of things, and I would just catch
up. And they would be like, “Right—you ready? Off we go.” And I’m like,
oh, I don’t even know what you’ve just learned. So, I think it hindered
my learning

The outdoors and subsequent Mountain Leadership environment are

not neutral physical spaces; rather, they are socially constructed spaces cre-
ated by individuals, often prioritising certain values and ways of being over
others. Straker (2018) observes that often outdoor work and leisure spaces
have been “designed by men for men, not usually as a deliberate way to
exclude women but with little thought as to how women respond differ-
ently” (p. 103). The idea that Mountain Leadership should be about
being fast-paced, strong and striving for the summit is one that is so firmly
ingrained within the culture and qualification pathways, it can appear as
common sense.

Building a Repertoire of “Not Good Enough”

Research suggests that underlying beliefs in society, including males hav-
ing higher status and therefore their opinions being more valid, can lead
to women regularly experiencing second-class citizenship (Kaskan & Ho,
2016). It has also been found that participants in the outdoors have a bias
in favour of male leaders, which can lead to women questioning their own
leadership validity (Cousineau & Roth, 2012).
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 245

While some participants identified specific situations where they felt

marginalised, others reflected on how multiple factors contributed to a
feeling of inadequacy built up over time:

And, you know, it’s one of those weird things. I couldn’t necessarily give
you … Oh, such-and-such person said this on this day—and that made me
feel like that. It wasn’t like that. It was very nuanced … Sort of, lots of pass-
ing comments and attitudes that are shared, and just a building repertoire
of, oh, I’m not good enough. (Sophia)

What this applicant is describing may be the impact of microaggressions

(Jordan, 2018). These are subtle signals within a language or the environ-
ment which convey disparaging messages based on an aspect of identity, in
this case, gender. They are often subconscious and unintentional stem-
ming from outdated and false frames of reference which perceive women
to be “lesser than” (men) or “only valued if …” (they uphold traditionally
gendered norms, including a feminine appearance, characteristics and
roles). As micro-moments they often appear inconsequential to those who
are not impacted by them on a regular basis. Some clearly indicate that
women’s views are less valid while other examples can appear to have posi-
tive intent; however, the underlying message is that of incompetence or
inferiority, for example a man offering his warm jacket to the female in the
group without any indication that it is needed; “women need to be pro-
tected.” Or similarly, a woman is being helped to put her rucksack on
without any indication that help is required, and the same offer is not
being applied for the men present; “women are less strong and need male
help in the mountains.”
Mezirow (2000) reminds us that we develop habitual expectations
based on past experiences, uncritically assimilating perspectives (includ-
ing distortions, stereotypes and prejudices) from our social world, com-
munity and culture. Recognising the impacts of stereotype threat and
understanding the microaggressions that women experience on their
journey to becoming Mountain Leaders offers insight into how the
external culture can lead women to develop disempowering internalised
identities, which drive unhelpful thoughts, feelings and subsequent pat-
terns of (in)action.
246 K. O’BRIEN

Women Outdoor Leadership Course

(WOLC) Rationale
Women-only courses can be controversial as some suggest they can be
divisive (Hall & Doran, 2020), reinforce gender stereotypes and divisions
(Fielding-Lloyd & Mean, 2008) or put too much onus on women to
“fix themselves” when in fact it is the external culture that needs to shift
(De Vries, 2006).
Meaningful change in the gender balance of Mountain Leaders requires
both external change in the culture and internal awareness from women as
to how the gendered landscape can be disempowering, to allow power and
agency to be reclaimed. The internal realities of women and the external
culture are intrinsically connected and therefore influence each other (De
Vries, 2006; Cranton & Taylor, 2012). Mountain Leadership and work-
place cultures need to move towards providing frames of reference which
support women’s sense of capability and belonging in the mountains so
that women can have more positive experiences of their training, assess-
ment and subsequent career development (Tulle, 2022; Warren et al.,
2018). Simultaneously women can also become critically aware of how
gender may have shaped their experiences and reality. Self-awareness can
be developed, and internal limitations overcome. This may contribute to
more effective navigating of the systems women find themselves in,
thereby enabling women to become part of the process of recreating and
co-creating a culture of equality. More women leading from a place of
authenticity and self-knowledge ensure more female role models in moun-
tain spaces, and the positive spiral of change can continue.
The WOLC is one part of OBT’s journey in this area. The programme
consists of ten weeks, focussing on the intra-personal, interpersonal and
technical competencies required to be an outdoor instructor at OBT. The
theoretical underpinning for the intra-personal aspects of the course was
Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2000), which shares a similar constructivist
epistemology with Transformational Learning. It considers how underly-
ing beliefs about the self, which have been unconsciously accumulated
throughout life, can impact motivation and behaviour in learning and
achievement situations. Growth Mindset offers a socio-cognitive model
which illuminates how implicit beliefs about aspects of the self, such as
intelligence, personality or ability at a particular skill, can lead to vastly
different patterns of cognition, affect and behaviour (Dweck, 2000).
Dweck describes how people develop different meaning systems
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 247

dependent upon their fixed or growth mindset. In a fixed mindset, a per-

son believes that their intelligence, personality or abilities are innate and
set from birth; therefore, these are not areas they have much control or
influence over (Dweck & Sorich, 1999). This leads to a meaning system
which is preoccupied with proving oneself and engaging in experiences
which endorse this pre-set ability. Challenge is viewed as a theatre of
judgement and perceived as threatening due to its potential to highlight
ineptitude, and failure is viewed as an end point and evidence of incapabil-
ity. Effort is also evaluated through this lens and experienced as fruitless,
or worse. Consequently, people in a fixed mindset are likely to avoid chal-
lenges through fear of revealing weaknesses; they may dislike effort and
give up easily or procrastinate when the task is perceived as too difficult or
cannot be mastered quickly.
The growth mindset shows up very differently. With the belief that
intelligence, personality and ability are malleable, and thus open to growth
and development throughout the lifespan, comes a more successful
response in achievement situations. Challenges are viewed as opportuni-
ties to learn and therefore sought out. Effort is believed to be a necessary
ingredient of success and the switch which turns on ability. When the
going gets tough, those with a growth mindset look for new approaches,
try different strategies, continue to apply effort and use self-monitoring to
persevere creatively with the task. Decades of research now demonstrate
the ecological validity of the theory across contexts highlighting that
mindset really does matter and has a huge impact on how people can cre-
ate successful outcomes for themselves (Dweck, 2008). Crucially, it has
been shown that they can be changed, especially for those experiencing
stereotype threat (Aronson et al., 2002).
The course consisted of sessions explicitly encouraging a growth mind-
set as well as understanding other aspects of psychology relating to poten-
tial, relationship building, technical skills development, experience
working with groups of young people, a solo experience in the mountains
and mentoring with male and female mentors.
The next section explores the course impacts, enabling factors and
insights for practice.

Impacts, Enabling Factors and Insights for Practice

O’Brien and Allin (2021) explored the impact of the WOLC as a strategy
for addressing the gender imbalance in outdoor leadership, through the
248 K. O’BRIEN

lens of TL. The paper found that transformations primarily took place
relating to confidence and particularly developing a stronger authentic
sense of self. Confidence was found to have developed with technical abil-
ity, with many of the women feeling that qualifications such as the
Mountain Leader were much closer and within reach. There was also
shown to be a significant shift in the women’s frames of reference in learn-
ing situations and subsequent ability to participate in positive learning
behaviours. Prior to the course the women observed that they could be
drawn into proving behaviours including perfectionism, hiding their true
ability and avoidance of failure, or asking questions. Post course interviews
suggested that these behaviours had shifted, opening new possibilities of
proactively “opting in” to stretch experiences at the edge of current capa-
bility which enabled further learning and professional development.
Asking for help, acknowledging not knowing something or making a mis-
take had now become a normal part of the learning process rather than an
act threatening to shine a spotlight on incompetence or incompatibility
with the role. For some these changes had led to the booking of assess-
ments such as the Mountain Leader, a practical step indicative of this per-
spective transformation. For others, there was an awareness of potentially
limiting internal narratives and how conceptually they could be changed,
but this had not yet led to sustained behaviour change, with some express-
ing concern as to how they would respond back in the “normal”
environment.
The findings from this research will now be used to illuminate
approaches organisations and practitioners could adopt.

Women Only—Not a “soft touch”

Prior to the course some of the participants were motivated specifically by
the female-only component, while others were unsure or neutral about
this aspect. Unequivocally, the post course response to the female-only
environment was positive, with all the women sharing that they would
welcome further female-specific learning opportunities.
However, how these experiences are packaged, marketed, designed and
experienced can have a big impact on both their desirability as well as effi-
cacy in moving towards gender equality. Issy shared:
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 249

I think sometimes the perception of women’s only things is … it’s easier. Or

to do with feelings … Or there’s not as much challenge. Or I’d be made to
feel like I was … Had to fit this mould of being less capable

It has been common practice for women-only experiences to be pro-

moted as introductory, remedial or a progression to the “real thing”
(Mitten, 2018b) which only serves to further perpetuate gendered stereo-
types and, it seems, turn some women off. The reality may be very differ-
ent and can in fact challenge this notion, as Ava reflects:

I was actually not very sold on the female only before the course. And then
having done it, I think it’s awesome. Which was actually quite … one of the
biggest surprises. I was worried that female only would be like a soft touch.
Whereas actually it wasn’t that at all. I definitely felt challenged on the
course and achieved things I didn’t think I could.

The value of female peers was found to be significant for Transformational

Learning for two key reasons. Firstly, training alongside other “capable
and powerful” women challenged the (unconsciously internalised) notion
for some that the course may be pitched at a lower level due to women’s
lower levels of technical expertise. Training with competent female peers
and female leaders offered a contradiction to this which is not often expe-
rienced, as women can tend to find themselves in a minority on courses,
with peers and in the outdoor workplace. Capable women, when encoun-
tered, can sometimes be viewed as an anomaly. In contrast, having a vari-
ety of female peer role models to train alongside meant the women
experienced a variety of ways of displaying leadership and competency
providing more opportunities to relate to those around them.
Secondly, getting to know other capable female outdoor professionals
at a similar stage of their qualification journey and hearing that they had
faced comparable challenges in their working lives seemed to deperson-
alise some of the internal struggles participants felt. What were felt as
personal issues with confidence transformed into a more critically con-
scious viewpoint incorporating some of the wider social structure and
power relations which underpinned some of their experiences. This
enabled some to question and reinterpret their ability to change their own
situation to one which was more desirable.
250 K. O’BRIEN

Insight for practice: Women’s courses have worth and should be under-
stood to be more than introductory, remedial or an alternative for those
who can’t cope in mixed-gender environments. Their value can be pro-
moted, and they can be celebrated for the benefits they offer in terms of
unique opportunities to learn from and with other capable women.

Supportive AND Ambitious

Supportive is not synonymous with easy. For this group of women, the
supportive nature of the course was described in contrast to the “normal”
outdoor culture and was found to be one of the most enabling factors
when it came to Transformational Learning. Supportive was explained as
the following (O’Brien & Allin, 2021):

A very obvious lack of ego’, feeling ‘accepted’, genuinely understanding,

valuing and helping each other towards goals, collaborating rather than
competing, being able to ‘ask questions about anything’, and an ‘openness
to being vulnerable and sharing how you’re feeling. (p. 7)

Participants described how technical challenges, that had previously

appeared insurmountable, were now perceived as manageable because of
feeling a sense of psychological safety, collaboration and belonging within
the group. This enabled participants to actively pursue their more chal-
lenging goals, such as the ropework and security on steep ground aspects
of the Mountain Leader. This was juxtaposed with other environments
where participants had felt more likely to hold back or put difficult things
off for fear of failure or embarrassment in front of peers. Rather than the
supportive environment meaning easier tasks were undertaken, it seems
that the opposite was true.
Insight for practice: All outdoor professional development courses, such
as the Mountain Leader, should feel supportive and enabling of all partici-
pants to learn effectively and pursue their goals. Course providers can rec-
ognise the influence and responsibility they have in providing and
encouraging a collaborative and aspirational space while ensuring techni-
cal skills are demonstrated to the standard required.
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 251

Connecting the Intra-personal and the Technical

The blend of intra-personal, interpersonal and technical skills was new to
many participants with several commenting on the heavier weighting
towards technical skills they’d experienced previously. This is also a com-
mon finding within the outdoor literature (Kennedy & Russell, 2020).
The intra-personal, and particularly growth mindset, was described as a
thread woven throughout which kept reappearing. It is possible that gen-
der role socialisation and widely held stereotypes (“women can’t read
maps”), combined with the impact of microaggressions within the sector,
promote a fixed mindset in some women. The subsequent disempowering
ways of thinking, feeling and acting, such as avoidance of challenging situ-
ations, fear of failure and viewing effort as an indicator of incompetence,
can become self-fulfilling prophecies perpetuating powerful internal barri-
ers. Focusing on changing this aspect of the intra-personal landscape by
including sessions which explicitly encouraged a growth mindset appeared
to transform previously limiting frames of reference and enabled the
women to engage with their own professional development more
effectively.
Participants described how they were able to experience a deeper level
of self-reflection due to their relationships with the other women on the
course. Research suggests that some aspects, such as the emotional and
relational, can have more significance for women in beginning critical
reflection, a crucial aspect of Transformational Learning (Taylor, 2000).
This may be more apparent for women in the outdoors as an area that has
previously been lacking due to the aforementioned favouring of technical
skills. Women may also have found validity in being in an environment
which placed equal value here, as it has been found women are often
expected to use their interpersonal skills, despite technical ones being
more highly valued within the culture (Jordan, 2018).
When it came to technical skills, the women experienced themselves as
competent in areas where they’d previously perceived were lacking.
Because a woman’s sense of competence within outdoor leadership envi-
ronments is largely based on their perceptions of themselves within a mas-
culine context, their sense of competence and actual competence may be
incongruent (Loeffler, 1995). Warren et al. (2018) further make the point
that gendered socialisation meaning common outdoor skills have not been
engrained from an early age and being relegated into pastoral or assistant
type roles when training or working, may mean that women have simply
252 K. O’BRIEN

had less time to practise outdoor technical skills than their male counter-
parts. Encouraging a growth mindset, purposeful practice, skills audits
including personal reflection on competence against the qualification cri-
teria, as well as feedback from staff and peers, enabled the women to expe-
rience a marked progression in both their actual skill level and perception
of where they were at in relation to the assessment criteria.
Insight for practice: All outdoor courses and workplaces can move
towards consciously valuing intra-personal, interpersonal and technical
competencies within their culture. Educating course providers and out-
door workforces about the impact of gendered socialisation and women’s
experiences of the workplace on their ability to gain, recognise, accept and
claim their technical competence may help (Warren et al., 2018).

Conclusion
Women and men have equal value as outdoor leaders and are equally capa-
ble of learning and developing all the skills required to be a Mountain
Leader and work in the outdoors. Taking a critical perspective on the
gendered history of Mountain Leadership can help to situate women’s
challenges within the wider cultural context, opening possibilities for
change from within, as well as external change within the sector. The dif-
ferent genders are likely to have had different experiences of socialisation,
as well as training and working in the outdoors. Recognising that women
may have had encounters throughout their lives, in the outdoors as par-
ticipants and within developing their professional careers that may be dis-
empowering, or indicative of inferior status, means that consciously
creating positive learning environments which foster improving rather
than proving behaviours may be of particular benefit and relevance in sup-
porting more women to develop a positive sense of self-efficacy. Research
undertaken on the WOLC suggests that women-only experiences have
clear value beyond the introductory or remedial, particularly when an
approach combining the three aspects of intra-personal, interpersonal and
technical learning is applied, using growth mindset as a framework. This
supports the continuation of female-specific opportunities for women in
the sector, as well as development of mixed-gender spaces to ensure a sup-
portive and learning-focussed environment for all. Further research is
required to determine the longer-term impacts of the WOLC, including
participants’ responses when returning to mixed-gender environments. It
 13 TRANSFORMATIONAL LEARNING ON THE JOURNEY TO MOUNTAIN… 253

may also be beneficial to explore the efficacy of an intervention which has

a female-specific element alongside an organisational component so that
learning can be more widely disseminated.

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 CHAPTER 14

An Autoethnographic Writing of Mountain

Skill Courses

Emma Boocock

Introduction
The past decade has seen a marked growth in participation in adventure
sports (Breivik, 2010; Morton, 2018), including a welcome increase in
girls and women’s involvement. The benefits of outdoor sports participa-
tion have been well-established, with scholars and participants acknowl-
edging the increased sense of competence (Laurendeau, 2006), the ability
to escape from the “trappings of modernity” (Atkinson, 2010a, 2010b),
and the potential for positive self-transformations (Brymer & Oades,
2009; O’Brien & Allin, 2022). As such, there has been a steady growth in
girls’ and women’s participation in adventure sports over the last decade,
which is a welcome development. While acknowledging these positive
gains for women and girls, as research has also shown, social disparities
and inequalities remain integral to most adventure sporting contexts
(Doran et al., 2018; Morton, 2018). For example, adventure sports are

E. Boocock (*)
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
e-mail: emma.boocock@northumbria.ac.uk

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 257

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2_14
258 E. BOOCOCK

still largely characterised by a lack of ethnic and racial diversity as well as

the underrepresentation of women and minority groups in outdoor lead-
ership positions (Allin & West, 2013; Gray & Mitten, 2018; Warren &
Loeffler, 2006). Although these disparities and inequalities are being
addressed more systematically by adventure sport educators, outdoor cen-
tres, and local and national governing bodies through different strategies
and initiatives (e.g. women-specific learning environments), there remains
a dearth of literature which understands their impact, efficacy, and
(un)intended consequences.
Recently there has been a drive towards addressing research which has
a focus on women’s learning and skill development experiences in both
recreational and professional outdoor contexts (Avner et al., 2021;
O’Brien & Allin, 2022). Avner et al. (2021) examine women’s experi-
ences of women-specific skills courses at a national outdoor centre in the
UK. Here, the authors began to break down the enduring stereotypes that
women only access women-only/specific spaces because they lack confi-
dence in their skills and abilities. The authors challenge the reductionist
assumptions of women’s motivations behind participating in women-only
spaces, and shift our understanding towards a more layered and complex
understanding of women’s participation in women-specific courses. Some
of these include women who want to ‘take the lead’, in outdoor partner-
ships they may have; escaping egos and patronising attitudes; and finally
their desire to experience different types of relationships, whether that be
“to their body, others, learning, material objects, or the movement and
activity itself—which far extended simply attending to an ‘absence’ or
‘lack’ in confidence, competence, or ability to operate within mixed-­
gender outdoor participation settings” (Avner et al., 2021, p. 443).
In a professional leadership development setting, Kate O’Brien and
Linda Allin (2022) explore transformational learning through a women’s
leadership course. This paper focused on the experiences of a group of
women on a leadership programme delivered by Outward Bound, UK. In
particular, the authors acknowledged that a key contributing factor to the
success of the women completing this programme was because of the sup-
portive environment, the focus on learning, the challenge and reflection,
and their relationships with female peers. Similarly, Avner et al. (2021)
highlighted the lack of ego and a genuine sense of supportiveness to reach
their potential. Their shared sense of connectedness allowed the women
on the programme to challenge each other and lead to positive transfor-
mations—“For these women, encountering other powerful outdoor
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 259

women who contradicted the stereotypes they had potentially internalised,

and realising there was another way to experience the outdoors, was such
a moment” (O’Brien & Allin, 2022, p. 199).
What both these papers show is women’s participation and outdoor
leadership experiences continue to be shaped by gender role stereotyping
and dualistic thinking, whereby women are expected to either take a
peripheral role or act more like men (Warren et al., 2018). However, with
the opportunity and the right environment, women can and will thrive in
outdoor spaces. Nevertheless, women are still bound within masculine
mountain spaces and continue to have to work harder in order to be per-
ceived as “competent” and to avoid being seen as “troublemakers”
(Hall, 2018).
This chapter aims to build on the work of scholars in this field, by pro-
viding an autoethnographic account of my own experiences within both
mixed-gendered and women-only spaces. Granted, it was not until I
started investigating women’s experiences in the mountains in 2019 that I
appreciated how pervasive gender stereotypes were in mountain spaces.
Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to reflexively analyse my own experi-
ences of participating in various women-specific and mixed-gender adven-
ture sport skills courses and provide some broader reflections on the
affordances and limitations of women-specific spaces as a strategy
for change.

Autoethnographic Writing
In an effort to move beyond traditional approaches to research generation
and dissemination, an autoethnographic approach was adopted as a novel
method for extending our understanding of women’s experiences in
mountain skill courses. Autoethnography has been cited as a methodology
with “considerable untapped opportunity” (Anderson & Austin, 2012,
p. 131), with it being used successfully in beginning to explore mountain
guiding (Beedie, 2003), triathlons (Kidder, 2006), rollerblading (Kahn,
2009), and whitewater rafting (Jonas et al., 2003). Autoethnographies
offer “highly personalised accounts that draw upon the experience of the
author/researcher for the purposes of extending sociological understand-
ing” (Sparkes, 2000, p. 21). There are two distinct approaches to autoeth-
nography that a writer can take. The first is evocative autoethnography,
which seeks to stimulate emotional empathy and perspective. The second
is analytical autoethnography, which employs traditional theoretical and
260 E. BOOCOCK

conceptual analyses that align with social science epistemologies (Snow

et al., 2003). This chapter draws on an evocative autoethnography to facil-
itate emotional identification with others’ experiences in similar spaces. It
is hoped that this approach would allow the reader to empathise and relate
to the authentic emotions and experiences conveyed in the memoirs that
are presented, and thereby gain an understanding of the value of future
women-specific courses in mountain spaces.

Methodology
Autoethnographic memoirs were generated across a period of six years,
after each involvement with an adventure skill course. The courses featured
in this chapter are taken from the Introduction to Winter Skills in 2017 in
Aviemore, Scotland; an Introduction to Winter Mountaineering in 2018
in Aviemore, Scotland; and finally, the Women’s Adventure Weekend in
2019 in Aviemore, Scotland. The Introduction to Winter Skills course in
2017 had six participants in total, all were male, except myself. The core
focus of the two-day winter skills course was to broadly learn how to use an
ice axe, walk with crampons, and plan a safe day in the hills with winter
weather conditions and navigate potential hazards, like avalanches. The
Introduction to Winter Mountaineering in 2018 was a private course,
involving only my partner and I. The core features of this skill course were
to move our winter skill walking knowledge on to steeper and rockier ter-
rain, by being able to place climbing gear and protect ourselves in winter
conditions. The Women’s Adventure Weekend in 2019 saw around 50
women participating in kayaking, mountain biking, rock climbing and nav-
igation courses across the weekend. I was involved in the mountain biking
programme that weekend, which saw five other women and I learn and
develop our mountain biking handling skills over varying terrain.
After each skills course I would write a set of notes, largely on what I
had learned from the course, focusing specifically on the technical aspects
covered (i.e. knots/rope skills). However, the writing soon evolved into
exploring my overall experiences on the skill courses and my position as a
female within those mountain spaces. It became almost like a diary, and I
began to engage with evocative autoethnography to articulate my emo-
tions during these skills courses. For the purpose of this chapter, the initial
notes have been rewritten into memoirs in order to better display the
experience during the skill courses. These memoirs will be presented first,
with sense making to follow.
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 261

Memoir 1: Differing Bodies—“I just can’t keep pace”

My first winter skills two-day course stays with me. Not just for the things I
learnt and experienced, but also because of how aware I was of my gender.
I’ve never been one to be bothered too much by being the only woman in the
room, and never really shied away from experiences because of my gender. But
January 2017 stays with me and has probably shaped my experiences and
interest in this topic ever since. I attended my first winter skills course in
January 2017 with my partner, Matt. We were keen to push our mountain
skills beyond ‘good weather’ hiking, and this seemed like the perfect opportu-
nity. Turning up to the course, I was nervous but excited. As I looked around
though, I noticed one big thing. I was the only woman. Now, this doesn’t tend
to put me off, and to be honest I felt fine about being the only woman in that
space on that first day. Most of the men were 6 ft tall, which did make me
wonder how I would match up when out in the hills. But I knew I was fit, and
knew I could generally hold my own on the mountains. But, when we were out
on the second day, trudging through deep snow, my gender really came to the
forefront. After having done several ice axe arrests down a snowy slope, we
were trudging back to the Cairngorm summit. After only a couple of minutes
of walking behind the group, I noticed that I was quite far behind. My foot-
steps, unfortunately, shorter than the men in the group, meant that I had to
kick additional steps into the snow for me to make progress. This meant that
I fell behind without anyone, bar my partner noticing. At that moment I felt
disheartened. As much as the instructor was great throughout the course, this
was one thing he had failed to notice. I simply couldn’t keep up. After a few
hundred yards I was exhausted, but knew I had to keep pace to try and stay
on the tail of everyone. When the instructor finally noticed how far behind I
had become (and Matt at this point), he stopped the group for me to catch up.
When getting to the group I could feel the exasperated annoyance at having
to wait in the cold, windswept space. No one looked at all out of breath, yet
here I was puffing and panting, and clearly struggling to keep pace. That’s
when I first felt inferior in this mountain space. Matching up against 6ft
men, I literally had no chance of being able to keep pace in this snowy land-
scape. The additional physical and emotional labour I had had to endure
further up the mountain really started to show as we got closer to the ski resort
at the end of the day. While much of the group were yards and yards ahead, I
was still battling with the never-ending steps that lead off the mountain and
to the café. Intentionally or unintentionally, the members of the group, and
the instructor made me feel like I couldn’t compete in that space. I wasn’t fit
262 E. BOOCOCK

enough, strong enough, fast enough. The additional physical labour that I
had endured was in effect wasted, because to them, I wasn’t competent enough
to be in that space. Although elated at what we had done and experienced
that day, I felt defeated, and for the first time questioned my place and
belonging in this landscape.

Memoir 2: “Why are you treating me so differently?”

With the spindrift beating down on my face, I take another piece of gear out
of the rock. Scottish mountaineering at its best apparently. Four degrees, with
a windchill factor of about minus 10, we are being guided up a gully in the
Cairngorms, Scotland. We are on the introduction to winter mountaineer-
ing course, with an instructor who seems to have a bit of a distaste for inexpe-
rienced mountaineers like us! Making our way to top out of the gully, I’m
getting pulled and dragged in every direction. My harness dragged my body
to the top, piercing my legs and groin. When topping out, we suddenly find out
why. Wind gusts of about 30 mph were buffeting our instructor as he belayed
us to safety. “Keep low” he kept shouting! Not that I didn’t know already. I
could barely stand up as it was, especially with him pulling at my harness so
fiercely. Once down and in the shelter of the hostel café, we debriefed the day
and planned for the next. With the weather deteriorating, we decided we
would head out to a crag, not too far from the hostel to practise some rope
skills. With more chances to ‘chat’ at the crag, rather than on a snowy gully,
it started to become apparent the clear differences in how the instructor
treated Matt and I. It was almost like chalk and cheese! I became acutely
aware of this when the instructor explained how to abseil. With an exasper-
ated sigh the instructor talks Matt through the process of setting up the abseil
again. I can noticeably see him getting frustrated with having to explain this
again—even though this isn’t something you should get wrong. Once Matt
had gone through it again, attention was thrown to me. I was hyper aware of
the potential annoyance the instructor might throw my way when I ask him
to explain it again. But it never came. He patiently talked me through how
to set the anchor and tie back in to lower myself down. He treated me with
care, and lowered tones. The complete opposite to Matt, who got aggression,
annoyance and severity in his tone. In that moment it was clear that I was
getting treated differently and that Matt was too. Despite having the same
level of experience as each other in terms of rope skills, I was getting treated in
a way that assumed I knew nothing. Matt however was talked to as though he
should already know it. Inadvertently then, whether the instructor did it
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 263

intentionally or not, we were treated entirely differently from one another

based on our gender, rather than our experience. We never did pick that guid-
ing company again for other mountain skill courses.

Memoir 3: There’s Just a Different Energy

My only experiences of women-only/specific spaces are when I have engaged
groups in research projects. This reflection is no different. In the summer of
2019, I was part of the women’s adventure weekend at a national outdoor
centre. I was there to lead a research project into women’s experiences of the
weekend. I had zero expectations as to what it was going to be like, other than
to try and immerse myself in the weekend and talk to the women involved. I
was part of the mountain biking session, which saw five women of differing
abilities come together to improve their handling on their mountain bikes.
The sun was shining, and for Northern Scotland, this was something to be
celebrated! Once in the room with conversation starting about our own expe-
riences and what we hoped to learn, I felt a different sense of connection to
those women at that moment, compared to other skill courses I had been on. A
sense of vulnerability that we perhaps hide in other spaces, being opened for
everyone to see. This was noticed when all of the groups came back together on
the final day for an ‘end of course discussion’ about women-only/specific envi-
ronments. As you entered the room you felt a tangible buzz in the air. It
almost cackled. The energy was high after two days of learning and experienc-
ing new things. You felt it almost in your soul. As you looked round the room,
rosy faces greeted you, and a clear sense of accomplishment and awe at what
they had been involved in. When the leader of the discussion went round the
room, asking about what makes this space different to mixed-gendered envi-
ronments, most agreed that you just felt different, safe, and comfortable to
ask questions, not to be judged, or not to have ego’s in the way of engaging
with the day. Ripples of agreement went round the room when it was asked
whether they would actively seek out spaces like this again. Even I found myself
agreeing, having never experienced this before. That deep sense of connection
to your fellow female. The acceptance that they knew what you had experi-
enced before. It’s hard to put into words the tangible energy that was felt in
that room after the skills courses. And that is probably the reason why some
don’t understand the need for these spaces until they have been there and
experienced it for themselves. It isn’t just about providing a safe space for
women, it’s about the support they get, the unquestionable ear that listens
rather than judges. I walked away from that weekend feeling lighter. Feeling
264 E. BOOCOCK

powerful. I have never once walked away from another skills course feeling
that way. My skills on my mountain bike didn’t necessarily improve, but what
did was my sense of feeling like I belonged to a community. A community that
cared and wanted to forge a way forward for women in these spaces to belong.
Four years on, and I am still in touch with the participants on that mountain
bike course.

Sense Making
In a bid to make sense of the three memoirs in this chapter, three core
themes have been identified, which aim to correlate those experiences
with the current literature in the area. The first theme is the additional
emotional and physical labour that women continue to endure in moun-
tain spaces, both in our careers and in our leisure pursuits. The second
theme relates to the continued intended and unintended sexism within
mountain spaces. Finally, the third theme addresses women-only spaces
and their place within the future of mountaineering.

Additional Emotional and Physical Labour

Women’s presence in mountaineering and mountain spaces continues to
be contested both psychologically and physically, and women continue to
work hard to legitimise their endeavours within these spaces.
Mountaineering and other such ventures have been described as male
sports, whereby the view of the male adventurer conquers summits and
undertakes immense achievements in extreme environments. As such,
although women have been incredibly successful in their own right, there
is still a major representation of women being thought of as ‘soft’ and less
significant than men in these spaces (Frohlick, 2005). Because of women’s
lack of legitimacy within the mountains, women have had to endure addi-
tional emotional and physical labour in order to survive and also conquer.
Memoir one speaks to the additional labour that my body and mind had
to endure during the skills course. Given the natural physical differences
between course members and I, there was significant additional physical
labour which tangibly showed itself during that course. Not only this, the
additional emotional labour that was endured both during and after the
course, was something that I did not anticipate. Those feelings of insignifi-
cance and weakness continued to make me question my legitimacy within
that space. Hochschild (1983) described emotional labour as “the
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 265

management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily

display” (p. 7). Torland (2011) goes on to suggest that continued emo-
tional labour can be draining for individuals and lead to feeling a sense of
inauthenticity. So, whilst I celebrated with the group at having completed
the two-day course and thanked the instructor for their time, my real emo-
tions under the surface actually promoted those feelings of inadequacy
and feminine weakness in that space. That internalising of emotions was
something I had not anticipated or fully recognised until I experienced a
women’s-only space in 2019 and felt my sense of self and legitimacy be
confirmed in that space. Within that space, in memoir three, I felt at ease
with my physicality and my legitimacy within that space. I did not need to
question my knowledge or my skill level. There was an openness to not
knowing or not being able to physically carry on. This openness counters
those dominant norms of masculinity and understandings of expertise
within mountain spaces, which continue to hinder learning, change, and
innovation in many coaching, sporting, and physical activity contexts
(Avner et al., 2021; Mills & Denison, 2018).
Despite the progress being made to dampen the hypermasculinised
nature of mountaineering and mountain spaces, women continue to expe-
rience this both in their career and in their leisure time (Hall & Brown,
2022). Perhaps there is still a need to redesign the room (Sharp, 2001)
and consider not just how women are viewed in these spaces, but how
both male and female instructors are addressing their pedagogical prac-
tices in order to address the additional emotional and physical labours that
women endure in these spaces. It may also be suggested that it is not just
the pedagogical delivery of these courses, but the actual content and
structure which closes doors for women or makes them question their
presence within these spaces (Sharp, 2001). So, although the additional
negative physical and emotional labour I experienced within the winter
environment could be accountable to instructor pedagogy, there is a need
to develop our ability to support a diversity of bodies and raise instructors’
awareness of gendered dynamics to better support participants undertak-
ing winter skill courses in the future.

Unconscious Bias and Sexism

Throughout the literature there seems to be a consensus that sexism and
gender biases still occur and occupy a lot of space in mountain landscapes,
both for female leaders and participants (e.g. Rak, 2021; Warren et al.,
266 E. BOOCOCK

2018; Warren et al., 2019; Warren & Loeffler, 2006). As also discussed in
Chap. 8, gender stereotyping along the masculine–feminine gender binary
is a significant factor affecting women in outdoor spaces, specifically
because of gender bias (Eagly & Carli, 2007; Rogers & Rose, 2019).
There is often stereotyping of women who take on feminine leadership
styles, who are often seen as less competent. In contrast, those who make
directive and assertive decisions are frequently perceived as too masculine
and often find themselves ostracised (Humberstone, 2000; Wittmer,
2001). This is also experienced in the participatory field of outdoor sports
whereby women who show strength and exceptional skill competencies
are often termed masculine or ‘not normal’. Because of implicit and also
explicit gender bias, women often underestimate or devalue their own
competencies and skills within outdoor spaces, leading to feelings of a
decreased sense of self and unworthiness. Certainly, within memoir two,
the outdoor instructor confirmed those gender biases by making clear
assumptions that I, as the female in the duo, would naturally want to ask
questions and continue to repeat skills. Whereas there was also an assump-
tion that my male counterpart should know and already be competent in
those technical skills, undermining both my partner and myself. Whether
this was intentional or not, it still brings to question the innate gender
biases and overt sexism which still occur and continue to be reinforced in
adventure skill courses by instructors.
In Warren and Loeffler’s paper in 2006, they examined some factors
which often distort women’s opportunities for technical skill learning. A
central feature of this was the existence of both territorial and linguistic
sexism. Territorial sexism suggests that the control of the common space
by men is one to claim and maintain power (Van Nostrand, 1993). This
can be seen when skills are being taught: the men are usually at the front
of the crowd, positioning themselves at the front of the action, whereas
women will often position themselves behind in a more observational role.
Whilst Warren and Loeffler (2006) acknowledge that this may not be
overt territorial sexism, it raises questions as to how acutely aware instruc-
tors are of this and how the learning environment could be manipulated
in order to disrupt this in the future. Linguistic sexism refers to the use of
language which may marginalise or invalidate a person’s experience. In
memoir two, we see the invalidation of my partners’ experience through
instructional tone and body language that the instructor used towards
him. Whilst most instructors unintentionally do this, it is important that
instructors continue to question their unconscious bias, which excludes
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 267

those of difference, be sensitive to the gender role expectations of their

participants (both male and female), and be willing to interrogate and
interrupt the conditioning of territorial and linguistic sexism within out-
door spaces (Warren et al., 2019).

Women-Only Spaces
To address inequalities in the outdoors, the development of women-only
or women-specific courses has become more popular over the last decade.
Courses provided by national outdoor centres, national governing bodies,
and other organisations (e.g. Women’s Climbing Symposium; Trad
Festival) offer a space for women who want to progress. There have been
a number of studies which have shown that women or girls who take part
in these courses or events, gain a sense of empowerment, and often talk
about an increased sense of belonging in those spaces (Avner et al., 2021;
Hornibrook et al., 1997; Mitten, 1992; O’Brien & Allin, 2022;
Whittington, 2018). Despite this, women-only, or women-specific,
courses have come under scrutiny with some suggesting that can be per-
ceived as divisive (Hall & Doran, 2020), or reinforce gender stereotypes
(Fielding-Lloyd & Mean, 2011). Interestingly, those courses that have
been developed have largely been introductory courses, aimed at those
entering the outdoor space, rather than technical skill development past
the introductory stage. Although these courses aim to be inclusive to
some, it naturally excludes some women who want advanced skill develop-
ment, therefore being exclusionary by default.
While there is agreement that women-specific courses do not offer a
panacea for addressing the systemic-gendered discourses within the out-
door industry, they do offer women something which they do not get
elsewhere. Although not the only reason why women access these spaces,
the development of or change in confidence levels was echoed throughout
the literature as to why women access these spaces (Avner et al., 2021;
O’Brien & Allin, 2022). As reflected in memoir one, I was feeling a severe
lack of confidence in my physical and technical abilities after the ‘mixed’
winter skills course. My sense of self was decidedly low and had been
impacted by the gendered comparisons that I was exposed to on that pro-
gramme (e.g. feeling physically weak). However, after engaging in a
women-only space, for just two days (memoir 3), I had almost a ‘subjec-
tive reframing’ (Mezirow, 2000) whereby I felt like I did belong in that
space and that my voice and my skills did matter. Traditionally, women’s
268 E. BOOCOCK

voices have been marginalised or silenced, and their capabilities within the
outdoors judged and demoralised by our male counterparts (Belenky &
Stanton, 2000). However, as Freire (1970) explains, “The criteria of
knowledge imposed upon them are the conventional ones … Almost never
do they realise that they, too, know things” (p. 63). Thus, the women’s
space that I was involved in, in 2019, confirmed to me that I too did know
things, and I too was a valued member in those spaces. Not to be judged
or competed against, but to be supported and recognised for my
contribution.
This is supported by O’Brien and Allin (2022), whereby trainee instruc-
tors, on a women-only programme, noted that they changed their frame
of reference to acknowledge that “they no longer saw lack of knowledge
as an indication of weakness, inferiority or incompetence but rather as a
sign of authenticity and opportunity to learn” (p. 196). Women’s partici-
pation in the outdoors is subject to prejudice and discriminatory ideas that
women are less worthy, less capable, less confident, and overly emotional
beings which show weakness (Humberstone, 2000). However, the open-
ness to not knowing, involvement in a space which promotes authenticity,
contradicts the dominant norms of masculinity which dominates these
spaces and as a result can lead to change, innovation, and enhanced learn-
ing (Avner et al., 2021; O’Brien & Allin, 2022). So, although women-­
only, or women-specific, spaces are being continually questioned, there
remains a body of evidence both academically and personally that supports
the continuation and promotion of these spaces in order to better support
women and their feelings of authenticity and legitimacy within these spaces.

Concluding Thoughts
The aim of this chapter was to provide an evocative autoethnography to
show my own experiences with both mixed and single-gender mountain
skill courses in the UK. The reflections provided show some of the affor-
dances of women-only/specific spaces and also show the authentic emo-
tions and experiences faced during mixed-gendered spaces. From my own
experiences, additional physical and emotional labour was encountered in
two mixed-gendered winter training courses. Although physical exertion
within these spaces is not unexpected, the individual pedagogies of instruc-
tors and their ability to notice and address the differences within a group
are important to highlight, in order for change to occur. Further, intended
and unintended sexism was evident and not just portrayed to myself as a
 14 AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC WRITING OF MOUNTAIN SKILL COURSES 269

female, but also to my male counterpart, again raising questions about

instructor personal biases and assumptions over what is known and not
known by men and women in these spaces. Finally, although women-­
only/specific spaces do not offer a panacea to offset the gender conversa-
tion within mountaineering, it does offer women the capacity for new
affective intensities, experiences, and embodiments to support their con-
tinuation in the outdoors (Avner et al., 2021). Bob Sharp’s (2001) past
attempts at highlighting the need to redesign the room in outdoor spaces
have been somewhat unsuccessful. Unquestionably, if my experiences and
memoirs are anything to go by, mountain skill courses’ content, structure,
and most importantly the pedagogies of instructors need to be addressed
in order to facilitate greater access to a wider diversity of participants and
an overall sense of inclusion.

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 Index1

NUMBERS AND SYMBOLS Ahmed, Sara, 35, 132, 133,

8000 metre peaks, 65 139, 143–145
Alpine Club, 51, 55–57, 62, 64, 241
Alpine Journal, 55
A Alpinism, 4
Ableism, 6, 74, 75, 79, 80, 84 Alpinist, 138, 142
Ableist, 5, 90, 133, 143 Amanda Blackhorse, 130
Aconcagua, 89, 101 American, 24, 25, 131, 132, 134, 136,
Activism, 32, 33, 129, 130, 136, 142, 141, 142, 146, 162
145, 171–173 Andes, 123
Adaptive Climbing Group, 130 Anglo-Saxon, 57
Adrenaline, 23 Annapurna III, 40, 42, 43, 45
Adventure sport skills courses, 8, 259 Annapurna South Face, 65
Advocacy, 129, 135, 136, 139, 142, Annapurna, The first conquest, 66
143, 145 Anthropocentric, 7, 210, 211
Affective, 4, 8, 94, 269 Anti-colonialism, 6
Age, 2, 32, 33, 39, 74, 76, 113, 131, Anti-racism, 6, 130–132
213, 251 Archive of rebellion, 145
Agent Provocateur, 174 Asian women, 35, 42
Aggression, 2, 262 Assemblages, 110, 117, 121

1
Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 273

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Hall et al. (eds.), Gender, Politics and Change in Mountaineering,
Global Culture and Sport Series,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29945-2
274 INDEX

Assessment, 41, 156, 157, 159, 163, C

238, 242, 243, 246, 248, 252 Cairngorm mountain,
Athleticism, 54, 56, 213, 216 7, 210, 217–219
Authenticity, 246, 268 Cairngorms National Park
Autobiography, 5, 25, 32, 53 Authority, 218
Autoethnographic, 8, 242, 257–269 Canada, 6, 75, 129–132,
134–136, 158
Carabiners, 78
B Careers, 6, 155, 156, 160, 194, 198,
Bakhtin, 216 238, 252, 264
Banff mountain film festival, 215 Cartographer, 26
Barker, Mary, 17 Caucasus, 65
Batard, Marc, 63 Childcare, 44, 163
Baudelaire, Charles, 224 Children, 16, 20, 38, 44, 67, 83, 163
Behaviours, 24, 42, 97, 98, 100, 122, Chilly climate, 196, 197
156, 160, 162, 179, 189–193, Cho Oyu, 31
195–197, 201, 215, 246, 248, 252 Choreographer, 217
BelayALL, 130, 142 Cisgender, 108, 120
Belaying, 83 Classification, 2, 98, 188, 189
Belonging, 7, 20, 60, 155, 242, 246, Classist, 5, 33
250, 262, 267 Climbers of Color, 130
Benevolent sexism, 190, 192 Climb the Gap, 130, 133, 139, 143
Binary, 2, 80, 82, 91, 111, 156, 173, Coaching, 4, 77, 154, 155, 158, 159,
188, 198, 200, 211, 213, 266 162, 178, 265
Biography, 103 Codification, 2, 56
Bisexual, 90, 91 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 15–17, 23
Black Girls’ Hike, 157 Collective Liberation Climbing, 130
Black Lives Matter (BLM), Colloquial language, 140
129, 143, 145 Colonial, 33, 65, 129, 130, 132, 135,
B-line, 144 143, 144, 146, 211–213, 220,
Blum, Arlene, 41, 77, 134 221, 229, 230
Body Weather dance, 220, 222 Colonialism, 33, 37, 77, 123,
Body without Organs (BWO), 110 130–136, 138, 145, 211, 230
Bonnington, Chris, 45 Colonisation, 2, 57, 134
Bourdillon, F. W., 62 Commodification, 36, 123, 174
Bravery, 2, 19, 20, 23, 39 Compass, 22, 27
British Empire, 55, 56, 212 Competence/competencies, 7, 78,
British Isles, 24 79, 82, 156–158, 163, 242,
British Mountaineering Council 244, 246, 251, 252, 257,
(BMC), 154, 162 258, 266
Brotherhood of the rope, 77 Competition, 2, 57, 66, 195,
Brown Girls Climb, 130, 140–142 209–211, 231
Buddhism, 229 Conceptualise, 5, 173
 INDEX 275

Confidence, 76, 79, 123, 134, 155, Discourses, vii, viii, 3, 5, 6, 32, 33, 36,
158, 162, 242, 244, 248, 249, 44, 45, 53, 57, 74, 114, 117,
258, 267 132, 134, 156, 173, 209–232,
Connell, Raewyn, 2, 5, 52, 54, 58, 61, 239, 267
63, 64, 66 Discrimination, 2, 3, 7, 33, 45, 80,
Conquest, 20, 26, 57, 65, 67, 132, 131, 143, 187–201
136, 209–212 Disempowering, 245, 246, 251, 252
Constraint, 3, 37, 97, 112, 119, 124, Diverse, 3, 40, 90–92, 103, 109, 110,
134, 155, 188, 195, 198 113, 114, 118, 123, 140, 142,
Constructivist theory, 239 154, 156, 163, 170, 188, 189,
Continent, 5, 32 219, 220, 223
Covid-19 pandemic, 159 Diversity, 7, 34, 45, 75, 90, 91,
Cracknell, Linda, 218 110–112, 117, 139, 157, 160,
Crenshaw, Kimblerlé, 33 164, 178, 181, 194, 197, 200,
Critical postfeminist, 169–182 201, 215, 220, 258, 265, 269
Criticism, 43, 83, 159 Domesticity, 33, 44
Cross-disciplinary, 210, 211 Domestic roles, 32
Cultural appropriation, 143 Dominant norms, 2, 33, 35, 265, 268
Cultural memory, 130 Dramaturgical, 92, 94–96, 103
Dualistic, 259
Duoethnography, 6, 73–84
D
Darwinism, 56
Davis, Angela, 132, 145 E
Death, 16, 21, 37, 76, 77, 83 Eco-conscientization, 7
Decentralised, 120 Ecological, 210–212, 216, 218–220,
Decolonise, 6, 8, 48 223, 226, 247
Defensive othering, 194 Ecological systems theory, 158
Deities, 108 Ecopsychology, 7, 210, 211
Deleuze, G., 5, 107–113, 123, 217 Efficacy, 248, 253, 258
Democracy Now (2020), 145 Egalitarian, 40
Destivelle, Catherine, 60 Ego, 230, 250, 258
Deterritorialise, 121, 122 Eighteenth century, 15, 22, 26, 35
Dialogic, 73–84 Elitist, 51
Difference, 2–5, 32, 34, 36, 39, Embodied, 2, 4, 5, 35, 46, 58, 63, 83,
40, 42, 45, 47, 48, 74, 81, 104, 110, 117–119, 140, 210,
111, 160, 161, 188–189, 214, 216–219, 223, 230
191, 194, 262, 264, Embodiments, 2, 8, 58, 61, 109–112,
267, 268 114, 269
DiGiulian, Sasha, 174 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 25
Dis/ability, vii, 2, 5, 6, 33, 73–84, Emotional intelligence, 157
154, 200, 240 Emotional labour, 8, 38, 44, 190,
Disclosure, 95, 100, 101, 103 191, 196, 261, 264, 265, 268
276 INDEX

Employment, 3, 75 Feminism, 6, 42, 130, 131, 170,

Epistemology, 111, 114, 131, 170, 172–174, 240
172, 177, 246, 260 Feminist, vii, viii, 3, 4, 8, 33, 34, 81,
Equality, 4, 32, 37, 38, 46–48, 64, 84, 112, 113, 131, 132, 137,
100, 131, 160, 161, 181, 197, 138, 145, 169, 171, 172, 175,
241, 246, 248 176, 179, 180
Equity, 6–7, 74, 139, 154, 155, 159, First ascensionists, 133, 139–141, 143
160, 172, 181, 201 First ascents (FA), 32, 36, 39, 42, 57,
Erasure, 135 133, 135, 138, 141, 143, 214
Escapism, 7 First World War, 212
Essentialising, 2 Firsthand, 104
Ethical, 6, 92, 179 Flâneur, 224
Ethics of care, 118, 121 Flash Foxy Festival, 141
Ethnicity, 2, 6, 109, 112, 113, 118, Frames of reference, 239–242, 245,
119, 123, 124, 131, 243 246, 248, 251
Ethnocentrism, 239 Fraternal, 112, 137
Ethnographic, 104 Freedom, 22, 109, 119, 121, 123,
Evocative autoethnography, 259, 143, 169
260, 268 Freire, Paulo, 175–177, 179, 181,
Exclusivity, 2 237, 242, 268
Expeditions, 3, 31, 32, 35–48, 53, French, 52, 57, 63, 66
63–66, 75, 79, 80, 111, 114,
210–212, 214, 238, 241
Exploitation, 131, 132 G
Exploration, 2, 6, 26, 34, 56, 57, 65, Gandi, Indira, 46
66, 73–84, 108, 145, 211, 217, Gaslit, 80
218, 222, 223, 225 Gatekeeper, 118, 121
Gau Ming H, 35, 36
Gay, 90, 91, 94
F Gender dynamics, 29, 178, 181
Familial, 32, 37, 38, 44 Gender gap, 7, 238
Fathers, 37, 76, 83 Gender parity, 7, 153–164
Fear of failure, 250 Gender politics, vii, 3
Feelings, 22, 23, 35, 39, 42, 62, 80, Geography, 4, 26, 29, 121
83, 94, 122, 155, 156, 161, 177, Geopolitical, 66
178, 190, 196, 217, 237, 239, Gilbert, Richard, 141, 142
240, 242, 243, 245, Ginsberg, Ruth Bader, 187
248–251, 263–268 Girls, 5, 8, 29, 37, 43, 62, 90, 117,
The Feldenkrais Method®, 222 172, 176, 241, 257, 267
Female coach mentorship scheme, 158 Glaciers, 77
Femininity, 2, 33, 38, 39, 42, 45, 48, Global, 2, 5, 34, 42, 43, 46, 48, 112,
62, 90, 110, 121, 134, 173, 174, 132, 219
180, 190 Globalisation, 112
 INDEX 277

Global south, 6, 113, 123, 124 Himalayas, 31–32, 40, 42, 45, 57,
Goffman, Erving, 92–104 64, 65, 123
Governance, 2–5 Hochschild, Arlie Russell, 190, 264
Governing bodies, 180, 258, 267 Homophobic, 6, 90, 94, 133,
GPS, 22 137, 143
Grassroots resistance, 131, 136, Homosexuals, 64, 239
141, 144 Homosocial, 33, 137, 156
Grounded theory, 239 Honourific, 130
Growth mindset, 246, 247, 251, 252 Honouring High Places, 32, 48
Guattari, F., 107–110, 123 Humanistic, 4
Guidebooks, v, vii, 24, 133, 137, 139, Humiliation, 79
141–143, 145, 217 Hypermasculine, 2, 4, 37, 98,
Guides, 6, 19, 21–24, 26, 27, 32, 35, 137, 215
46, 59, 61–64, 67, 82, 93, 113, Hyper-sexualisation, 193
136, 138, 139, 145, 189–193, Hypervigilant, 188, 243
195–201, 217, 238
Gunn, Neil, 216
I
Identity, 2, 4, 33, 45, 58, 74, 81,
H 90–92, 95–98, 101, 103,
Haptic, 7, 210 111–114, 120, 123, 131, 154,
Hard and soft risk, 81 157, 160, 200, 239, 240, 245
Hargreaves, Alison, v, 60, 83 Ideologies, 5, 56, 58, 59, 64, 135,
Harm, 77, 142, 201 158, 216, 240
Hate speech, 140 Impairment, 80
Hegemonic, 2, 209–232 Imperialism, 37, 56, 211, 212
Hegemonic masculinity, 5, 51–68, 77, Impression management, 92, 94,
90, 91, 98, 103, 104, 155, 162, 97, 100–103
214, 215 Inadequate, 77, 78
Helplessness, 138 Inclusion, 5, 7, 32, 42, 48, 74–76, 91,
Helvellyn, 17, 18, 27 107, 108, 118, 154, 164, 181,
Hero, 5, 47, 63, 66, 67, 76, 212 188, 197, 199, 200, 269
Heroism, vii, 2, 42, 77 Inclusive, vii, 6, 73, 77, 84, 91, 108,
Herzog, 66, 67 109, 117, 121, 123, 124,
Heterogeneity, 4, 107, 113, 120, 121 138–140, 143, 153, 156, 158,
Heteronormative, 5, 91, 137, 193 161, 163, 189, 197, 199, 267
Heterosexist norms, 156 Independence, 21, 22, 43, 65, 80–82
Heuristic, 7 Independent, 33, 79, 81
Hierarchies, 52, 57–64, 67, 68, 194, India, 35, 40, 46, 65
196, 197, 220 Indigenous, 45, 46, 121, 132, 135,
High-altitude, vi, 3, 32, 36, 39, 42, 136, 141–143, 145, 216
44, 47, 48, 214 Indigenous Peoples, 45, 46, 132, 134,
Himalayan Mountain Trust, 36 135, 141, 212, 221
278 INDEX

Indignity, 79 Japanese Women’s Everest Expedition

Inequalities, 2–4, 6–8, 32–34, 38, 39, (JWEE), 31, 32, 40, 43–46
90, 163, 169–171, 174, 175, Johnson, Samuel, 15, 16
177, 178, 180, 181, 257, Joshi-Tohan, 32, 40, 42
258, 267 Justice, viii, 3, 91, 129, 154, 237, 240
Inferior, 60, 134, 191, 216, 240,
252, 261
Inferiority, 187, 189, 245, 268 K
Innovating, 8, 48 K2, 83
Inspiration porn, 78 Kangchenjunga, 65
Instagram, 174 Karakoram, 65
Institute of Outdoor Learning (IOL), Khumbu icefall, 79
154, 162 Kinship, 209, 210, 223
Institutional, 6, 51, 92, 130, 133, 158 Kogan, Claude, 31
Internalised, 138, 157, 243, 245, Koichi Yoko-o, 38
249, 259 Kojima, Usui, 35
International Federation of Mountain Krakauer, John, 35, 36
Guides Association
(IFMGA), 199–201
Interpersonal, 100, 158, 238, 246, L
251, 252 Laddish, 134
Intersect/intersecting, 3–5, 33, Laddish masculinity, 137, 216
34, 81, 84 Lake District, viii, 16, 17, 24–26
Intersection/intersectional/ Land Art movement, 219
intersectionality, vii, viii, 1, 3–6, Le Blond, Elizabeth, 59, 60
31–48, 110, 113, 114, 119, 131, Leadership, viii, 2, 3, 5–7, 43–45, 47,
138, 142, 146, 154, 160, 198, 57, 77, 84, 99, 178, 189, 191,
200–201, 210, 211, 215, 219 192, 194, 198, 200, 237–253,
Inter-war culture, 212 258, 259, 266
Into The Mountain, 7, 209–232 Leaky pipeline, 155, 156
Intra-personal, 242, 246, 251–252 Learning, 8, 46, 58, 74–76, 81,
Intruders, 6, 187 101–103, 155, 159, 170, 201,
Invisibility, 5, 83, 94–103 216, 237–253, 258, 263, 265,
266, 268
Learning environments, 252, 266
J Leave No Trace, 187
Japan, viii, 32, 35–38, 40, 44, Legitimacy, 39, 43, 44, 52, 264,
45, 47, 220 265, 268
Japanese, 32, 34–48, 220, 229 Leisure, viii, 1–8, 35, 37, 74, 124,
Japanese Alpine Club, 35, 37 131, 133, 134, 170–172, 179,
Japanese Alps, 32 180, 189, 244, 264, 265
Japanese Women’s Annapurna Lesbian, 75
Expedition (JWAE), 40, 42, 45 LGBTQ+, 90
 INDEX 279

Life cycles, 118 Mexican-mestiza women, 34, 110,

Life stories, 42, 74, 113, 114 115–116, 119–121, 123, 124
Lifestyle climbers, 3 Mexico, viii, 5, 108–109, 117, 119
Linguistic sexism, 266, 267 Mezirow, J., 8, 237–240, 242,
Literary, 4, 27, 33, 35, 41, 46, 48, 53, 245, 267
66, 212, 216, 218 Microaggressions, 189, 190, 193–195,
Lithic, 218 199, 245, 251
Living a Feminist Life, 132 Middle-aged, 36, 75
Locker room talk, 99 Middle-class, 2, 34, 55, 75, 109, 113,
138, 214
Middle-class men, 58
M Mindfulness, 222
Machismo, 242 Minority groups, 3, 258
Male allyship, 36–39, 153, 161 Misgendered, 96
Male/female binaries, 2 Misogynistic, 6, 90, 131, 133, 134,
Male institutions, 2 136–138, 140, 141, 143
Manaslu, 37 Misogyny, 90, 99, 100, 136, 140, 174
Manliness, 2, 4, 17, 54–59, 62, 63, 67 Misrepresentation, 41, 42
Mansplaining, 21 Mobilities, 75, 76, 79, 135, 196, 213
Maps, 16, 21, 22, 24, 27, 130, 135, Moffat, Gwen, 238
136, 217, 219, 243, 251 Moral career, 102, 103
Marginalisation/marginalised, 32, 61, Moral values, 55
63, 103, 113, 140, 144, 170, More Than a Mountain: One Woman's
245, 268 Everest, 77
Martineau, Harriet, 17, 24–29 More-than-human, 7, 223
Masculine spaces, 6, 8 Motherhood, 33, 43–45, 112, 117,
Masculine virility, 212 118, 155, 215
Masculinist, 2, 4, 33 Mountaincraft, 231
Masculinities, vii, viii, 3–5, 7, 33, Mountaineering and Climbing
36–39, 42, 44, 48, 51–68, 77, Instructor (MCI), 154, 159
81, 90, 91, 98, 103, 104, Mountaineering practices, 3, 6, 117,
134–137, 155, 162, 173, 212, 118, 123, 124, 223
214, 215, 265, 268 Mountain leadership, 8, 153, 154,
Material, 4, 53, 258 156–159, 163, 164, 237–253
Materialise, 110, 112, 119, 121, 122 Mountain skill courses, 257–269
Meiji era, 35 Mount Elbrus, 89, 95–97, 101
Melanie Chambers, 144 Mount Everest, 31, 36, 42, 43, 47, 76
Melanin Base Camp, 130, 142 Mount Fuji, 32
Memoirs, 42, 48, 216, 260–267, 269 Mount Kilimanjaro, 90, 97, 99, 101
Menstruation, 214 Mount Nasu-Dake, 31–32, 37
Mentoring, 67, 158–160, 162, 163, Mt. Utopia, 76
198, 247 Multi-dimensional, 5, 33
Messner, Reinhold, 41 Mummery, Albert F., 57, 62
280 INDEX

N P
Namba, Yasuko, 36 Pace, speed, 2, 77, 79, 156, 222,
Naming practices, 6, 130, 131, 133, 244, 261
136, 138, 140, 142 Pakistan, 35, 40, 65
Narratives, 6–8, 34, 41, 42, 48, 53, Panacea, 8, 267, 269
54, 57, 63, 65–67, 74, 81, 82, Pan Duo, 42
92, 93, 102–104, 113, 114, 117, Panty tree, 144
119, 135, 181, 209–212, 220, Parisi, Erin, viii, 5, 89–104
231, 238, 241, 248 Participation, 2, 3, 5–8, 32, 37,
National outdoor centres, 258, 263, 267 73–84, 90, 91, 108, 109, 113,
National Parks, 134, 135 119, 122, 123, 154, 174, 189,
Nation-building, 2 190, 194, 219, 241,
Neoliberal, 172, 181 257–259, 268
Nepal, 35, 40, 45, 46, 65, 81, 113 Participatory, 180, 266
Networks, 24, 40, 107, 156, 158, Patriarchy, 52, 61, 211, 230
162, 163, 200 Patriotism, 56
New Materialist, 219 Pedagogies, viii, 7–8, 265, 268, 269
New technology, 133, 145 Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), 176
Nineteenth century, 4, 15–29, 35, 53, Pennines, 24
55, 59, 64, 65, 211, 213, 221 People with disability (PwD), 74,
Non-human, 4, 134, 217 78, 82–84
Peruvian Andes, 40
Photographs, 29
O Physical appearance, 41
‘Old boys’ networks, 156 Physical hardship, 37
Ontological, 221, 230 Physical labour, 262, 264–265
Oppression, 3, 45, 84, 131–133, 140, Physiology, 79
141, 143, 144, 176, 188, 242 Pioneering, 4, 15–29, 39–42, 46–48
Orientalist stereotyping, 35 The playground of Europe, 4
Otherness, 5, 108–114, 118, 119, Policies, 124, 134, 135, 155,
121, 123 159, 178–182
Outdoor leadership, 7, 84, 153–157, Political activism, 32, 171, 173
159, 162–164, 178, 247, 251, Polyvocal, 74
258, 259 Popular culture, 171, 173
Outdoor sector, 155, 162, 164, 177, Porters, 45, 46, 64, 66
178, 238 Positivist, 230
Outdoor spaces, 6, 74, 90–92, 98, Postfeminism, 7, 170–175, 177,
100, 188, 259, 266, 267, 269 180, 181
Outdoor studies, 4 Postfeminist, 169–182
Outward Bound UK, 154, 238, 258 Post-medical transition, 94
Overexertion, 77 Postmodern, 219
Ownership, 136, 163, 199 Postmodernism, 172
 INDEX 281

Poststructural, 4, 110–112, 131, Rébuffat, G., 66, 77

172, 173 Recreation/recreational, 17, 74, 75,
Poststructuralist, 111, 131, 132, 172 83, 111, 130, 131, 135, 146,
Post-transition, 99 187–191, 195, 197, 201, 211,
Post-war, 57, 65, 66 215, 258
Power, 19, 34–36, 39, 54, 56, 62, 82, Reductionist, 36, 258
108, 112, 118, 122, 131–133, Reflection, 8, 74, 80, 93, 156, 171,
137, 139, 141, 143, 145, 146, 176, 179, 180, 251, 252, 258,
154, 159–161, 169, 172, 173, 259, 263, 268
180, 181, 196, 240, 241, 246, Reflective, 6, 92
249, 266 Reflexive ethnography, 74
Power relations, 34, 35, 112, 159, 249 Relational, 7, 209–232, 251
Praxis, 6–7, 169–182, 210, 211, 229 Religious, 37, 46
Prejudice, 39, 41, 44, 64, 190, 191, Representation, 3, 4, 6, 7, 36, 41, 45,
245, 268 46, 48, 54, 57, 99, 100,
Professional, 32, 38, 56, 58, 64, 77, 173–175, 178, 216, 243, 264
112, 158, 163, 174, 177, 178, Resignification, 110, 123
180–182, 188–199, 201, 211, Resistance, 44, 55, 111, 131,
220, 248–252, 258 133–136, 138, 141–145,
Project Beta, 142 162, 187–201
Psychological, 98, 110, 118, 121, 162, Reterritorialisation, 108, 114,
194, 201, 250 123, 124
Psychology, 4, 247 Re-territorialised, 121
Public policies, 124 Reverend L.S. Calvert, 55
Public schools, 54–56 Revisionist, 82
Publishers, 130, 139, 143, 216 Revolutionising, 145
Rhizomatic body, 5–6, 107–124
Risk, 2, 5, 44, 47, 74, 76, 77,
Q 81–84, 90, 91, 95, 96, 98,
Queen bee, 196, 197 101, 102, 109, 111, 112, 118,
Queer, 90, 142, 189 119, 121, 134, 160, 188,
193, 230
Ritual, 46
R Rocky Mountains, 76
Racial boundaries, 45, 46, 48 Roe vs. Wade, 169
Racialised, 5, 34, 47, 107–124, 132, Role models, 3, 67, 84, 102, 103,
133, 138, 139, 142 156, 157, 164, 200, 238, 239,
Racist, 6, 35, 41, 90, 129, 130, 246, 249
132–134, 136, 137, 140, 143 Romantic, 26, 39, 189
Rak, Julie, 2, 3, 33–37, 41, 42, 45, Rope skills, 260, 262
48, 54, 59, 77–79, 170, Route names, 129–134, 136–146
210–212, 215, 220, 265 Rumie Sasou, 39
282 INDEX

S Socialisation, 103, 240, 251, 252

Saatchi, Anaheed, 133, 138, 139, Social norms, 4, 43, 44, 98, 190
142, 143 Social processes, 35
Sacred, 141, 142, 212 Social shaming, 4
Safe spaces, 111, 153, 162, 164, 263 Socio-cultural, 1, 113, 118, 119, 123,
Sagarmatha, 46 130, 158, 159, 241
Same-sex, 159 Socio-economic, 154, 240
Sangaku kikobun, 35 Sociology, viii, 4, 138, 140
Scafell, 16–19, 25, 26, 29 Solidarity, 6, 120, 122, 123
Scotland, 15, 22, 24, 213, 217, 218, Solo climb, 17
221, 260, 262, 263 Somatic, 210, 216, 218, 220, 223,
Semiotic, 2 225, 229
Sense making, 170, 260, 264–268 Sororal, 110–112, 122, 124
Sensory, 2, 210, 222, 223 Sorority, 6, 123
Sensual, 217 Speed, 2, 77
Separatism, 159 Spiritual, 215, 216
Setsuko Kitamura, 47 Sports, 1–8, 17, 19, 29, 33, 37,
Settler-colonial state, 6, 130 51–68, 89–92, 104, 109, 110,
Seven continents, 32 118, 122, 123, 129, 134, 135,
Seven Summits, viii, 89 137, 140, 143–146, 154, 155,
Sexism, vii, viii, 6, 8, 32, 48, 74, 77, 158–161, 170, 173–175,
84, 94, 99, 100, 131, 132, 138, 178–180, 190, 195, 211, 213,
144, 190, 192, 195, 264–268 215, 239, 257–259, 264, 266
Sexual harassment, 90, 119, 156 Squamish, 139, 142
Sexuality, vii, 2, 5, 33, 34, 48, 131, Stealth, 5, 91, 94–103
180, 190, 200, 240 Stephen, Lesley, 4, 56, 61, 62
Sexually aggressive, 137 Stereotyped, 79, 243
Shepherd, Nan, 7, 209, 210, Stigma, 83, 92, 94, 97, 103, 112
216–218, 220, 221, Stoddart Hazlitt, Sarah, 22
223–225, 227–231 Strategies, 3, 4, 6–8, 59, 60, 97, 102,
Sherpa, 45, 46, 61, 63, 64, 67, 81 110, 111, 119, 122, 123, 141,
Shinto Mountain pilgrimage, 37 144, 153–155, 158, 161–164,
Silenced, 2, 4, 103, 268 178, 181, 182, 198, 247,
Simpson, Joe, 63, 215 258, 259
Site-relational performance, 7, Stratum, 110, 111, 114,
210, 218 117–121, 124
Skreslet, Laurie, 76 Stravaiging, 223, 224
Slang, 140 Strength, 2, 25, 39, 41, 47, 55, 56,
Slow, 37, 77, 79 58, 60, 64, 80, 90, 98, 117, 119,
Snow, vi, 4, 261 121, 123, 189, 214, 215, 230,
Snowdon, 17, 20–24 231, 266
Social change, 3, 47 Structural, 6, 134, 155, 179
Social distinction, 33, 52 Subjugate, 132, 169
 INDEX 283

Subordination, 2, 33, 34, 52 Transgender, 5, 90–92, 114, 124, 188

Summiteer, 78 Transmigration, 218, 221
Summits, 5, 6, 16, 18–20, 22, 25, 27, Transnational, 129
29, 31, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 46, Transphobia, 94
57, 62, 67, 74, 76, 77, 79, 80, Transphobic, 90, 94, 133, 143
83–84, 90, 101, 117, 156, 201, Tshering, Ang, 41
216, 231, 244, 264 Tsing, Anna, 216
Superhuman, 78, 213 Twentieth-century, 31, 33, 35–37, 56,
Sustainable, 6 59, 109, 169, 213, 216, 240
Symbolic, 51, 61, 64, 112, 121 Twenty-first century, 4, 36, 59,
Symbols of slavery, 145 169, 212

T U
Tabei, Junko, viii, 5, 7, 31–48 Unconscious bias, 8, 161,
Tabei, Masanobu, 38, 44 164, 265–267
Technical ability, 39, 248, 267 Underrepresentation, 2, 197, 258
Technical competence, 156, 163, Underwear, 144
242, 252 United Nations, 46
Technical training, 119 Unsworth, W., 41, 66, 67
Terray, Lionel, 63, 66 The Untrodden Peak, 65
Territorial sexism, 266 Unwelcome “rescue,” 78
Thematic analysis, 93, 94, 239 Unworthiness, 266
This Girl Can, 172 Upper class, 51, 54, 55
Thompson, Ashleigh, 142–143 USA, 6, 25, 33, 97, 129–137, 142,
Tibetan, 42, 45 169, 241
Tosh, Josh, 55, 58, 59 Utomo, Melissa, 133, 139, 142,
Tourism, 4, 24, 33–36, 46, 48, 143, 145
107–109, 111, 120, 122–124
Toxic masculinity, 134, 136, 137
Traditionally, 3, 90, 98, 119, 242, V
245, 267 Valorisation, 211
TrailRider®, 75, 75n1, 82, 84 The Venture Out Project, 189
Trans*, viii, 89–94, 101, 103 Victorian, 2, 4, 5, 55–59, 62,
Transcended, 4, 38, 43–46 67, 212–214
Transending7, 5, 93 Violence, 136, 140
Transform, 6, 16, 101, 133, 144, 145, Visibility, 6, 96, 98, 102, 122, 220
176, 251 Voices, 5, 6, 34, 43, 74, 94, 103, 157,
Transformation/transformational, viii, 158, 163, 181, 198, 216, 219,
1–8, 17, 32, 48, 75, 111, 220, 231, 267, 268
129–146, 157, 158, 172, 173, Vulnerability, 111, 117–119, 121,
181, 190, 248–251, 258 162, 212, 214, 215, 263
284 INDEX

W Women’s outdoor leadership course

Wales, 20 (WOLC), 8, 157, 159,
Walking Arts, 224 238, 246–252
Wanderlust, 157 Women-only, 7, 32, 39, 40, 42, 44,
Watanabe-sensei, 37 45, 48, 60, 159, 214, 246,
Ways of being, 3, 6, 130, 144, 146, 248–250, 252, 258, 259, 263,
210, 211, 230, 231, 244 264, 267–269
Weakness, 2, 80, 81, 90, 247, 264, Women-specific, 8, 159, 258–260,
265, 268 267, 268
Weeton, Ellen, 16, 17, 20–25 Women’s Trad Festival, 267
Well-being, 37, 110, 118, 121, 193, Wood, Sharon, 76
194, 229, 242 Wordsworth, Dorothy, 4, 16–20,
Wasdale Mountain Rescue, 16 25, 26, 29
Western-centric, 34 Wordsworth, William, 16, 17
Wheelchair, 75, 78 Workplace Bullying, 196
White male history, 48 Worldview, 231, 239
White man’s world, 123, 192
Whiteness, 36, 132
White supremacy, 132, 141 Y
Whymper, Edward, 62 Yellowstone National Park, 134
Wilderness, 134–135, 188, 189, The Yomiuri Shimbun, 43
216, 221 Yosemite, 33
Women’s Climbing Symposium, 267 Younghusband, 65