A film of two tales is how I would describe this documentary. One story line of the film tells the story of George Mallary and his upbringing and fascination with climbing, his life and relationship with his wife, and his obsessive desire to conquer the tallest mountain in the world during a new age of exploration.…

Touching the Void is most certainly one of the most epic mountaineering books that I have read and truly captures the unbreakable determination and fight that resides in the human spirit. The book tells the real life story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates and their climb and disastrous descent from the west face of Siula…

For my final paper, I will be looking at how commercialization of Everest and the Himalayas has positively and negatively impacted the native Sherpa people. The question that my paper will be trying to answer is whether commercialization has led to the exploitation of the Sherpas on Everest climbing expeditions and whether the dangerous work justifies the…

We have talked about the importance of Everest climbing commercialization and how it has benefited the sherpa community of Nepal. However, this article explores the very real and problematic issues that surround the incredibly dangerous work that Sherpas undertake while working on Everest. Faced with the very real possibility of death, or serious injury these…

The idea’s presented within these articles are fascinating, to say the least. The idea of post-colonialism and Orientalism provide a sufficient background with the types of ethnocentric beliefs and ideas that were conceived about the vast unknown areas of the Middle East and the surrounding areas that would constitute the Orient. Edward W. Said having…

John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air has throughout the years become a staple in classic mountaineering novels. When I began reading this book I was curious on how this book would compare to some of the other books that we have read in class. Ultimately I decided that Krakauer was a highly opinionated individual and this attitude is portrayed…