![]() ![]() The point is often the process.īut the summit is a rare tangible accomplishment in climbing, the one yes-or-no proposition. As Viesturs pointed out, it is called climbing, not summiting. It does not always matter if the top is reached. Accomplishment is judged by some indescribable mix of difficulty, imagination and style. For top mountaineers, it is a fuzzy world subject to personal satisfaction and occasional peer review. There is no true governing body for mountaineering, no single arbiter of what constitutes a feat worthy of adulation. “Why does it matter? Because it’s the whole point of mountaineering. “The summit does matter,” said David Roberts, a climber who has written dozens of books on Himalayan expeditions and co-written books with the likes of Viesturs, Jon Krakauer, Conrad Anker and Alex Honnold. It is a question both simple and cosmic, sure to divide absolutists from pragmatists. Just what does it mean to reach the summit? ![]() By definition, a summit is the highest point, of a hill or an aspiration. Literally and figuratively, the summit - like on Manaslu - represents the vertical finish line that says you have gone as far as possible. Several years ago, he enlisted help from a few other volunteer researchers, including Rodolphe Popier and Tobias Pantel of the Himalayan Database and Damien Gildea, the Australian explorer.ĭissecting one claim at a time, they are studying all the key ascents, through photographs and written accounts, trying to place climbers in precise locations. If he is a gatekeeper to historical records, doesn’t he have an obligation to double-check their accuracy? Evidence of important ascents generally comes from an inexact combination of photos and selfies, satellite coordinates and witnesses.įor decades, Jurgalski worried that standards of a world-class summit were slipping. For high-profile expeditions, it is the adventurer’s responsibility to prove what he or she claims to have done in some of the world’s remotest places. To keep itself honest, mountaineering relies on integrity and the power of a guilty conscience. Eberhard Jurgalski has an encyclopedic knowledge of the world’s tallest mountains. ![]()
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