Book description
To the impartial observer Britain does not appear to have any
mountains. Yet the British invented the sport of mountain climbing and
for two periods in history British climbers led the world in the pursuit
of this beautiful and dangerous obsession. Unjustifiable Risk is the
story of the social, economic and cultural conditions that gave rise to
the sport, and the achievements and motives of the scientists and poets,
parsons and anarchists, villains and judges, ascetics and drunks that
have shaped its development over the past two hundred years. The history
of climbing inevitably reflects the wider changes that have occurred in
British society, including class, gender, nationalism and war, but the
sport has also contributed to changing social attitudes to nature and
beauty, heroism and death. Over the years, increasing wealth, leisure
and mobility have gradually transformed climbing from an activity
undertaken by an eccentric and privileged minority into a sub-division
of the leisure and tourist industry, while competition, improved
technology and information, and increasing specialisation have helped to
create climbs of unimaginable difficulty at the leading edge of the
sport. But while much has changed, even more has remained the same.
Today's climbers would be instantly recognisable to their Victorian
predecessors, with their desire to escape from the crowded complexity of
urban society and willingness to take 'unjustifiable' risk in pursuit of
beauty, adventure and self-fulfilment. Simon Thompson started climbing
at the age of 16 and has been fascinated by the sport ever since. A
former director of Anglo American and chairman of Tarmac, he has lived
in seven different countries and currently sits on the boards of
companies headquartered in Sweden, the UK and the US, but he continues
to escape to the mountains whenever time permits.
