Dawn Hollis has been obsessed with mountains since she was a small child growing up in Suffolk, which she describes as being “a really flat part of the UK.” Her first glimpse of more elevated landscapes came at age nine on a family trip to Wales. The trip sparked a lifelong passion for being in, and studying the history of, these wild places. Later, Hollis had a school teacher who had climbed Everest, and further encouraged her love of mountains.

As an adult, Hollis found a niche in researching humans’ relationships to mountains and how it has changed over time. Her book “Mountains Before Mountaineering” draws on years of PhD research, and calls into question common beliefs about how peaks were viewed before the eighteenth century.

In this episode, Hollis talks about the challenges she’s encountered as she upended the belief that mountains were generally feared or avoided during this time. She says our appreciation for mountains pre-dates the modern era—even if historical texts theorize otherwise—and continues to evolve to this day. 

This episode is brought to you with support from the American Alpine Club.

Host: Abbey Collins

Producer + Engineer: Mike Horn

Guest: Dawn Hollis

Book: Mountains Before Mountaineering

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