In 1923, when British mountaineer George Mallory was asked why he wanted to summit Mount Everest, he famously answered “Because it’s there.” These days, there are still many who want to climb Mount Everest, but the conditions of mountaineering have altered significantly:  people are outraged by the trash on Mount Everest; concerned about the risks incurred by the Sherpa; worried about environmental degradation and indigenous rights, as in the case of Uluru in Australia, which is now closed to climbers; and, last year, the Himalaya were closed to climbers due to Covid 19. All of this complicates the age-old question, “Why do it?” 

My guest, the environmental philosopher Margret Grebowicz, argues in her latest book, Mountains and Desire, that mountaineering is a kind of test case for the challenge of knowing what desire really is in our late-capitalist era when the things we love to do are so often appropriated by everything from advertising to popular culture and social media.

For a list of suggested documentaries on climbing see in-the-weeds.net
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