Podcasts about modern man mountaineering

Humans have always co-existed with mountains, as ancient remains found in glaciers prove. But our interest in them may have been more spiritual or religiously motivated, rather than as a place to go to improve our health and wellbeing. In some cultures today, mountains are still considered to be the home of deities. So when did mountaineering become a popular pastime and how did the obsession with bagging summits start? Iszi Lawrence investigates our evolving relationship with the planet's highest peaks.Iszi is joined by Dawn Hollis, author of Mountains before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks before the Modern Age; Peter Hansen, Professor of History and Director of International and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US, and author of various books on mountaineering including The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment; and anthropologist and mountaineer Young Hoon Oh. The programme will also hear from blogger Andrew Szalay, otherwise known as the Suburban Mountaineer. And a range of Forum listeners from around the world contribute their personal experiences of mountains.Produced by Fiona Clampin for BBC World Service(Photo: Mountaineer with ice pick ascending Hintertux Glacier in Austria. Credit: David Trood/Getty Images)

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sports

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to: Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, visit https://genealogiesofmodernity.org/season-ii. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test case of mountain climbing and rock climbing. Claims to becoming modern through climbing often point back to Italian humanist Francesco Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336, a climb that made him, according to many historians, “the first modern man.” But Petrarch was by no means the first person to climb Mt Ventoux, and his own account is, if anything, counter-modern. By surveying evidence of much earlier climbing in Europe and pre-contact North America, the episode argues that humans have always been climbing mountains and scaling cliffs for a wide variety of reasons. Only recently did they start to think of these achievements as making themselves “modern.” It turns out that to claim to be modern is one of the most modern things you can do.  Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Ryan McDermott, Associate Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh Featured Scholars:  Shannon Arnold Boomgarden, Director of Range Creek Field Station, University of Utah Larry Coats, Career-line Associate Professor of Geography, University of Utah Peter Hansen, Professor of History, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Dawn Hollis, Independent Historian Special thanks to:  Jake Grefenstette, John-Paul Heil, Jason König, Michael Krom, Michael Puett Media and scholarship referenced: Hansen, Peter. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2013. Hollis, Dawn. “Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Genealogy of an Idea.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 26:4 (2019): 1038-61. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Two of my favorite subjects are Paul Butterfield, the blues harmonica master who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, as well as Mount Everest, the mountain I climbed for the first time after three attempts, dating back to 1999. Paul Butterfield was inducted into the Rock Hall after three attempts at getting him in. It was through my efforts and those of others in the production of a short documentary that helped Paul and his band gain acceptance. I returned to Everest this year and witnessed firsthand the madness that ensues when too many people try to climb it at the same time. My remarks and thoughts cover not only 2019, but also my experiences on Everest in 2014, during which time a massive avalanche took the lives of 16 sherpa. I successfully climbed Everest in 2016, and returned again to the north side with a crew from National Geographic. The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment by Peter H. Hansen can be found on Amazon and other major booksellers His panel discussion about the commercialization of Everest for the Boston Museum of Science called Tales From the Top can be found on YouTube. Music is from Paul Butterfield Revisited. The Everest section is by Lobo Loco, found on the free music archive. For more information please contact me at eyesopenproductions.com CORRECTION: Paul Butterfield Revisited band members Jimmy Eppard, Pete Levin and Jim Curtin are from Woodstock, New Yoirk, not Vermont as stated. Also, the film featuring Jim Geiger, who endeavored to become the oldest American to climb Mount Everest, is called Accidental Climber, not Mountaineer as stated.

Scholars have pointed to various historical ingredients they see as necessary for the development of modern sport: political changes that allowed people to form associations, the rise of competitive capitalism, an emphasis on calculation and measurement, the advance of secularization. But this attention to economic, social, and political factors has... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars have pointed to various historical ingredients they see as necessary for the development of modern sport: political changes that allowed people to form associations, the rise of competitive capitalism, an emphasis on calculation and measurement, the advance of secularization. But this attention to economic, social, and political factors has missed one important piece. For games to have become modern, participants first had to think like moderns. The peasant who had once celebrated seasonal festivals with some village game had to become an individual player–someone who wanted to beat his opponents, show off his prowess, and bask in the cheers. Historian Peter Hansen makes this point in his study of mountain climbing, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013). Prior to the 1700s, mountain peaks had been the preserve of gods and kings, while their crags and caves had been the hiding places of demons and spirits. Even the miners and shepherds who worked in the mountains for centuries did not climb to the summits. Why would they bother? According to Peter, the birth of the modern sport of mountaineering thus required a fundamental change in thinking. People had to look up at a peak and want to reach it, just for the sake of being at the top, and they had to think of themselves as able to do it. Peter’s book is a sweeping account of the history of mountain climbing and its connections to modern culture, from the first attempts to scale the Alps in the 18th century to mountaineering in the current age of climate change. He focuses on two episodes in that history: the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 by Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat, and the 1953 climb of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. As we learn in the interview, there are striking parallels between these two important chapters in mountaineering. Above all, both feats tap into our fascination with high places and the solitary climber at the top. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars have pointed to various historical ingredients they see as necessary for the development of modern sport: political changes that allowed people to form associations, the rise of competitive capitalism, an emphasis on calculation and measurement, the advance of secularization. But this attention to economic, social, and political factors has missed one important piece. For games to have become modern, participants first had to think like moderns. The peasant who had once celebrated seasonal festivals with some village game had to become an individual player–someone who wanted to beat his opponents, show off his prowess, and bask in the cheers. Historian Peter Hansen makes this point in his study of mountain climbing, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013). Prior to the 1700s, mountain peaks had been the preserve of gods and kings, while their crags and caves had been the hiding places of demons and spirits. Even the miners and shepherds who worked in the mountains for centuries did not climb to the summits. Why would they bother? According to Peter, the birth of the modern sport of mountaineering thus required a fundamental change in thinking. People had to look up at a peak and want to reach it, just for the sake of being at the top, and they had to think of themselves as able to do it. Peter’s book is a sweeping account of the history of mountain climbing and its connections to modern culture, from the first attempts to scale the Alps in the 18th century to mountaineering in the current age of climate change. He focuses on two episodes in that history: the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 by Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat, and the 1953 climb of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. As we learn in the interview, there are striking parallels between these two important chapters in mountaineering. Above all, both feats tap into our fascination with high places and the solitary climber at the top. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scholars have pointed to various historical ingredients they see as necessary for the development of modern sport: political changes that allowed people to form associations, the rise of competitive capitalism, an emphasis on calculation and measurement, the advance of secularization. But this attention to economic, social, and political factors has missed one important piece. For games to have become modern, participants first had to think like moderns. The peasant who had once celebrated seasonal festivals with some village game had to become an individual player–someone who wanted to beat his opponents, show off his prowess, and bask in the cheers. Historian Peter Hansen makes this point in his study of mountain climbing, The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 2013). Prior to the 1700s, mountain peaks had been the preserve of gods and kings, while their crags and caves had been the hiding places of demons and spirits. Even the miners and shepherds who worked in the mountains for centuries did not climb to the summits. Why would they bother? According to Peter, the birth of the modern sport of mountaineering thus required a fundamental change in thinking. People had to look up at a peak and want to reach it, just for the sake of being at the top, and they had to think of themselves as able to do it. Peter’s book is a sweeping account of the history of mountain climbing and its connections to modern culture, from the first attempts to scale the Alps in the 18th century to mountaineering in the current age of climate change. He focuses on two episodes in that history: the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786 by Michel-Gabriel Paccard and Jacques Balmat, and the 1953 climb of Mount Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. As we learn in the interview, there are striking parallels between these two important chapters in mountaineering. Above all, both feats tap into our fascination with high places and the solitary climber at the top. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Institute of Historical Research The summits of modern man: mountaineering after the Enlightenment Peter Hansen (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, USA) This seminar was followed by the launching of Peter Hansens's book 'The Summits of Modern M...