UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Mountaineering is a popular sport and leisure activity participated by people at all levels. It involves hiking, trekking and climbing on rock or ice with the ultimate challenge of reaching the summit of the mountain. The sport of mountaineering requires climbers to not only possess physical tenacity but also mental resilience in order to overcome the challenging task of climbing to the top of the mountains. Mountain climbing is considered a high risk sport in that the apparent danger of injury or even possibility of death is high. Mountaineers often suffer weakness, breathlessness, and retardation of thoughts and actions at an altitude of over 5485 meters. Beyond 8000 meters, mountaineers will be exposed to environmental conditions such as avalanches and extreme weather conditions. The highest mountain in the world, Mount Everest standing at 8848m, was discovered in the 1847. Typically, it takes mountaineers an average of two months which includes resting, acclimatization and waiting for good weather to climb to the summit of Mount Everest. The first men, who climbed to the summit of Mount Everest, were Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and the first woman to reach the summit after surviving from an avalanche attack was Japanese mountaineer, Junko Tabei in 1975 (Deegan, 2003). Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler, conquered the mountain without oxygen supply in 1978 (Deegan, 2003). This feat is considered dangerous because when the body is deprived of oxygen, there is likelihood for the person to suffer from brain damage. British mountaineer, Alison Hargreves repeated this feat in 1995, solo and without oxygen supply (Deegan, 2003).