Word: annapurna
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...many respects the ascent of Annapurna was not the first of its kind. All-female teams have climbed mountains before; leader Blum was deputy of a 1971 Mt. McKinley expedition. And a few have climbed in the Himalayas. What makes the Annapurna expedition unique, and what Blum emphasizes, is that for the first time women organized on their...
...indeed the Annapurna expedition should receive attention. The members deserve admiration, but they deserve it more for being mountain climbers than for being female mountain climbers...
...their purpose was to establish equality between men and women, 'integrated' climbing makes much more sense than the 'separate but equal' attitude the Annapurna expedition represents. The men who would climb with women would be, in all likelihood, the last people to treat women as inferiors. Hooked up to the same 'lifeline' as the women during the climb, the men wouldn't entrust their lives to those less capable. On the other hand, if male climbers really do believe their female colleagues to be less qualified, climbing without men won't help no matter how well the women climb. Obviously...
Mountain climbing pits the individual against the mountain, not you-the-man or you-the-woman but simply you the individual. By setting themselves apart, the Annapurna team typed themselves as you-the-woman climbers. And by going alone they only succeeded in defeating their own purpose...
MOUNTAINS are impervious and brutal without bias. They don't know who "conquers" them, not can they care. Which isn't to say that we shouldn't. On the contrary, mountain climbers deserve all the respect we can muster. The women who climbed Annapurna accomplished the incredible, not because they were women but because they were excellent mountaineers. After all, Annapurna isn't just another New England foothill...