NEW ORDER - One Day as a Tiger - page 73

er crystals, like Balmat. Latterly 'mountaineering' has become the more commonly
used term but the spirit of that first ascent of Mont Blanc has been continued in
the concept of 'alpine style': facing an unknown challenge and climbing it from
bottom to top and back in one push, with only what you carry to keep you alive.
The high-risk activity of mountaineering today is often described as 'a pastime'
and mountains as 'playgrounds.' It does seem that is what they have become, at
least in the popular imagination. In an average season, over 20,000 people a year
climb Mont Blanc. Mountains have become places to set records and gain personal
fame. A plane landed on the summit of Mont Blanc in 1960, and a helicopter on
the summit of Everest in 2006. On 11 July 2013, the fastest overall time for ascent
and descent from Chamonix was set at a fraction under five hours. We pay less at-
tention to the climbing fatalities in this 'playground' of Mont Blanc, but the death
toll has exceeded thirty in a single month (July 2007) and if all adventure sports
including skiing, parapenting, BASE jumping and wingsuit flying are taken into
account, over a hundred die each year in the Chamonix valley. The mountains re-
main a dangerous place to play.
During the course of the twentieth century, the so-called 'Greater Ranges', the
Himalaya and Andes, became the new Alps. As with early Alpine ascents, those of
the world's highest mountains were described as 'conquests.' Nations competed to
be first in placing their flags on notable summits. [1] But the mountains are also a
place for individual exhilaration, adventure and self-discovery. The best mountain-
eering literature testifies to the fact that most climbers see 'conquest' as a word
that applies only to managing your own fears and limitations. That attitude comes
through in the wonderful understatement of Alex's two articles published later in
this topic.
In the summer of 1975, Alex carried on in the Alps where he had left off in the
previous winter, perfecting his new ice-climbing skills and working hard and de-
terminedly on rock.
By any standards, he had a truly exceptional Alpine season. Even getting to the
Alps showed Alex was in luck that year. We had only one roadworthy van between
us. Straws were drawn to see who would have to travel out by other means. Alex
was one of those who failed to win a place in the van. On the morning we left, we
crammed Alex and his bulging rucksack into the van and took him as far as the be-
ginning of the M1 south of Leeds to begin his long hitchhike to Chamonix. We
wished him good luck. It was a slow journey out that year with a number of essen-
tial roadside repairs on the van and we reached Chamonix twenty-four hours after
leaving Leeds. [2] We pitched our tents in Snell's Field, cooked a meal and then