DEBUNKING THE MYTHS OF MOUNTAINEERING
Distant snow-capped mountain peaks captivate with their magnetizing presence and imposing stature. You yearn to advance from climbing at the local crag to pursuing snow-capped summits. You’ve convinced your friend to enroll in a crevasse rescue class and purchased an ice axe and pair of crampons in preparation for your first mountaineering expedition. But are you ready? Mountaineering attracts a unique group of adventurers: the ones who enjoy the grueling upward trudge weighted down by a heavy pack, unroped technical scrambling, traversing glaciers, and battling the nauseating effects of high altitude. But it’s not all torture, doom, and gloom: the scenic and physical rewards abound. The views from the summit, the feeling of ultimate accomplishment, and the phenomenon of defying gravity is worth every moment of the struggle — and this is what keeps drawing mountaineers back time and time again. With the staggering amount of information out there, it’s often hard to sort fact...