Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century

An interdisciplinary cultural history of exploration and mountaineering in the nineteenth century

European forays to mountain summits began in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the search for plants and minerals and the study of geology and glaciers. Yet scientists were soon captivated by the enterprise of climbing itself, enthralled with the views and the prospect of "conquering" alpine summits. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized the...