(Troubling) spaces of mountains and men

New Zealand's Mount Cook and Hermitage Lodge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4773774
AutoresKaren M Morin (0009-0009-9850-9801), Robyn Longhurst (0000-0001-9192-0643), Lesley Johnston (0000-0001-7686-9181)
Año2001
Volumen2
Número2
Páginas117-139
Fecha de publicación2001-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649360120047779
OpenAlexW1978950789
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas48
Referencias citadas16

In this paper we trace one pervasive expression of hegemonic New Zealand national identity that developed around the sport of mountaineering from the 1880s, culminating in Sir Edmund Hillary's historic first climb of Mount Everest in 1953. The image of the masculine mountaineering hero, developed on and around New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook, is, however, inherently unstable, and we focus on two sites of potential disruption. First, we examine the experiences of white mountaineering women on Mount Cook. These women both embraced the masculinist identity of hero and destabilized it. Women's mountaineering points to the active and complex construction (rather than simple reproduction) of imperialisms, nationalisms and masculinities. Second, we examine the role played by the Hermitage Lodge situated at the base of Mount Cook. Narratives about mountaineering too often ignore the huts, lodges, the places of staying behind. The roles performed by women (and some men) who never had the opportunity and/or the desire to climb but instead 'kept the home fires burning' and supported the efforts of others can be examined as a way of productively challenging the entrenchment of national identity around the masculine mountaineering hero

Adventure · Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Climbing · Ethnology · HERO · Identity (music · Mount · Mountaineering · Narrative · Sociology · Adventure Sports and Sensation Seeking · Engineering · Gender Studies · History · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society