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Show 131, rorld with ideas about self." In another place, Mallory attempted an honest answer to the question. He was speaking about Mont Blanc, but the actual summit was unimportant: Have we vanquished an enemy? None but ourselves. Have we gained success? That word means nothing here. Have we won a kingdom? No . . . and yes. We have achieved the ultimate satisfaction . . . fulfilled a destiny. . . . To struggle and understand - never this last without the other; such is the law. . . . We've only been obeying an old law then? Ah! but it's the law. . . . The mountaineer did not conquer anything but himself; he only learned the law of life. Americans have rarely understood this view of the challenge of the wilderness. For us, mountaineering has always been a step toward dominion over Nature. Thus feminists sometimes assume that a rapist is like a climber. Terray's classic book on mountaineering was translated out of the French for British readers in a literal way as Conquistadors of the Useless but was marketed to Americans as Borders of the Impossible. In a society where mountaineering could not be accepted by the public as a religious pilgrimage, the only explanation which would make sense was that mountaineering was war, technical victory, or a crucible of character. While Muir was gone, his artist friends were sure that he had been lost on the mountain, and so he had been, though |