Unjustifiable Risk tells the fascinating history of UK Climbing through the last 200 years. The author, Simon Thompson, delves into the social, economic and cultural conditions that gave rise to the sport, as well as achievements and motives of those early pioneers.
To the impartial observer, Britain does not appear to have any mountains of any real significance. Yet the British invented the sport of mountain climbing, and for two periods in history, in the second half of the nineteenth century and for a shorter period in the second half of the twentieth century, they led the world.
Climbing has both reflected and influenced changing social attitudes to nature and beauty, heroism and death. Over the years, increasing wealth, leisure and mobility have gradually transformed the sport from an activity undertaken by an eccentric and privileged minority into a popular part of the leisure and tourist industry. But while much has changed, even more has remained the same. Today’s climbers would be instantly recognisable to their Victorian predecessors, with their desire to escape from the crowded complexity of urban life, and willingness to take potentially unjustifiable risks in pursuit of beauty, adventure and self-fulfilment.
Today's climbers share a desire to escape from urban society but what makes them take that unjustifiable risk?
This is the hardback edition of the book