Dingus Milktoast wrote:I recently obtained a copy of James Ramsey Ullman's High Conquest. He wrote it to capture the 'state of the art' in mountaineering, what was going on, round the world.
It was published in 1941, as war again raged on the European continent and the Alps were the back drop to global conflict.
Pretty weird, to think of a mountaineering book being published during WWII, huh?
Anyway, the lead off to chapter two, written 70 years ago, contains this gem, directly applicable to this thread. I shall type it word for word.... as age has not diminished these words at all.
It goes like this:
(Chapter) 2
A Sport is Born
The Winning of the Alps
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Alps.....1. A range of mountains in Europe
...........2. Any large range of mountains
Alp.......1. Any mountain in the Alps
...........2. An upland meadow or pasture
...........3. Any mountain
Alpine..1. Pertaining to the Alps
...........2. Pertaining to any mountain
Alpinist.1. A climber of the Alps
...........2 A climber
____________________
So you see, 70 years ago the debate raged!!!1111 For 70 years alpinists and mountaineers have slaughtered one another on the field of debate, a Great Quibbling if you will.
Not 'why do you climb?' No. More to the heart -
Are you a .... real... climber?
Hah!
DMT
Actually there were a lot of climbing books published in WW2 - I´ve got a number published in Germany during the war. One is a translation of a book by the French alpinist G.R. Blanchet with an introduction by General Charles Granville Bruce (of British Everest fame no less) translated into German and published in 1943! That surprised me.