Performance or Pretenders?

They make the summit, not the style, the yardstick of success

Small teams, intent on making things harder, not easier, are out there, active, and doing extraordinary climbs but they are cloaked behind the broadcasts about reaching the summit by any means, and fitting it in to a time-crunched schedule.

After circling back toward the mountains in early-2013 (mostly in the context of ski mountaineering) my renewed interest brought me face-to-face with a few ideas I found inspiring and many of the same old things that turned me sour in the first place. Shortly after I originally wrote the "Cheaters" essay I let a friend post it to his climbing-specific blog. Its overt thesis is that using supplemental O2 at high altitude is doping. The underlying albeit obvious theme examines how a culture of cheating changes our perception of human potential, "If we greet every great performance with suspicion what becomes of its potential to inspire?" The article made the rounds in the climbing community and a rather large number of commentators did their thing. I was appalled that the majority missed what I considered the true point: that cheating — I know this is not le mot juste regarding a sport and activity for which there are no rules but it does convey the idea I am trying to illustrate — and our jaded reaction to it changes the effect of what would otherwise be limit-shattering achievements that genuinely inspire, and open up human potential.