Abstract
In accounts of the many cultural representations of mountains, the disciplines of theatre and performance are almost always left off the list. One overt example of shared terminology is the phenomenon of ‘deep’ or ‘dark play’. This chapter will examine these misunderstandings, prioritizing a reading of anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s influential essay ‘Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight’ (Daedalus 10:1–37, 1972) and focusing on aspects of emotional intensity, of constructions of masculinity and of theatrical liveness. Once brought together with Richard Schechner’s notion of performative retelling, this section will be followed by a critical analysis of three cases of ‘moving mountain’ from the Alps—Mont Blanc, the Eiger, the Matterhorn—and a different technology: dioramas, telescopes and headcams.
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- 1.
BASE jumping is the sport of using a parachute to jump from fixed objects. ‘BASE’ is an acronym that stands for the four categories of objects from which one can jump; Building, Antenna, Span (the word used for a bridge) and Earth (the word used for a cliff). The term was coined by Carl (BASE #4) and Jean Boenish (BASE #3), Phil Smith (BASE #1) and Phil Mayfield (BASE #2), regarded as the forefathers of modern BASE jumping, and in 1981 Carl began issuing sequential numbers for those who completed a jump from each of the four categories of objects, should they choose to apply. http://www.basenumbers.org/
- 2.
Compare Ackermann’s citation of Alvarez with Geertz’s actual words: ‘Bentham’s concept of deep play is found in his Theory of Legislation. By it he means play in which the stakes are so high that it is, from his utilitarian standpoint, irrational for men to engage in it at all. If a man whose fortune is a 1000 pounds (or ringgits) wages, 500 of it on an even bet, the marginal utility of the pound he stands to win is clearly less than the marginal disutility of the one who stands to lose. In genuine deep play, this is the case for both parties’ (1972, 15).
- 3.
Annapurna’s fatality to summit ratio rate is 38%; K2’s is 23.2%. Source: http://www.nerverush.com/the-14-highest-peaks-in-the-world/
- 4.
‘Climbers have a rare ability to gamble the rest of their lives on one step, and for this they are both admired and sometimes regarded as vainly stupid. They take to the extreme the notion of Deep Play, whereby what they stand to win from their gamble can never be equaled by the enormity of what they will lose’ (Simpson 1997, 196).
- 5.
The other categories are ‘houses of horror’, ‘fields of fatality’, ‘tours of torment’ and ‘themed thanatos’, by which he means museum collections based on death and suffering (2009, 11).
- 6.
There is some dispute over the height of Mont Blanc (White Mountain) with a remeasuring happening every two years. It is possible to find heights for the mountain ranging from 4807 to 4810 metres. http://www.chamonix.net/english/news/mont-blanc-shrinks
- 7.
Sixty bottles of Vin Ordinaire, 6 of Bordeaux, 10 of St. George, 15 of St. Jean, 8 of cognac, 1 bottle of syrup of raspberries, 6 bottles of lemonade, 2 of champagne, 20 loaves, 10 small cheeses, 6 packets of chocolate, sugar, prunes, raisins and salt, 4 wax candles, 6 lemons, 4 legs and shoulders of mutton, 6 pieces of veal, 1 of beef, 11 large and 35 small fowls, spread amongst 16 guides (cf. Smith 1853, 154–5).
- 8.
There is a record of a farewell lecture dated Tuesday 6 July 1858 (in Brotherton Special Collections, Leeds), but Smith returned from travelling in China and downplayed the Mont Blanc content in favour of reportage of his travels further afield after the summer of 1858, performing right up until he died on 23 May 1860 (Fitzsimmons 1967, 185).
- 9.
Clearly, authenticity was not an essential criterion for Smith, as the village overlooked by Mont Blanc, from which Smith launched his ascent, is Chamonix not Grindelwald. Thanks are due to Dr Scott Palmer for pointing this out to me.
- 10.
There is insufficient space to deal with the complex and fascinating area of British mountaineering, colonialism and empire in this chapter, which reached its peak in the middle of the twentieth century and the coincidence of the first ascent of Everest and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Peter Hansen’s The Summits of Modern Man is an excellent beginning to reading around this subject and specifically Chapter Nine, pages 245–74.
- 11.
Most notably the deaths of Toni Kurz, Andreas Hinterstoisser, Willy Angerer and Edi Rainer (in 1936) and Max Sedlmayr and Karl Mehringer (in 1935).
- 12.
In the same vein, cf. Joe Tasker in the Savage Arena: describing another Eiger classic, The Climb up to Hell: ‘Rather than being deterred by the dangers. … The book provided an inspiration for my own first steps’ (Boardman and Tasker 1995, 18).
- 13.
Hotel Bellevue is the most famous and long-standing Kleine Scheidegg hotel, having held a position at the foot of the Eiger since 1840. http://scheidegg-hotels.ch/index1eng.php
- 14.
Mallory’s body was found by Conrad Anker on an expedition in 1999. Irvine’s body remains undiscovered.
- 15.
The Bellevue hotel is clearly aware of its international status as a viewing spot and centre for the climbing history of the Eigerwand enshrined in the Guardian’s review of 2010 posted on the site: ‘The Bellevue’s corridors heave with climbing lore and the ghosts of Eiger Alpinists, long lost’. http://scheidegg-hotels.ch/berichte/guardian2010.pdf
- 16.
The rope is still available for view at the Matterhorn Museum, Zermatt.
- 17.
Wingsuits have been commercially available since 1998 (Davis 2013, 278).
- 18.
- 19.
The film is located here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2IkI4QuCuM&feature=youtu.be
- 20.
My thanks are extended to Olya Petrakova for providing a translation for me.
- 21.
Brymer (2010) points to research done by Storry on extreme sports which counters this perspective—that in fact BASE jumping has a much lower fatality rate (1:2317) than motorbike riding (1:500) and evidences high levels of planning and organization on behalf of its practitioners (218).
- 22.
- 23.
Rozov’s Matterhorn jump has had 23,700 hits; his wingsuit leap from Everest has had 1.4 million hits (as of January 2016).
- 24.
Jeb Corliss explains the appeal of proximity flying in the Channel 4 documentary Daredevils: The Human Bird: ‘When I did the Christ Statue [in Rio de Janeiro] I was only close for a split second. When we get to Matterhorn, the entire flight down the ridge you are close to things.’
- 25.
Red Bull have built their brand on associations with high-risk sports, including Formula 1, snowboarding, BMX and wingsuiting.
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Pitches, J. (2018). Deep and Dark Play in the Alps: Daring Acts and Their Retelling. In: Kakalis, C., Goetsch, E. (eds) Mountains, Mobilities and Movement. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58635-3_2
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