The second half of the 19th and the early 20th century were marked by extremely significant changes in mountaineering, tourism and literature, changes which can be described metaphorically as the vanguard of 20th-century modernity. Of great importance to the development of both mountaineering and mountain tourism was the creation of associations bringing together tourists and mountaineers, mountain lovers. The associations focused mainly on promoting mountain tourism, making the mountains more accessible (building paths, trails, hostels) and trying to protect the mountains against the effects of human impact and other civilisational processes — economic, social and technological. The increasingly evident division into mountaineering (exploring the mountains by climbing them) and tourism, and the spread of this tourism in all mountain ranges in Europe made mountaineering aspecialised form of communing with the mountains, requiring special qualifications and equipment. At the same mountain tourism became amulti-layered phenomenon, as it encompassed, in addition to the “classic” tourism “with backpacks”, resort tourism involving walks, atype of tourism playing an important role in socialising and styles of behaviour, completely different from the models characteristic of tourism in the first half of the 19th century. This led to the emergence of characteristic styles of this tourism, which was becoming an important element of bourgeois popular culture, aprocess that immediately resonated in literature. In the second half of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century the substantial growth in the number of tourists arriving in mountain villages led to their rapid civilisational and economic development. However, the concept of building mountain railways that were to bring people closer to the most precious asset of the mountains — their intact primeval nature — was asimple extension of the sedentary lifestyle. The development of mountaineering consisted in traversing increasingly difficult routes. This involved not just the ordinary climbing of peaks, but traversing mountain walls. In 1880 and 1881, Albert Frederick Mummery, climbing Grands Charmoz (3,455 m) and Grépon (3,482 m), became the first man to traverse extremely difficult routes (Grade 5 in the Welzenbach scale). In 1884 Walter Parry Haskett Smith decided to traverse agrade 3 (difficult) route on his own and two years later he climbed the twenty-metre Lapes Needle in the Lake District, England, which gave rise to competitive climbing, adiscipline distinct from mountaineering. Mountaineers also produced literary works (Eugčne Rambert). The so-called “Alpine literature” (“la littérature alpestre”) encompassed, as its unique variety, par excellence Alpine literature providing an image of the mountains from the point of view of mountaineering and way of approaching mountaineering. Its leading exponents were Edward Whymper and Leslie Stephen; Albert Frederic Mummery (1855–1895) won considerable renown as the author of My climbs in the Alps and Caucasus (1895) as did Henry Russel-Killough (1834–1909) regarded as excellent writer and aman who made a great contribution to the exploration of the Pyrenees (Souvenirs d’un Montagnard, 1908). On the other hand, the ideological motivation of Polish mountaineering echoed with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Henri Bergson, introducing the subject of mountain climbing into highbrow literature.
The aim of the paper was to investigate health aspects of high altitude trekking such as preparation for the physical exertion during trekking at high altitude, the impact of mountaineering on the daily life before and after the expedition, the effect of high-mountain conditions on health and well-being. It was found that in the pre-departure period trekkers commonly train to ensure that they are physically fit for the expedition. They train alone or under the supervision of a trainer. Self-prepared workouts may turn out to be insufficient due to the lack of appropriate training plans. The most challenging aspects of high altitude trekking for the body include carrying too heavy equipment, dealing with illegibly marked routes, wearing inappropriate clothing, having an unbalanced diet, not having enough water, which can lead to dehydration and infections. Misconduct by other people poses a risk. The specific type of effort involved in mountaineering requires balanced nutrition in terms of both micro- and macro-elements. To find the right combination, one has to either experiment or seek advice from a dietitian. However, relatively few people consult a nutrition coach. Among sanitary problems, the most serious one is inappropriate human waste disposal, the resulting lack of drinkable water. Some of the observed problems result from insufficient regulations regarding the conduct in the mountains and from trekkers’ lack of awareness regarding good practices in such extreme conditions.
Background. The role of physical activity in the period of late adulthood is a subject increasingly undertaken in scientific discussion. Bearing in mind its influence on the quality of life, the authors attempted to answer the following questions: What are the possibilities for an active winter rest on the mountain routes in Poland? What energy effort accompanies mountaineering? Material and methods. The paper reports a case study analysing measurements taken with a pedometer type SW 700 in two people wandering in the mountains in years 2011–2016. The measurements were carried out on the hiking trails in the Tatra Mountains, the Silesian Beskids, the Żywiec Beskids, the Giant Mountains, the Pieniny, and the Jizera Mountains. Results and conclusions. The form of pedestrian hiking in the mountains in winter conditions is available for elderly tourists because of a wide range of routes and places to choose. Mountain hiking trails can be visited in winter – except for some routes in the Tatra and Giant Mountains because of the danger of avalanches.
Review: Anna Niepytalska-Osiecka, Socjolekt polskich alpinistów. Analiza leksykalnosemantyczna słownictwa, Wydawnictwo LIBRON – Filip Lohner, Kraków 2014, 286 pp.The article is a review of Anna Niepytalska-Osiecka’s book Socjolekt polskich alpinistów. Analiza leksykalno-semantyczna słownictwa (The sociolect of Polish mountaineers. A lexical and semantic analysis of the vocabulary). First, the text summarizes the subject matter of this monograph, devoted to a hitherto undescribed variety of the Polish language. It then goes on to characterize the composition of the book and its methodology. Finally, some problematic points are indicated – concerning, among other things, the classification of the language variety analyzed or the development of its vocabulary – and alternative lexical and semantic solutions are suggested. Rec.: Anna Niepytalska-Osiecka, Socjolekt polskich alpinistów. Analiza leksykalno-semantyczna słownictwa, Wydawnictwo LIBRON – Filip Lohner, Kraków 2014, ss. 286Artykuł stanowi recenzję książki Anny Niepytalskiej-Osieckiej pt. Socjolekt polskich alpinistów. Analiza leksykalno-semantyczna słownictwa. W tekście przybliżono zawartą w monografii problematykę poświęconą nieopisanemu dotychczas wariantowi polszczyzny oraz scharakteryzowano zastosowane rozwiązania kompozycyjne i analityczne. Wskazano również punkty dyskusyjne dotyczące m.in. klasyfikacji opisywanego wariantu polszczyzny czy procesu kształtowania się jego zasobu słownego, a także zasugerowano alternatywne rozstrzygnięcia leksykalno-semantyczne.
Several scales were used to assess the levels of coping with stress and pain of 97 Polish hard adventure mountain athletes (Mage = 30.50, SD = 9.45), who climb in winter using mountain ice axes, harnesses, hooks or ropes in high mountains, and 103 Polish soft adventure mountain athletes who summer hike in low mountains (Mage = 28.30, SD = 6.50). The results indicated significant differences between soft and hard adventure climbers in the ways climbers react to stress. The hard adventure climbing group had significantly higher means on the Preventive Coping, Proactive Coping, Task-Oriented Coping, Diverting Attention, Reinterpretation of Pain, Ignoring Pain, Coping Self-Statements and Behavioural Strategies than the soft adventure mountain athletes, but lower means on Emotion-Oriented Coping, Catastrophising and Praying/Hoping compared to the soft mountain athletes group. This study also examined the factor structure of the coping scales in the climbers’ samples. The results suggested that the coping scales contain the following three factors: Passive-Oriented Coping, Future-Oriented Coping and Appraisal-Oriented Coping. The extracted factors discriminate between soft and hard adventure mountain athletes. The hard adventure mountain athletes had significantly higher means on the Future-Oriented Coping and the Appraisal- Oriented Coping, and a lower mean on Passive-Oriented Coping than the soft mountain athletes group.
The impact of mountain ecosystems on the modern man can appear as a source of satisfaction, self-expression and self-realization. A heterogeneity of tourism activity character (i.e. form and content) is desirable because it is a result of individual values, needs and tourism motives. As needs result form a particular system of values, active physical behaviour may be a response to the realization of the values. The lifestyle of an individual is shaped by these values and around them. The awareness and internalization of values allow to discover opportunities unknown before and stimulate activity in a certain direction. The theoretical basis of this paper is the classification and systematization of values introduced by Max Scheler. The following types of values are included: aesthetic, cognitive, vital, utilitarian, hedonistic, recreational, social. Max Scheler’s idea is complemented by Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The aim of the work is to identify the specific nature of mountain tourism in socio-cultural terms and to systematize the accompanying values, on the basis of literature and the authors’ own experience.
Background. Lower Silesia is an unique region because of the relief and other features that promote the mountaineering. Using the wealth of mountains chains and directing them towards the tourism and recreation can affect the economic development of the whole province. For this purpose e. g. the tourist field managing strategies were created for all regions of Lower Silesia. For mountaineering the most important are: Karkonosze Mountains, Izery Mountains, Ślęża Mountain, Sowia Mountain Subregion, Kaczawy Foothills, Wałbrzych Area Sudety. There is an emphasis in the strategic models to obtain the so-called ‘local’ tourists from Wroclaw Agglomeration. Material and methods. There were the questions put in the research that concerned Wroclaw inhabitants’ interest in mountaineering and in their activity in Lower Silesian mountains. There were some questions checking the knowledge concerning wealthy of mountains in Lower Silesia. People in age 18–30, registered in Wroclaw were the respondents. For this research the questionnaire was used and conducted directly in four contact places in Wroclaw. Conclusions. The research results let point that it is necessary for enhancement promotion activities included in regional strategies to direct young people activity towards the values connected with physical culture in the mountains environment. A young Lower Silesia capital city inhabitant is not interested in the regional tourist product. Only 8% of the examined cultivates the mountaineering but not in Lower Silesia mountain chains. The lack of interest in mountains is connected with the low level knowledge of the rich qualities of Lower Silesia. The obligate changes must be done in a youth hierarchy of value and creating it by e.g. Lower Silesian mountaineering ‘style’.
The mountains, especially the Tatras, occupy a special place in Jerzy Żuławski’s life. As a place where one can escape from the noise and chaos of the civilised world, they become important as one of the most influential spaces shaping the creative personality of the mountaineering writer. The article is an attempt to examine the author of Trylogia Księżycowa (The Lunar Trilogy) from the perspective of a mountain hiker’s experiences. The present author analyses both memoirs and journals— which reveal to the readers a lesser known side of Żuławski, an experienced mountaineer, one of the co-founders of the Tatra Volunteer Search and Rescue and activist in Zakopane — and literary works, especially his lyrics, which reveal the writer’s wandering predilections and record his authentic experiences of mountain spaces. What emerges from these writings is a symbolic image of the mountains as an area of freedom (also political freedom), a place where God’s creative power is revealed, finally — a place of physical and mental liberation, requiring as much courage and fortitude as humility in confrontation with the primeval forces of nature. The author of the article, pointing to intertextual references and traces of literary and philosophical tradition (influence of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Spinozian pantheism, Romantic images), seeks to demonstrate the individuality of the writer, for whom the ultimate reference in his Tatra oeuvre is always an authentic experience of wandering.
The aim of this thesis is to look back at the history of the Mountain Service and to introduce the readers of the article to the history of Mountain Service in the Czech Republic, which dates back to the period of the First Republic, that is around 1930. At that time there was a great development of community life in European countries and the same holds true for the Czech Republic. The development of tourism, mountain climbing and skiing resulted in a higher number of people coming to the mountain areas where they could enjoy their new hobby and share the delights of nature. It resulted in first injuries and distress caused partially by people´s lack of knowledge of the terrain, partially by weather instability and also by insufficient technical equipment and tools. The first rescue teams recruited from native inhabitants who knew the local terrain and mountain areas. The first participants in the rescue activities, who were only insufficiently technically equipped, were woodworkers, postmen, Slalom and Wintersportvereine ski schools instructors, firemen, as well as gendarmes. The increase in accidents and events needing help took place in winter 1934/35. During the first two weekends in February six people died on the ridges of the Giant Mountains. After these events the Provincial Office in Prague initiated the establishment of Mountain Service with the help of District Office in Vrchlabí and the District Governor JUDr. Vladimír Záboj Vaina. The District Office proceeded to the establishment of the Mountain Rescue Service.
PL
Celem tej pracy jest spojrzenie na historię Górskich Służb Ratunkowych w Czechach, której początki sięgają 1930 roku – czasów pierwszej Republiki Czeskiej. Wtedy nastąpił rozwój życia społecznego, turystyki, turystyki wysokogórskiej oraz narciarstwa. Społeczeństwo zaczęło wyjeżdżać w rejony górskie w celu spędzenia wolnego czasu, oddawaniu się swojemu hobby i podziwianiu piękna otaczającej natury. Z tego wyniknęły pierwsze urazy spowodowane między innymi nieznajomością terenu, niestabilnością warunków pogodowych, a także brakiem odpowiedniego sprzętu i narzędzi. Pierwsze grupy ratunkowe tworzyły głównie osoby zamieszkujące dane tereny ponieważ znały dany obszar oraz topografię terenu, dlatego pierwszymi uczestnikami wypraw ratunkowych byli cieśle, listonosze, instruktorzy szkółki narciarskiej Slalom i Wintersportvereine, strażacy oraz członkowie żandarmerii. Wzrost wypadków i wezwań pomocy nastąpił zimą na przełomie lat 1934/35. Podczas dwóch pierwszych tygodni lutego w Karkonoszach zginęło sześć osób. Po tych tragicznych wydarzeniach praski ratusz oraz gubernator obwodu Vrchlabi – sędzia Vladimir Zaboj Vain – zdecydował o utworzeniu Górskiej Służby Ratunkowej.
The article is concerned with the writings of the Polish mountaineer, Tadeusz Piotrowski. The author considers the relationship between the experiences of vertical space, plot and subjectivity. He analyses Piotrowski’s writing, in an attempt at identifying characteristic elements of the climber’s discourse in the context of sincerity and autobiographical narrative. Tadeusz Piotrowski’s story is defined by modernity, accumulating in ‘the Self ’ the subsequent paradoxes resulting from contradictions within key concepts of truth, authenticity and sincerity. The climber’s discourse tries to reconcile the desire to repeat the vertical movement within textual representation, and the idiomatic expression of the subject. The text exposes the paradoxical status of the autobiography situated beyond truth and falsehood, while, at the same time, remaining the most effective tool for communicating mountaineering experiences.
This article discusses the motifs of mountains and mountaineering in Zygmunt Haupt’s selected texts. The author analyzes how mountain spaces and experiences related to mountains are described, and also reflects on the scale of mountaineering fascinations. He examines whether inspirations suggested by Haupt may be used to reconstruct his hypothetical influences, thus proving that Haupt had a very good knowledge of professional articles and books on mountaineering. The article further demonstrates how Haupt combines the theme of mountains and the related new cultural practices, primarily climbing and mountaineering, with reflection on the processes which constitute modernity.
PL
Artykuł dotyczy wątków górskich i alpinistycznych w wybranych tekstach Zygmunta Haupta. Autor analizuje sposoby opisywania przestrzeni górskich i doświadczeń związanych z górami, a także rozważa skalę zainteresowania alpinizmem. Rozpatruje, czy podsuwane przez Haupta inspiracje mogą posłużyć za podstawę rekonstrukcji hipotetycznych wpływów i potwierdzać skalę znajomości fachowego piśmiennictwa góroznawczego. Przedstawia, w jaki sposób włączanie gór i związanych z nimi nowych praktyk kulturowych, przede wszystkim wspinaczki i alpinizmu, w obszar eksplorowanych przez Haupta tematów i problemów łączyło się z refleksją pisarza odnośnie do procesów fundujących nowoczesność.
W artykule podejmuję problematykę emocji przeżywanych przez wspinaczy w trakcie prowadzonej przez nich działalności górskiej i wspinaczkowej. Chodzi o emocje rozpatrywane nie jako cecha osobnicza lub indywidualna skłonność do przeżywania stanów określonego rodzaju, ale o konkretne doznania emocjonalne doświadczane w trakcie podejmowania działania wspinaczkowego. Przedmiotem rozważań są więc emocje, które nieodłącznie temu działaniu towarzyszą, które je zasadniczo określają, wpływając na jego efekt i stanowiąc jedno z ważnych uwarunkowań działania. Dokonuję przeglądu emocji doznawanych przez uczestników sytuacji wspinania, by następnie skoncentrować się na szczególnych emocjach – strachu i lęku – powiązanych bezpośrednio z działaniem wspinaczkowym. Omawiam przeżywany przez wspinających się lęk wysokości, strach przed odpadaniem od skały i przed „lataniem” oraz sposoby ich opanowywania. Nawiązuję także do wartościowanych pozytywnie w środowisku wspinaczkowym cech wspinacza określanych jako „mocna psycha”. Przywołuję również powtarzające się w zebranych materiałach motywy działalności górskiej i wspinaczkowej odwołujące się wyraźnie do emocji. Następnie odwołuję się do realnych zagrożeń fizycznych, które napotykają wspinacze w przestrzeni swojego działania – w górach, w skałkach – i rozważam ich wpływ na stan emocjonalny działających. Przedstawiam także problem tak zwanych „przeszkadzających emocji”, utrudniających prowadzenie aktywności górskiej, traktując jednocześnie sposób radzenia sobie z nimi jako wskaźnik „dojrzewania do bycia w górach” i kształtowania się tożsamości wspinacza. Opisuję taką emocjonalną przemianę na przykładzie analizy dzienników polskiego himalaisty Piotra Morawskiego (1976–2009). Pracę nad emocjami traktuję jako ważny aspekt kształtowania tożsamości wspinaczy i jako stały element aktywności górskiej i wspinaczkowej.
EN
In the article I rise the problem of emotions experienced by climbers in the situation of climbing and mountaineering. I consider emotions not as an individual feature or tendency to experience some emotional states but as particular sensations experienced during climbing activity. The subject of my interest are emotions that inseparably accompany climbing action, substantially determine this action. These emotions affect the results of climbing activity and remain one of the most important conditions of it. I try to review emotions experienced by participants of climbing situation, and then, I concentrate on particular emotions – anxiety and fear – directly connected with climbing activity. I discuss fear of heights, fear of coming off the wall and fear of “flights,” and the ways of getting control over them. In the climbing world “strong psyche” is perceived as a positive feature of participant. I present motives of climbing activity appealing distinctly to the emotions and discuss impact of real physical threats encountered by climbers in the rock and mountain areas during climbing activity. Bringing up the problem of unwanted and “disturbing emotions” that hamper conducting actions and make climbing more difficult, simultaneously, I treat those emotions as an “indicator” of “getting mature” and becoming a mountaineer. The processes of forming climber’s identity and his/her emotional grow are discussed on the base of diary analysis of Polish mountaineer Piotr Morawski (1976-2009). I treat the process of working on emotions as important aspect of climbers’ identity shaping and essential aspect of climbing and mountaineering activity.
The article raises the topic of the relation between female roles and sports roles on the example of the collectivity of women who professionally do sports that are commonly associated rather with masculinity than with femininity: mountaineering, skimountaineering and adventure racing. Traditionally, and to some extent also nowadays, professional sport is connected with male roles. Many autors claim that demands of sports are incompatible with demands of socially defined female roles. As a result female athletes face the role conflict which is exceptionally strong in disciplines which maintained their “male” character until now. The aim of the research described in this article was to show the issue of conflict or cohesion between femininity and professional sport from the perspective of women active in “male” sports mentioned above. The research was based on the methodology of grounded theory. As a result author intended to show the topic “from inside”, referring to the humanistic factor and showing the complexity of the problem. Various types of material were used in the research: opinions of female athletes themselves, referringo to whether it is possible to accomodate being a woman and alpinist, skialpinist or adventure racer, and, on the other side, their own biographies and personal experiences referring to this issue.
PL
Artykuł podejmuje problematykę relacji pomiędzy rolami kobiecymi a rolami sportowymi na przykładzie zbiorowości kobiet, uprawiających wyczynowo dyscypliny, kojarzone w społeczeństwie raczej z męskością niż z kobiecością: wspinaczkę wysokogórską, narciarstwo wysokogórskie (skialpinizm) oraz ekstremalne rajdy przygodowe (Adventure Racing, AR). Sport wyczynowy tradycyjnie, a w pewnym wymiarze także współcześnie, związany jest z rolami męskimi. Zdaniem wielu autorów jego wymagania nie dają się pogodzić z wymogami, formułowanymi przez społeczeństwo wobec kobiet, stawiając sportsmenki w sytuacji konfliktu ról, zaś problem ten szczególnie wyrazisty jest w tych dyscyplinach, które do dziś zachowały swój "męski" charakter. Przedstawione tu badanie miało na celu ukazanie kwestii konfliktu bądź spójności pomiędzy kobiecością a sportem wyczynowym z perspektywy samych kobiet, zaangażowanych w omawiane tu "męskie" dyscypliny.
On 6 October 1929 two teenagers from Zakopane, the sisters Lida and Marzena Skotnicówna, died tragically while trying to traverse the southern face of Zamarła Turnia. The accident became a permanent part of the history of mountaineering in the Tatras, especially of women’s mountaineering. It became an inspiration for many writers and journalists, who “immortalised” the Skotnicówna sisters, making them protagonists of poems and novels, but also expressing judgements on the legitimacy of women’s mountain climbing. The author of the article explores works commemorating and sometimes even mythologising the sisters. Her aim is, first of all, to illustrate the role of women’s expansion in mountaineering in the interwar period, expansion which — since it is still alive through the memory of its heroines — must have been significant; and to demonstrate various ways of writing not only about the Skotnicówna sisters as human beings, women, climbers, but also as female pioneers of mountaineering or even a phenomenon. The author’s method is based on a comparison of various literary and journalistic works and hermeneutical interpretation in a historical and social context, using the tools of geocriticism.
Although the GDR did not have its own high mountains, it did have an informal community of climbers, of about 1,000 enthusiasts, who despite numerous obstacles managed to go on expeditions to high mountains of the Eastern Bloc. They could not count on any support of the state, because mountaineering is not a kind of sport in which international success can be achieved all the time and because the GDR, unlike e.g. the Soviet Union, could not expect any military benefits from it. The climbers found it especially hard to obtain permission to travel, to go to the mountains on their own, to acquire appropriate equipment and train in preparation for the difficulties awaiting them in high mountains. Only thanks to their extraordinary enthusiasm, organisational creativity and technical skills were they able to overcome obstacles like obtaining invitations from the Soviet Union, casual jobs and making their own equipment in order to be able to reach high mountains. From the late 1970s the climbing community began to experience a revival thanks to a new “hippie generation”. Young people reached the USSR thanks to the so-called “transit visas”, which is why they were described as “transit travellers”. Often they would then travel for weeks or even months “unrecognised through their beloved country”. During these “incognito travels” they had to avoid police patrols and when they were stopped, they had to have good excuses. Despite their illegality, the transit travellers were able to travel across the entire USSR. Their extraordinarily modest way of travelling, often hitch-hiking or walking, meant that they had closer contact with people living in the Soviet Union than was provided for in the German–Soviet friendship, used for propaganda purposes, and could formulate their own opinion on the reality of the “Big Brother”. Through their experiences the climbers managed to distance themselves from the official socialist discourse in the GDR. With their views crossing state borders the climbers could be treated as the vanguard of mass escapes through Eastern European third countries, like e.g. Hungary, which began the collapse of the GDR in 1989.
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