Using Autobiographies for a Sociology of Mountaineering

Since the beginning of mountaineering, mountaineers have produced a vast literary canon. Amongst these texts, autobiographies hold a special place: although they are much more common in mountaineering than perhaps in any other sport, they appeared much later than the first mountaineering accounts of ascents and expeditions, which have been available at least since the 1840s. This article addresses two questions. First, why have mountaineers written so many autobiographies, but only since the 1920s? And second, is this material relevant if we want to carry out a valid sociological analysis of mountaineering, and more particularly of excellence in mountaineering? The article shows that autobiographies present relevant, even ideal material for a sociological study of excellence in mountaineering. Indeed, they are characterized by a discourse of excellence produced by an elite (both sporting and, to a certain extent, social elite), a discourse that can tell us a lot about the so-called spirit of mountaineering.