Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- CHAPTER ONE Beginnings -- CHAPTER TWO Discovery of the Glacières -- CHAPTER THREE Ascent and Enfranchisement -- CHAPTER FOUR Who Was First? -- CHAPTER FIVE Temple of Nature -- CHAPTER SIX Social Climbers -- CHAPTER SEVEN Age of Conquest -- CHAPTER EIGHT History Detectives -- CHAPTER NINE Almost Together -- CHAPTER TEN Bodies of Ice -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index
Summary
Mountaineering has served as a metaphor for civilization triumphant. A fascinating study of the first ascents of the major Alpine peaks and Mt. Everest, The Summits of Modern Man reveals the significance of our encounters with the world's most forbidding heights and how difficult it is to imagine nature in terms other than conquest and domination
