I have followed with interest your series of articles about Leo Houlding’s exploits in Greenland, and was pleased to see the summit picture (Gazette, August 6, ‘Leo team’s death-defying climb’).
However, I must implore your team to avoid words such as ‘conquest’ in this context. The vast majority of climbers, including I suspect Leo and his team, would deplore this usage.
We don’t see mountains and crags as our enemy to be defeated and the use of such warlike vocabulary only serves to demean the objects of our desire. If Leo has defeated anything it is probably fears within himself.
Rather, climbing is more like a seduction. If I might presume to guess, Leo is probably thinking something along the lines of “Well, we got away with it (and our lives) but next time she may not be so co-operative.”
Mountains are never defeated or conquered. They are indifferent to our attentions and are not demeaned in the slightest by our ascent.
They remain undefiled, although the amount of climbers’ junk to be found on Everest might cast doubt on this statement.
Roger Wilkinson
Leasgill
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