Mountaineering is some sort of an adventure. It is also some form of physical activity. The adventure lies in facing all the troubles and risks and overcoming them for the joy of it.
Mountaineering is not a game; it can be called a sport. For games like football and hockey, there are man-made rules. But mountain climbing has rules of a different nature, and it is always dangerous to overlook them. The freedom from man-made rules makes mountaineering a pleasure to many who have a passion for it and a challenge to those who suffer cold and hardship while climbing. Mountaineers are free to use their own methods.
Weather is the most important factor governing the success of mountaineering. Other hazards can be overcome by correct equipment, and team work. Physical fitness and courage can make the conquest of mountains and Peaks a success. Above 8000 metres lack of oxygen is a detrimental factor; but since oxygen equipment is now light enough to carry, this difficulty can be overcome.
But unkind weather, changing rapidly from calm to storm, nullifies all these. Correct food, clothing and exercise protect the climber against cold but nothing can combat wind and snow.
Hazards ate there certainly in mountain climbing. But men and women with the passion for climbing forget them. The spirit of adventure inspires them. They respond to the ideal—”to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield”. With this ideal in mind, determined army men of Malaysia—conquered South East Asia’s highest peak, Mount Kinabalu.
Vocabulary
detrimental harmful
rapidly swiftly
