Climbing and Narcissism

There is this really good Radio West interview with David Roberts, author of On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined that can be found here. I found the interview really compeling and a very trenchant critique of climbing, climbing culture, and why people climb. He strikes on many troubles I have presently with climbing and cuts through many cliche notions people pass off, he argues, to cover up indulgence and narcissism. I'm not sure what I think of his entire thesis (I'm not going to go into everything that I think about it), but it certainly stimuliates thought.

-w