An Irishman’s Diary in the Irish Times Mon Feb 4. By Brendan Glacken, who has the courage to say exactly what I have been thinking for quite a while; am fascinated by people who feel the need to invent extreme physical challenges for themselves. All for char-i-dee, of course, which means they can go to Big Business looking for financial backing and then start bothering journalists so that they will give them publicity. Sorry lads (because it is usually lads) I really have heard it all before.
“What is hard to understand, then, is the aggressive language used by mountaineers and other so-called self-styled adventurers – terms such as “conquering” and “final assault” as they psych themselves upwards or onwards against harmless, peaceful, law-abiding natural phenomena (“because they are there”).
Like Woody Allen, I am “two with nature”, so perhaps I cannot understand this macho culture. Certainly, the title of the recent South Pole expedition, “Beyond Endurance”, was quite ludicrous, dreamed up as it was no doubt in the comfort of home. And after all, any “endurance” would be self-inflicted. Masochism, then. So where is the heroism? Anyway, the trip was more like “Beyond Strolling”, given that it benefited from lovely weather and balmy conditions, oodles of provisions and full back-up support. There was film footage of members in their shirt-sleeves. And the route is entirely flat. Endurance? More like the Wicklow Way in the Antarctic. Had the expedition members arrived back a little earlier, they might have considered making an assault on the post-Christmas sales, perhaps on the Northside col – sorry, shopping centre. That would certainly be endurance. As for their free trip home by private jet, they might well have called it “Beyond Indulgence”.
“Nevertheless, most self-styled adventurers appear to be mild-mannered people, though they indulge their infamous obsession with imaginary lines or poles, favour unnatural fibres and despise cotton…”
No comments yet.