Lifestyle climbing: Toward existential authenticity

Among the rock climbing community exists a subculture of highly dedicated individuals who give up permanent residences for the full-time pursuit of this sport. In doing so, these lifestyle climbers maintain hypermobile and minimalist modes of living as their commitment spans years and decades. This article employs the concept of existential authenticity developed in tourism studies to examine some findings of an ethnographic study of this subculture. As they speak about the bodily practice and flow of climbing, the liminality of travel, life in the outdoors, the camaraderie of fellow lifestyle climbers, and the (re)discovery of a sense of self, it is argued that authenticity is performative. Yet, while a passion for climbing is the primary motivation for taking up this lifestyle, moments of existential authenticity are the result of experiences, challenges, and accomplishments of travel. As such, lifestyle climbing, which is inspired by the bodily practice of rock climbing, framed by frequent travel, and enacted within community necessitates a performance-based authenticity as an analytic.