Women and Excellence in Mountaineering from the Nineteenth Century to the Present

Mountaineering is a valuable field of study for carrying out a sociology of excellence. A socially elitist activity since its inception, mountaineering was initially codified by a small social and masculine elite in the United Kingdom as a form of excellence that combined three forms of distinction: sporting, social, and sexual. Focusing on the third dimension of this distinction raises important questions about the relationship between women and excellence in mountaineering since its institutionalization in the middle of the nineteenth century, primarily in the United Kingdom and secondarily in France. Because it was codified, thought out, and told mainly by men, excellence in mountaineering has always been understood, conceived, and perceived as male. Faced with a model of excellence that leaves little room for them, high-level women climbers, still a minority today, have developed over time various responses to find their place in this essentially male – and sometimes hostile – environment.