Reading time: 2 minutes – Spotted on The New York Times
Little by little, women are more visible in a sport traditionally dominated by men, mountaineering. Last year, for example, 62 women summited Everest, representing about 10 percent of climbers of the world’s highest mountain. According to the Himalayan database, there were 45 in 2013, and only 10 in 2003.
This development is accompanied by another phenomenon: in all disciplines, from indoor bouldering to high mountain mountaineering, more and more people are speaking to the public to share unpleasant, even terrible experiences, that they experienced. It turns out that, aside from dizzying heights and extreme weather, sexual violence is one of the biggest dangers female climbers face.
Nirmal Purja at the heart of the accusations
In an interview with the New York Times, Finnish professional mountaineer Lotta Hintsa discusses her experience with Nirmal Purja, whose goal of climbing all fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters in record time was chronicled in a Netflix documentary . She claims he took her to a room in a Nepalese hotel, took off her clothes and tried to take off her bra. She adds that even though she told him no several times, he ended up masturbating next to her.
Another woman, a former client of Nirmal Purja’s mountain guiding company, described similar incidents. She claims that the latter kissed her and touched her sexual organs, just like Lotta Hintsa, without her consent. Purja’s lawyers deny all accusations.
No special cases
Under the motto #SafeOutside, members of the American climbing community are trying to draw attention to sexual harassment and assault in their sport. In a 2018 report on 5,300 climbers, the organizers of the hashtag concluded that 47% of women and 16% of men had already been victims in a climbing context.
Undeniably, the attacks of which Nirmal Purja is accused, like all the testimonies linked to #MeToo, are not isolated cases. A group of professional climbers launched an Instagram account in 2019 with all the flirting attempts, photos and inappropriate solicitations they received through the app’s messaging. They claim that their account and another account created subsequently were deleted by Instagram without explanation or warning.
Beyond online harassment, many victims agree that the worst that could happen to them was feeling at the mercy of a guide or fellow climber during a climb. Part of what makes climbing so appealing is the thrill of risk that comes with extreme conditions; but if you can’t trust others, this risk can quickly turn into a nightmare.
