Some recent news stories highlighted that Mt. Everest peak is set to be reached by women thousandth time. However, the claim stands contested, as it has been argued that several women mountaineers scaled the peak successfully many times, like Lhakpa Sherpa, from Nepal, who did it ten times, a record for female climbers. However, according to the Himalayan Database, which tracks expeditions to the top of Everest, women climbers had scaled the peak 962 times, while men did so 11,955 times by the end of May 2025. While mountains are said to be conquered and narrated by men’ (Majastre 2009). ‘Mountaineering landscapes have evolved as, and remain strongly masculinised concepts, and it has been, and still is, male-dominated’(Pomfret and Doran, 2015), and ‘women mountaineers’ continue to be marginalised by the overwhelming male-ness of popularised mountaineering’(Hunt, 2019). No wonder that essentially masculine leadership traits shaped perceptions of who can succeed in a mountaineering space (Barratt 2010; Robinson 2008), and mountaineering leadership programmes have been imbued with a ‘culture of competition, confidence, strength, toughness and proving worth’ (Sharp, 2001). As a result, ‘female mountaineering suffered structural oppression within that culture’. Nevertheless, the ratio of women getting to the top of the Everest is on the rise, which was one to 16 men in the 2000s, and two decades later, it is one to 10. In India, too, as of December 2024, 74 women scaled Mount Everest, among them were Arunima Sinha, the first female amputee, and very recently, Chhonzin Angmo, the first visually impaired woman.
Undoubtedly, under-representation has placed many aspiring women at a disadvantage as they fail to look up to role models for inspiration. Women mountaineers on climbing expeditions, also face practical difficulties with ill-fitted mountaineering outfits and equipment, generally designed for men, which not only cause discomfort and injuries, but also psychological handicaps such as ‘self-doubt and anxiety about their abilities, which considerably influence their risk perception, and decision-making in challenging climbing situations’.
While, Billi Bierling, Director, of Himalayan Database, who herself climbed Everest in 2009, commented that ‘when it comes to taking risks on the mountain, women are probably a little bit more conservative… if it is too dangerous, she won’t take chances and go down, while a male climber, would still go’. However, a 2018 study (Dr Jenny Hall, York St John University, UK), contended that in an essentially masculinised environment, women mountaineers created a ‘place of difference while negotiating risk, amounting to the legitimate ‘other’ forms of mountaineering. While gendered experiences of mountaineering offered insights into different ways of confronting ‘fear as a tactical emotion to negotiate positionality and coping strategies while experiencing risk’, women mountaineers displayed unique qualities of leadership like cooperation, emotion, personal development, consensual decision-making and being relationship orientated. However, such differing traits have been often interpreted as their ‘insufficient physical strength to endure the challenges of hard mountaineering’(Sharp).
While research in leisure studies and effectual geographies exploring women’s experience in extreme sports like mountaineering is limited, particularly, in terms of how to effect influences the sentient and emotional behaviours of women(Humberstone 2016; Warren 2016; Waitt and Clifton 2013; Evers 2004, 2006, 2009). Yet, there is a persistent belief that ‘gender is consequential in adventure tourism’.
The void in such scholarship demonstrates an emphasis on masculinity in the high-altitude mountaineering’ ( Eger et al., 2021). A 2020 study that examined the empowering benefits of constraint negotiation for women mountaineers, reiterated that the ‘mountaineering space was used to resist gendered expectations and gaining empowerment’ (Harris & Wilson, 2007; Little & Wilson, 2005). Analysing responses from 321 female mountaineers, it dismissed the contention that ‘women are passive victims of constraints’, rather ‘they are active agents, motivated to pursue mountaineering aspirations despite having identified barriers’.
As in the wave of social transformation in the 20th century, the sporting milieu and mountain activities got feminised (Galissaire, Mennesson, 2004), a comparative study of 2,211 climbers making their first attempt on Everest between 1990 and 2005, and of 5,324 climbers between 2006-2019, revealed that the summit success rates have almost doubled, both, for men and women, from 32.7 per cent of 214 women and 32.9 per cent of 1,702 men to 68.2 per cent of 548 women and 64.4 per cent of 2,860 men(Himalayan Database). Between 2006 and 2019, only 0.5 per cent of 548 women vs. 1.1 per cent of 2,860 men attempting Everest did not return home alive, which led to the conclusion that ‘women are more likely to reach the summit and less likely to die’.
Now adventure tourism market which includes mountaineering has been projected to reach USD 345.6 Billion this year and is expected to expand to USD 745.7 Billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8 per cent from 2025 to 2035. India is also slated to grow with a CAGR of 8 per cent during the period, and the tourism economy is targeted to reach USD 3 Trillion by 2047.
While, women, both, as mountaineers and inhabitants of mountainous regions, could contribute significantly to micro and macro economies. As primary managers of mountain resources and participants in local economies, particularly in agriculture, animal husbandry, and tourism, they play a vital role in generating local livelihoods and ensuring food security and biodiversity. Labour market activities like arranging homestays, crafts, and guiding will also have a broader impact on the country’s overall development. Women as mountaineers can boost entrepreneurship by promoting eco-friendly mountain-related industries, sustainable tourism models, and high-altitude scientific research.
As many environmentalists and development economists red-flagged the issue of the ‘commodification’ of mountains, International Mountain Day 2024, rightly focused on mountain solutions for a sustainable future. While, the UN Environment, Executive Director, Erik Solheim, highlighted the role of ‘women in protecting the mountain ecosystems’. Since, mountains form the most vulnerable part of the natural ecosystem, women with adequate financial and institutional support could act as change agents in building up sustainable economy and ecosystems.
(The writer is the former Director General of Doordarshan & All India Radio. Views expressed are personal)