Open University of Wellfleet

$60.00

Instructor: Maurice Isserman

Dates: Thursdays, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, 10/29

Time: 3pm-5pm

Location: Wellfleet Preservation Hall

Maurice Isserman, co-author of the 2008 Banff Prize-winning history of Himalayan mountaineering, Fallen Giants, will be drawing on his soon-to-be-published history of climbing around the world  to provide an overview of  mountaineering from its origins down to the present.  Among other climbs, the first ascents of the Matterhorn, Denali, Nanda Devi, the North Face of the Eiger, and the West Ridge of Everest will be covered.  One week will be devoted to the history of the US Army’s 10th Mountain Division in World War II, with Isserman’s Winter Army as the main text.  The course also considers topics related to the cultural and political background of mountaineering, including European Romanticism, American Transcendentalism, the British Empire, and Nazi Germany.