Released in late 2024, 100 years after the most infamous mountaineering event in history, Other Everests: one mountain, many worlds is not a retelling of the Mallory expedition, but rather an attempt to widen the framing of Everest beyond western mountaineering exploits. Everest has often been seen through the eyes of western explorers and been limited to tales of heroic exploration. This book is a direct attempt to change that and bring “together new perspectives on the historical and cultural significance in the modern world.”
The book is a collection of 16 diverse articles on Everest that range from histories of indigenous labor force to women on Everest to how performers of contemporary theatre are working to “decolonize” Everest. These varied perspectives provide unique viewpoints on the world’s largest mountain and contain some great new academic contributions.

The first chapter focuses upon the etymological history behind the Tibetan name for Everest, Chomolungma, and explains the mountain is named after the goddess of the same name who in Tibetan belief was integral to the “broader sacred geography that stretches across the Himalaya and back through multiple Buddhist lineages and community histories.” The Nepali name Sagarmatha was promoted by Baburam Acharya in 1939, was unlikely to have been used much or at all by locals until it was officially adopted by the Nepali government in the early 1960. While it’s now internationally still known as Everest, there was even a short-lived proposal to name it Mount Elizabeth after the Queen following the first ascent by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
One chapter focuses on the role that expeditionary archives, such as those belonging to the Alpine club or Royal Geographic society, can have on research. Research on the contents of such archives can “offer potentially powerful corrective to some enduring myths about exploration and mountaineering in the age of empire.” The analysis of archives of porters and equipment logs can “yield evidence of stories and perspectives that go beyond those of the climbers themselves.” This can also be used to cross check potentially fanciful claims made by climbers.
There are chapters on “occidental escapism in the high Himalaya” which over time have led to a cultural “imagined geography of the Himalaya as a fabled, far away frontier.” One chapter focuses on indigenous labor forces operating on Everest from 1921 and 1953 and attempts to introduce often overlooked local perspectives, particularly for Sherpa women. A chapter on the 1979 Slovenian Everest expedition explains that the expedition generated a powerful sense of nationalism during the Yugoslav period. It allowed Yugoslavia to highlight its separation from the USSR, and the expedition received generous government support “so that Yugoslavia could show the world during the cold war that it was autonomous and successful with its own political and ideological activity.”
Other chapters focus on how mountaineering has changed in Everest in recent decades as part of a “series of profound transformations reshaping contemporary alpinism in Nepal.” Another chapter focuses on the female climbers and the how perceptions of hyper-masculinity are often forced upon female climbers.
While the diversity of the chapters is a strength, it does mean the book occasionally lurches from vastly different topics and some articles are stronger than others. It is also important to note that few of the contributors are either Tibetan or Nepali.
Everest’s role in the world is far more complex and diverse than being a mere backdrop for Western climbers, and the book provides numerous examples of not just how important it is, but also highlights how much space there is for new, innovative theoretical and academic approaches to it.
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