EQUIPPING THE MOUNTAINEER: ON SOME PROBLEMS OF MATERIALITY IN SOVIET ALPINISM

The history of mountaineering is often reduced to a chronology of remarkable ascents. As a result, scholarly writing presents alpinism’s past as a sequence of triumphs and records. However, this schematic perspective ignores some crucial aspects of the history of mountaineering. For example, little is known about the history of everyday life in Soviet alpinism. Moreover, the problem of materiality, so vitally essential for mountaineers, has hardly been addressed. Without exploring such contexts, it is difficult to thoroughly analyze the history of Soviet alpinism. This state of affairs justifies the relevance of the article. The paper proposes a new approach to alpinism by considering the paramount importance of climbing equipment. It begins with an examination of the emergence and development of Soviet production of equipment. Uncovering practices of designing and manufacturing ice axes, crampons, and rock pitons, this paper discusses the challenges faced by the Soviet state. Introducing new empirical data from Russian archives and interviews with alpinists, the article explores the deficit that prompted Soviet citizens to produce mountaineering equipment. Eventually, the author presents a narrative on Soviet alpinism’s materiality, which existed at the intersection of official and artisan technological cultures.