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Marek Pacukiewicz
(Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach)
E-mail: marek.pacukiewicz[at]us.edu.pl
ORCID: 0000-0002-9420-1107
DOI: 10.31261/FLPI.2025.09.15
„Fabrica Litterarum Polono-Italica” 2025, nr 1.
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Abstract in Polish, Italian
The State of Nakedness
In his foreword to the Dirk von Nayhauß’s book Rozmowy na szczycie. Ekstremaliści w górach [Conversations at the Top. Extreme Sport Performers in the Moun-tains, original title: Extrem am Berg: Mit 20 Alpin-Stars im Gespräch] Emil Zopfi characterises its unusual concept in an interesting way:
A book about female and male mountaineers that does not include a single photo of a mountain or a mountaineer in a vertical wall is something unexpected. Novelty! The author Dirk von Nayhauß, photographer and mountaineer, does not deal with dramatic events in rock and ice, but focuses his attention on the human being. We look into the eyes of men and women, from facial expressions, gestures and body positions we get to know their personalities. Nothing disturbs the image, no hooks, rope, helmet or ice gear, no sportswear with sponsor emblems (with few exceptions). Anything that could obscure or mask the true self has been removed. A person is shown as they are (or as they think they are), close up and sometimes exposed. (2010: 6) [translation from Polish: Katarzyna Strębska-Liszewska].
The above words are, in my opinion, representative of contemporary mountaineering discourse. Firstly, there is the conviction that “extreme sport performers” – their transgressive experiences – will allow a better understanding of human beings in general. Secondly, in order to understand the human being emerging from the mountaineering narratives, one has to bare him or her. Thirdly, therefore, the “ordinary” story must be accompanied by attempts to literally capture the experience – in this case, the catalyst function is that of photography, which reveals:
Faces, disciplined bodies, gazes, at times hardened, at times dreamy, fingers with grated nails and frostbite marks reflect joy and suffering in rock and ice; they speak of stages of passion and one feels the mysterious force that drives these people. (Zopfi 2010: 6–7) [translation: Katarzyna Strębska-Liszewska].
This narrative is part of the classic model of modern mountaineering, which is the discovery of extreme, direct experience as the main shaping force of the contextual human being [1]. Since the mid-19th century, mountaineers had been perceived as those pushing the envelope and aiming at a source experience of nature (world and human).
[1] “Experience is the key and the lack of it is foolishness,” states Dominik Szczepański ([2021]: 158). This is a typical mountaineering statement. It is worth recalling that the notion of experience is central to modernity (cf. Wolska 2012).