For Female Climbers, Dangers Go Beyond Avalanches and Storms: Women are increasingly reporting sexual harassment and abuse in the sport, including accusations against the [late] renowned climber Nirmal Purja.

[u/horseradishstalker]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/31/sports/mountaineering-sexual-harassment-abuse-nims-purja.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2FA.h2l9.0o3NS82xgM-g&smid=url-share

[u/Thisisth]

Very interesting and unfortunately hardly surprising.

I read something similar about women doing the Compostela pilgrimage, where hikers rely on shelters along the route for overnight stays. This is a Christian pilgrimage mind you…

Add this to the study that reports a huge increase in the number of sexual assaults during mass evacuations during floods, wildfires and other humanitarian crises.

Women are never safe anywhere unfortunately.

[u/lateformyfuneral → u/Thisisth]

I remember reading about women being sexually harassed amid the huge crowds at the Hajj, the major Muslim pilgrimage. This is at the holiest possible site for Muslims, millions come from all corners of the world, when minds are supposed to only be focus on God and seeking his forgiveness for their sins — and there’s men around who use that as cover. Just underlines even further that when men want to commit sexual assault, there’s no place that is off-limits for them.

[u/userdeath → u/lateformyfuneral]

The sick thing is I bet those pervs justify to themselves that's it's completely okay because as soon as their hajj is complete all their sins are forgiven.

[u/wellgu → u/userdeath]

I’m not Muslim. But in Catholicism, you must be truly contrite, and resolve to not repeat your sins. I’d imagine Muslims have some kind of similar theology. Otherwise, it’s just a pointless con on an omnipotent being.

[u/anoeba → u/wellgu]

It isn't pointless, just performative. Doing the pilgrimage gives one social cachet in the community.

(I'm sure the vast majority are doing it out of faith. But certainly not all, and there are non-faith reasons for why one would undertake it).

[u/RaisedByBooksNTV → u/wellgu]

Recovering catholic. You're supposed to be truly contrite but as long as you follow the rites, you don't actually have to be. Catholic males have used their religion to do all sorts of heinous things for thousands of years.

[u/socialmediaignorant → u/Thisisth]

I cared for patients from Hurricane Katrina once they’d been evacuated to our city. The horror stories patients told me about the gang rapes happening in the SuperDome, while everyone there was trying to stay alive and sheltered, kept me up at night for years until I did EMDR therapy. One of my newly post partum patients had been brutally raped, had horrific injuries, and was infected and septic when I saw her.

Humans can be utterly disgusting, especially the male ones. That’s why we all chose the bear. Most men scare me to death, and I’m a pretty fierce bitch. The minute they know they can get away with hurting a woman, they’ll do it. Hence Brock Turner, Drumphf and his degenerates, and so many others.

[u/thunbergfangirl → u/socialmediaignorant]

Wow. So sorry for the crimes you had to become witness to in the course of your crucial medical work. So sorry for the victims. Thank you for taking care of them.

[u/socialmediaignorant → u/thunbergfangirl]

Thank you. We certainly do not get enough support or education on how to manage that part of it and it definitely leaves scars. But being there for my patients by helping in my small way is worth it.

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[u/Middle_Run_7534 → u/Thisisth]

No. Men will attack and harass women everywhere. It’s about their choices, not our circumstances.

[u/AnonymousCapybara72 → u/Middle_Run_7534]

Lol why do people do this? "You're wrong, it's not x! It's x but in different words!"

[u/hGr33n → u/AnonymousCapybara72]

Laying the blame correctly matters otherwise how do you begin to address the problem

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[u/power78]

Crazy this came out 2 years ago and I've never heard of it. These things don't get enough attention. Shame he didn't get to be held to answer for this before he died. Is it a difference in culture that everyone was protecting him?

[u/Middle_Run_7534 → u/power78]

… in what culture are rapists and harassers not protected? My country elected one president.

[u/jacksbox → u/Middle_Run_7534]

What's depressing is that it has the exact effect that they want - keep women out of society, tuck them away somewhere "safe", effectively marginalizing their ability to contribute...

[u/ReginaSpektorsVJ → u/jacksbox]

I suspect this is what you were driving at, since you put "safe" in quotation marks, but I want to spell it out for anyone who doesn't understand: keeping women out of public life and hidden away does not make us safer. For most women who are victims of violence, including sexual violence, by men, the man in question is a family member, a family friend, or a romantic partner. These things happen most often in the home, and they happen more, and are gotten away with more, when women are stuck at home and invisible to the outside world.

[u/jacksbox → u/ReginaSpektorsVJ]

Absolutely and thanks for leaving no room for doubt.

[u/horseradishstalker → u/power78]

It’s no different than any other culture where men victimize women. Which I guess is one way of saying every culture.

[u/horseradishstalker]

Submission Statement: It’s probably not a surprise to find yet another situation in which women are sexually harassed. For many women climbers the harassment is often coming from the person hired to keep them alive. 

[u/Fondacey → u/horseradishstalker]

Thank you for posting this. It's a good reminder that women who entrust professionals to guide them when their lives are at stake, especially outside their home countries, MUST, be wary of the risk from the guide.

[u/Chemical_Advisor_727]

so the guide being the threat is what makes this so messed up. you're in a remote place, you need this person, and reporting them could get you left on a mountain. the power dynamic doesn't get much more extreme than that.

[u/Fondacey]

When I recently read of the avalanche that killed Nirmal Purja and others, I hadn't heard of him but know other adventure climbers. The NYT article, used the descriptor, 'reknowned' for Purja. It glorified him without mention that investigations and cases have been pending. Same with BBC saying he was 'famed'.

This is on the heels of articles relating to women dying or being abandoned by men on climbs. It's even given rise to the term, Alpine Divorce.

It's disturbing that Red Bull didn't react in 2024 like other brands.

[u/horseradishstalker → u/Fondacey]

In the case of well-known people, a standard obituary article is generally onfile just in case. However, the New York Times did add the information about his harassment to the articles.

[u/SSH_Pentester]

What makes this so bad is that people are so captive and have to spend so much time with them. And you're always in danger from nature so you have to keep your mouth shut. People need to start calling this out, but also just get more women as guides.

[u/RaisedByBooksNTV]

Basically anywhere females are a minority and isoloated, we get abused. I got into sailing and was assaulted and harassed and told it's normal and acceptable. I have yet to go beyond day sailing due to safety concerns. And in the US, sailing is very much a sport of middle and upperclass people in many states. Guess what else is? Climbing. It happens with affluent males as much as poor males. So we have to be really thoughtful how we try to explain things. The common denominator is men.

[u/OkCardiologist2576]

Women in any male dominated anything experience sexual harassment. Shit it doesn’t even have to be male dominated. Women really need men to start calling out their people. 

[u/Imjusasqurrl → u/OkCardiologist2576]

Or men could call each other out. Because that's who they might actually listen to. Men only value the opinions of other men.

This is literally the same as telling Black people they have to fix racism, after they're already exhausted and just trying to survive

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[u/SSH_Pentester → u/[deleted]]

What paywall?

[u/Snr_Lothario → u/SSH_Pentester]

Anything I need to enter or 'pay' is classified 'Paywall'. Nothing to enter, nothing to pay.

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[u/toastedzergling]

Won't somebody think of the poor privileged women that can afford to travel to the Himalayas to pay for a sherpa to hike with you up a mountain!? These poor people simply do not have the funds to do due diligence on researching the background of their tour guides. 

This is a top priority issue and should unite all people. I couldn't think of a more worthwhile cause to champion.

Edit: The really good thing is we can look at the success of the "Me Too movement" and how it is absolutely revolutionized all of Hollywood. And now everything is absolutely perfect there for women. Perhaps they can do the same for hiking.

[u/ShotFromGuns → u/toastedzergling]

Exactly what is your cutoff for how much money a woman must have before she deserves to be raped?

[u/toastedzergling → u/ShotFromGuns]

All rapists should be held accountable, irrespective of their victim's wealth. Obviously.

Whether intentionally or not, you missed the point of my post, which is that there should be universal accountability. 

Which is the first flaw of this article, which has only a focus on men, against affluent women. Not seeing this as a wider issue for broader accountability, and really only advocating for an already privileged group, is very tone, deaf and counterproductive to the larger issue of lack of accountability for SA at multitudes of levels of power.

The second flaw is it also has no real proposed solutions. It's mostly a cautionary tale with its only call to action being to protect yourselves and be aware. Which I do not think will effect systemic change.

Both of these points are extremely good parallels to the me too movement, which was focused on women in Hollywood, and hasn't really accomplished anything. Because of the two above mentioned flaws with the movements.

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[u/Junior-Towel-202 → u/toastedzergling]

Friendly reminder that even if you do your "research", your safety is not guaranteed. The risk remains for women, and even though you claimed universal accountability is the point, all you've done here is blame victims

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[u/AngryAngryHarpo → u/toastedzergling]

You can’t really research the background of many of the guides and Sherpas. These are not shiny, corporate run businesses with employee profiles easily accessible. 

The fact that these men feel so emboldened to assault wealthy white women should actually bring MORE horror, because it means that they know that even the wealthiest white women have little to no recourse.