We recently linked to a post at India Ink that gave some backstory to an incident that was mainly of interest to people who follow the “Everest culture”–a group of people enlarged enormously by one book (if you only read the original the updated version with a new afterword is worth the price of a new copy of the book)–and members of the climbing culture. Climbers and non-climbers alike will appreciate Nick Paumgarten’s article in the current issue of the New Yorker about the Swiss climber Ueli Steck:

…who made a name for himself climbing mountains at high speed with no ropes. In a recent climb, on Mt. Everest, Steck and his climbing partners got into a violent confrontation with Nepalese Sherpas…

A subscription is required to read the entire article but a podcast discussion of the article is available here or on the magazine’s iTunes page:

…Sasha Weiss talks with Paumgarten and staff writer Peter Hessler about lure and lore of mountaineering, how the influence of corporate sponsorship has changed the sport, and the complicated relationship between Sherpas and Western climbers on Everest…