Big mountain, big name: globalised relations of risk in Himalayan mountaineering

High-risk adventure tourism is a rapidly expanding global industry, becoming increasingly popular among Western consumers. But importantly, like other forms of tourism, it often takes place in developing countries, using local environments and labour resources. The risk trajectories of wealthy or well-sponsored adventurers from the developed world intersect with those of local workers, for whom high-risk work may be a ‘by-product’ of tourism's global expansion and development. If risk-taking is part of the West's post-industrial ‘fall-out’, how does this map onto the lives of those it affects in other parts of the world? How can risk be understood in the context of tourism in the developing world and how do the risk narratives of Western adventurers and local guides interconnect? In other words, how is risk globalised in this context? This paper explores how the risks entailed for Nepalese Sherpa guides relate to those of their Western clients in terms of cultural meaning and implication for identity and ...