Alpinist adaptive potential and the dynamics of adaptation in Janusz Klarner’s „Nanda Devi”

Abstract

Alpinist expedition to the Nanda Devi was the first Polish successfully ended hiking in the Himalaya. Nanda Devi was a very tough challenge for Polish team but after many dangerous situations they finally reached the peak. As a next step alpinists wanted to reach Tirsuli peak. Unluckily, two of the expeditors were buried in an avalanche on the slopes of a glacier. Janusz Klarner (the member of the Polish alpinists team) after few years wrote a book Nanda Devi which is based on his private expedition journal. The main thesis of the article is that reaching Nanda Devi was possible by the accurate speed of adaptation. The Himalaya was a completely different and unknown place for Polish alpinists. Alpinists were forced to various adaptations in many different situations. In the article author analyses emerging changes and adaptations. Among them are symbolic, cultural, technical and axiological adaptations. Using Deleuze's findings from Bergsonizm, the author recognizes that the capacity for appropriately dynamic adaptation is the result of an appropriate arrangement occurring at a point in time. To sum up, an author considers various connections between cultural patterns, personal causality and environmental considerations.