Abstract
Through a personal narrative account, this paper explores the nature of the author’s cognitive dissonance experienced during a traverse of a high-altitude ski mountaineering objective (Nevado Ishinca 5530 m) in Peru’s Cordillera Blanca. The author experienced psychological discomfort in the ascent and a role of self in determining a continued commitment with the ski mountaineering challenge. Distraction, trivialization, act rationalization and finally attitude change were all used in attempt to reduce negative levels of cognitive dissonance. The lack of consonant cognitions to support abandoning the climb, the notion of free choice, the role of self-concept and self-esteem values motivated continued commitment until the negative levels of arousal subsided. Through a challenging mountaineering experience, I developed a greater self-awareness of the role of commitment to an objective which could be applied to other life events and experiences.
Highlights
High motivation, commitment and effort are required to achieve a mountaineering objective [1,2,3,4,5,6].investigation into the process of continued engagement with, and maintenance of commitment to, a mountaineering objective is less widely investigated
In analysis of mountaineering autobiographies, the role of cognitive dissonance is considered in the construction of self and retrospective self-justifications for actions or decisions made whilst climbing mountains
The negative psychological discomfort associated with cognitive dissonance [1], involves feelings of unease or tension [7,8,20]
Summary
Commitment and effort are required to achieve a mountaineering objective [1,2,3,4,5,6].investigation into the process of continued engagement with, and maintenance of commitment to, a mountaineering objective is less widely investigated. As a result of the inconsistent nature of two or more pieces of related knowledge a person holds, individuals suffer from a form of mental discomfort or negative arousal. It is not clear how and why this is the case [7]. In order to rectify mental discomfort experienced as a result knowledge inconsistency, a person is motivated to make changes [7] to either justify a set of thoughts or actions or avoid situations that increase levels of discomfort. One of our ski mountaineering objectives was Nevado Ishinca (5530 m).
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