Summit Diplomacy: US-Soviet Mountaineering Exchanges, 1974–1989

Abstract

Mountaineers played an unlikely role in facilitating diplomatic relations and cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. From 1974 to 1989, American and Soviet climbers engaged in a series of mountaineering exchanges in the US and USSR. Scholars have examined how sport, particularly the Olympic Games, was utilized as a means of soft power during this era. However, mountaineering provides a unique and different opportunity for exploring cultural exchange and subversive trade. During these exchanges, climbers from both sides of the Iron Curtain became entangled in a network of bartering and person-to-person diplomacy, bringing Soviets and Americans together to conquer both stereotypes and summits. The success of the exchange programmes exposed American climbers to new forms of alpine knowledge and equipment and fostered new friendships and climbing partnerships. Amidst the various cultural exchange initiatives throughout the Cold War, mountaineers effectively transformed mountain ranges into arenas of diplomacy and exchange. Thus, mountaineering offered an avenue for people to relate to one another through recreation and nature, bringing alpine encounters into the dismantling of Cold War animosity.