Mountains today, to many, are spaces of amateur adventure and challenge. Yet what came before? For many years historians have described the premodern era as one in which mountains were treated as spaces to be feared and avoided. Dawn’s talk tells a different story of intrepid travellers who climbed peaks and passes with fear and delight; of the ‘real mountaineers’ who carved out a living up and down the mountain slopes; and of scientists who looked at mountains and tried to answer enormous questions about the origins of the world. Together these inspiring people tell of a time before mountains were places to be conquered or commercialised.  

View the full RSGS 2025-26 programme of talks