Genre Verbal Lore, Proverb

Language English

Country of Origin United States

Informant Billy Boyle

Date Collected February 25, 2018

Collected by Daniel McClafferty

Informant Data

Billy Boyle is an employee at Zimmermann’s The North Face. He was born in 1953 in Germany, but he grew up on American military bases. He participated in the Boston Appalachian Mountain Club of the Boston Chapter, where he organized slideshows that introduced many world-famous mountaineers such as Doug Scott, Charles Houston, and David Breashears.

Contextual Data

This proverb was used in a generation or two older than our informant to explain the tight-knit community among climbers. Our informant said now there are stories of tourists on Everest being left behind, but that is not actually the case. The informant also noted that this is a proverb that has slowly disappeared from the climbing community.

Item

The Brotherhood of the Rope