ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we explore some of the competing discourses of climbing and motherhood, and the associated discourses of risk and responsibility, which inform a sense of self for mothers who climb. Creative nonfiction (CNF) techniques are employed to understand, and then convey, the complex and contradictory nature of such discourses, and further allow for multiple and contingent interpretations of the findings. The premise and benefits of CNF are first explored in relation to this particular research study and then the resultant story is presented and finally deconstructed and discussed using a Foucauldian lens. However, in the literary tradition that informs the chapter, the reader is encouraged to see this as just one possible direction for discussion, as a dais for further dialogue, and to suggest alternative meanings based on their own situated understanding.
