Humans have always co-existed with mountains, as ancient remains found in glaciers prove. But our interest in them may have been more spiritual or religiously motivated, rather than as a place to go to improve our health and wellbeing. In some cultures today, mountains are still considered to be the home of deities. So when did mountaineering become a popular pastime and how did the obsession with bagging summits start? Iszi Lawrence investigates our evolving relationship with the planet’s highest peaks.

Iszi is joined by Dawn Hollis, author of Mountains before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks before the Modern Age; Peter Hansen, Professor of History and Director of International and Global Studies at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in the US, and author of various books on mountaineering including The Summits of Modern Man: Mountaineering after the Enlightenment; and anthropologist and mountaineer Young Hoon Oh. The programme will also hear from blogger Andrew Szalay, otherwise known as the Suburban Mountaineer. And a range of Forum listeners from around the world contribute their personal experiences of mountains.

Produced by Fiona Clampin for BBC World Service

(Photo: Mountaineer with ice pick ascending Hintertux Glacier in Austria. Credit: David Trood/Getty Images)