06:39 Aug 20, 2012 

So the origin of the term is clear. One more case of language immigration.

16:13 Aug 19, 2012 

It might be interesting to notice here that many of the sites on the link given by Ramey Rieger are originating from the German language. The others come from the tourist industry.

16:05 Aug 19, 2012 

The point of your reference being that the adjective "extreme" is applied by people who are not climbers, or only do so as a hobby, need a means of distinguishing what they consider to be a more committed form of climbing. Of course, no serious climber would refer to himself, at least in English, as an "extreme-style mountain (or rock, or ice) climber." This would be similar to calling oneself and "extreme" BASE jumper, as opposed to the normal kind, who never engages in any risk. But I appreciate the effort. I may start referring to myself as an "extreme" linguist.

15:51 Aug 19, 2012 

To the climbing style:
https://www.google.de/search?q=extreme mountain climbing&ie=...

14:31 Aug 19, 2012 

In answer two AllegroTrans, the background seems pretty obvious, given that it is dealing with climbing, German, and "sour grapes." As to the question regarding sexism, I guess you are right, we should also be impressed by the idiocy of a female climber who won't give up. But in that case, wouldn't the German text have read "... eine Extrembergsteigerin..."? At any rate, my question is: does the "extreme" refer to the hill, or the idiot?

10:33 Aug 19, 2012 

We don't say "alpinism" in English, we say mountain climbing or mountaineering. Also, why is everyone assuming that only men climb mountains?

17:10 Aug 18, 2012 

yes exactly, kphred. this is the context.
in the text they do a comparison between economy and alpinism and how failures are perceived in alpinism and in econmy and the phrase is already complete.
Ein Extrembergsteiger, der umkehren muss (aus welchem Grund auch immer), aber immer wieder aufbricht (weil er eben unbedingt diesen Gipfel erklimmen möchte, wird bewundert (für seine Entschlossenheit, etc.) Ein Unternehmer der versagt hingegen nicht - das ist ungefähr der Kontext

15:41 Aug 18, 2012 

No doubt you are right, but asker ought to post the complete sentence containing the phrase, so that we can all see the context and style. I fail however to see how you constructed such a "story" from the mere 11 words given to us by the asker....

13:30 Aug 18, 2012 

This should be clear that you are dealing with a mountain climber (of the so-called extreme variety, presumably in the Himalayas) who, for whatever reason, must turn back before summiting, but doesn't want to, and keeps interrupting his descent to contemplate trying to summit anyway, and for this reason, someone is impressed, hopefully with his idiocy, but more likely with his "courage."