The present article looks at narrative mountaineering literature as a hybrid genre that addresses mountain climbing, expeditions to mountain peaks and high-altitude skiing as demanding existential trials and offering liminal experiences. In texts written by climbers of Himalayan peaks in particular, hybridity is mostly formed by the interweaving, confrontation and adaptation of such genres as travel writing, life writing and guide books, as well as by the adoption of elements of narrative genres belonging to canonical literature. In terms of case studies, the article focuses on three Slovenian-language books with a marked aesthetic tendency: Dušan Jelinčič’s Zvezdnate noči (Starry Nights, 1990), Igor Škamperle’s Sneg na zlati veji (The Snow on the Golden Bough, 1992) and Bogdan Biščak’s Igra in biseri (The Game and the Pearls, 2018). Of particular interest are the aesthetic singularity of these three texts as well as the features they share with narrative mountaineering literature in general.
