Playing the edge: motivation and risk taking in a high-altitude wildernesslike environment

Activities in a natural environment that involve risk and danger to the participant have become more popular over the last decade. This article describes a study on the motivations for high-altitude mountaineering at Mount McKinley in Denali National Park, Alaska. Using a principal components factor analysis, five factors emerged, accounting for 92% of the explained variance. Overall, scale items such as exhilaration, excitement, and accomplishment appeared as important motivating variables. Risk taking as a motivating variable did not generate a high level of motivational importance. Based on experience levels in mountaineering, a number of differences were observed in the patterns of motivational importance. The findings suggest that participants in risk recreation report different patterns of motivations that are contingent on their levels of experience.