Between heaven and hell : constraint, rivalry, and the making of Yugoslav alpine excellence in the Cold War

Mikša, Peter (author), Laković, Ivan (author)

Yugoslav alpinism developed during the Cold War through an asymmetry of access that defined the southeastern Alpine space. While Yugoslav climbers faced persistent administrative and financial barriers to the Western Alps, the Julian Alps remained politically and materially reachable for climbers from Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, and Poland, who could not readily reach the Western ranges either. This asymmetry concentrated elite activity from across the socialist world onto a narrow, technically demanding terrain, producing sustained transnational comparison and competitive pressure that accelerated the advancement of elite performance. Particular attention is given to the winter ascent of the Čop Pillar on the north face of Triglav in 1968, interpreted not as an isolated achievement but as the culmination of a prolonged competitive process and a decisive threshold in the evolution of Yugoslav alpinism. Structural asymmetry, neither closure nor openness, can function as a generative configuration under which elite performance emerges. Rather than treating constraint as limitation, the asymmetrical access redistributed opportunity, concentrating climbers within a shared alpine space where sustained comparison and rivalry accelerated technical development.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Cold War, Yugoslavia, alpinism, mountaineering, socialist sport
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: Str. 713-732
• Numbering: Vol. 43, no. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-184140
• UDC: 796.966
• ISSN on article: 1743-9035
• DOI: 10.1080/09523367.2026.2667286
• COBISS.SI-ID: 279899907
• Publication date in RUL: 30.06.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: The international journal of the history of sport
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 1743-9035
• COBISS.SI-ID: 3136372

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: hladna vojna, Jugoslavija, alpinizem, planinstvo, socializem

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J6-60101
• Name: Boj za gore: slovenska nacionalna apropriacija Alp (19.-21. stoletje)

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P6-0235
• Name: Slovenska zgodovina