2021/09/27 by Sanjukta Krishnagopal, Krishnagopal, Sanjukta
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Cryospheric studies and observations #Data Analysis #FOS: Computer and information sciences #FOS: Physical sciences #High Altitude and Hypoxia #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Social and Information Networks (cs.SI) #Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2109.13340
openalex publication_date 2021/09/27 · openalex created_date 2022/07/25 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This work presents a network-based data-driven study of the combination of\nfactors that contribute to success in mountaineering. It simultaneously\nexamines the effects of individual factors such as age, gender, experience\netc., as well as expedition-wide factors such as number of camps, ratio of\nsherpas to paying climbers etc. Specifically, it combines the two perspectives\ninto a multiscale network, i.e., a network of individual climber features\nwithin each expedition at the finer scale, and an expedition similarity network\non the coarser scale. The latter is represented as a multiplex network where\nlayers encode different factors. The analysis reveals that chances of failure\nto summit due to fatigue, altitude or logistical problems, drastically reduce\nwhen climbing with repeat partners, especially for experienced climbers.\nAdditionally, node-centrality indicates that individual traits of youth and\noxygen use are the strongest drivers of success. Further, the learning of\nnetwork projections enables computation of correlations between\nintra-expedition networks and corresponding expedition success rates. Of\nexpedition-wide factors, the expedition size and length layers are found to be\nstrongly correlated with success rate. Lastly, community detection on the\nexpedition-similarity network reveals distinct communities where a difference\nin success rates naturally emerges amongst the communities.\n