Risk is not the explicit objective of Himalayan mountaineering, but its basic motivation. The description of Himalayan expeditions shows the real dangerousness of mountaineering at high altitude. But climbers’ voluntary involvement in an activity practiced in such a perilous environment is essentially worthwhile in that it is recognized, qualified and experienced by them in as various as singular ways. Play with risk may be considered, not without some ambiguity, as a normalized element of Himalayist culture : a common value to climbers, a relatively codified sport test, a means of social valorization and of overstepping ordinary norms.