summit fever

9.3

A strong desire to reach a mountain top that makes people take risky actions

noun
/ˈsʌmɪt ˈfiːvər/

: fiebre de cumbre

Many climbers suffer from summit fever and ignore warning signs of exhaustion.

Examples

Don't let summit fever cloud your judgment!
Climbers often experience summit fever when they approach the peak.
After her first successful ascent, she developed summit fever and began planning more expeditions.
His summit fever blinded him to the dangers of worsening weather conditions.
The climber's summit fever drove him to attempt the ascent despite dangerous weather conditions.
After reaching the peak, she realized that her summit fever had made her take unnecessary risks.
His summit fever blinded him to the potential dangers of climbing without proper gear.

How Obsessed

compulsion

40 6.7

summit fever

9.3

determination

142 3.0

desire

∞ 1.6

interest

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

summit fever singular

summit fevers plural

Morphology

summit + fever

The components 'summit' (mountain top) and 'fever' (intense excitement) transparently signal an intense preoccupation with reaching a summit, so a learner who knows both words can guess it involves a strong desire to reach the top. However, the fuller pragmatic sense — that this obsession can lead to reckless, risk-taking behaviour in climbers — is a specialized, metaphorical extension that a B1 learner may not infer fully without exposure.

Etymology

The idiom summit fever comes from mountain climbing: when climbers see the summit, the top of a mountain, they can get a fever, a hot, blind excitement that makes them ignore danger. That's why it means 'an intense desire' or 'obsession' to reach the top.