[l/m 6/19/2008] References (7/28) r.cli FAQ
Eugene Miya
TABLE OF CONTENTS of this chain:
7/ References
8/
9/
10/
11/
12/ Ratings and grades
13/
14/ In memoriam
15/
16/
17/
18/ Climbing GIFs
19/
20/ Weather
21/ Climbing glossary
22/ Song
23/
24/
25/
26/ Climbing Humor
27/ Legal issues
28/ Alternative ways to read rec.climbing
1/ DISCLAIMER
2/ Previous topics
3/ Beginner's (climbing) post
4/
5/ Access
6/
REFERENCES
This is not intended as a comprehensive list.
What do you want? Hand holding in the wilderness? Part of the
adventure is in the the self-discovery. This is just a start.
Try a library.
For instance, climbing and backpacking is the 796.5[012] section (Dewey)
or the G 505-510 and GV 190-200 in the Library of Congress section (how do
I know that? I've spent a lot of time there). You can find other topics in
similar areas. Are you familiar with Books-in-Print?
Just look.
You can't learn all wisdom from a book, but think of a book
as containing the "syntax" of wisdom. In the past, none of these books
existed, so their contents get better thru time.
BOOKS, Dave Roberts published a fine review of beginning mountaineering
books in the 1971 Ascent. While those books were obviously dated, the
qualities of the review (all bad) were good. Roberts characterized
"Nine Deadly Sins:"
Sin of anachronism
Sin of atavism
Sin of provincialism
Sin of over-specificity
Sin of technique for it's own sake
Sin of equipment freaking
Sin of dullness
Sin of moral didacticism
Sin of ignorance
Considering these when getting ANY book.
How-to-get started
The Role of Reading How-Tos
To this day I cannot read "how to" instructions in printed form.
Psychologically, these are indigestible for me.
--Stan Ulam, Adventures (Mis-Adventures) of a Mathematician
Every half decent guidebook and climbing/outdoor book warns/notes that
it is not possible to learn the activity by reading a book. So why read?
Basically to prepare you in advance for field work with human instructors,
mentors, etc. Reading makes their job easier and you progress faster by:
1) Terminology exposure -- you hear/read the verbage
2) Learn the syntax which yields a sequence and the beginnings
of priorities (values and judgments).
3) Learn an initial understanding of semantics.
Climbing Rock
%A Royal Robbins
%T Basic Rockcraft
%I La Siesta Press
%C Glendale, CA
%D 1971
%X Enjoyable illustrations by the late Sheridan Anderson.
%A Royal Robbins
%T Advanced Rockcraft
%I La Siesta Press
%C Glendale, CA
%D 1973
%X Concise. Not as good as Basic Rockcraft. Includes a story: Fantasia, which
is a popular account of Robbins and Ken Wilson (the editor of Mountain
magazine) climbing the route of the same name at Lover's Leap (interesting
route 1 5.9 move, requiring good route finding skills).
%A Mike Loughman
%T Learning to Rock Climb
%I Sierra Club Books
%C San Francisco, CA
%D 1978
%A John Long
%A John Middendorf
%T How to Rock Climb, Big Walls
%A Yvon Chouinard
%T Climbing Ice
%I Sierra Club Books
%C San Francisco, CA
%D 1978
%X A glossy table top book. Very good book.
%A Yvon Chouinard
%T let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman
%I Penguin Books
%C New York
%D 2005
%X A glossy table top book. Very good book.
%A John Long
%T How to Rock Climb!
%S Series
%I Chockstone Press
%C Evergreen, CO
%D 1989
%A J. Lowe
%T The Ice Experience
%D 1979?
%A Bill March
%T Modern Snow and Ice Technique
%X This and March's other book on rope work are real gems: small and concise.
Problems: written by an Englishman and their techniques vary a bit from the US.
%X dated.
Mr. March has just died at age 48 of a heart attack.
General Mountaineering
%A Steven M. Cox, Editor
%T Mountaineering: the Freedom of the Hills, 7th edition
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle, WA
%D 2003
%O
%X This book is regarded as a Bible in some circles. Weighs as much as a good
sized one, too. It takes a somewhat religious attitude to what it written
as the word for the Mountaineer's climbing class.
%X Comprehensive text on mountaineering
%X The 7th edition is the most current
(but I don't think it has the enjoyable Rob Cram cartoons
as previous editions do)
%X editions very important.
%A Andy Selters
%T Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle
%D 1990
%A James Wilkerson, M.D. Ed.
%T Medicine for Mountaineering, 3rd ed.
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle
%D 1985
%X TAKE A FIRST AID CLASS.
%A James A. Wilkerson, MD Ed.
%A Cameron C. Bangs, MD
%A John S. Hayward, PhD
%T Hypothermia, Frostbite and Other Cold Injuries
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle
%D 1986
%A Peter Steele
%T Far From Help! Backcountry Medical Care
%I Cloudcap
%C Box 27344, Seattle, 1991
%X similar to "Medical handbook for mountaineers" published by Constable in UK.
Any winter travel -- any person who ignores this critical subject deserves
to become loam.
%A Ron Perla
%A Martinelli
%T Avalanche Handbook
%I USDA
%X This is as detailed as it gets.
%X Inexpensive.
%A Ed LaChapelle
%T ABC of Avalanche Safety, 2nd ed.[?]
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle, WA
%D 1985, 1978, 1961
%X $5.95
%A Michael P. Ghiglieri
%A Charles R. Farabee
%T Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite
%I Puma Press LLC
%D March 2007
%X Summary of fatalities, accident, murder, suicide in the Park.
%X More complete citation of the loose series are (less climbing)
Myers & Ghiglieri's Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon (2001)
Myers' Fateful journey: Injury and death on Colorado River trips in Grand Canyon
(1999)
Whittlesey's
Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park
(1995)
Some notoriously BAD books as well: Books to avoid:
Books by Bridge, Casewit, Ullman, Bastille, Kingsley.
Avoid wasting your time, but they offer opportunities to critique.
Anything authored by Curtis Casewit.
James Ramsey Ullman (was said, "He's in the penality box") Ullman
clearly wrote the the best known, most popular works pre-1970.
Ullman was invited on the '63 Everest expedition as a token gesture
to raise funds from a publishing company:
The Age of Mountaineering, Americans on Everest, The White Tower (bad),
Straight Up (John Harlin, II)
Avoid the Icecraft book by Norman Kingsley.
Some works by Jeremy Bernstein. His writing is fair.
Dave Roberts also reviewed the basic form of all climbing
autobiographies. They largely all read the same. To quote Roberts in
the 1974 Ascent:
Alas, no mountain climber has yet written a good autobiography. ...
Climbing autobiographies are written, usually by men (and an occasional
woman) who are still in the thick of it, ... In short, too close to their
subject to see it well. Another basic flaw stems from the form which every
autobiographer seems to chose whether out of habit, imitation, or simple
laziness. Namely, a chronological recipe of major climbs and
expeditions. V.S. Pritchett, the Engish writer who waited until his
late 60's to to begin his own autobiography, warned in a lecture once that
"chronology is the death of a vast amount of autobiography." The writer,
he argued, ought to view what he is doing as "conducting a search," not
"traipsing down chronology." ...
So impersonal, in fact, are most climbing autobiographies, that one could
well paste together from them a kind of Standard Life, and thus do away
with the need for writing any further ones: Start with the Anemic Childhood...
Proceed with Early Poverty and Crazy Stunts. ...Interrupted by --
First Encounter with Death...
Fame. (At last.) And with it, the first strange tones of public modesty.
Fused with the discovery of an inner invincibility. ...
Somewhere about here, life intrudes in the form of Marriage -- to a
hitherto-unmentioned, henceforth hazy female. ...
On to other things. There are, alas, too few new worlds to conquer, and
fame and marriage have taken their toll. The climber does well to undergo,
at this point, a Deeper Experience in the mountains....
And at last, a Summing Up?
So cynical? So bad? Roberts takes six pages and makes a very strong case.
His arguments touch every major climbing book to that point, and these
generalize to all subsequent books. He regards Patey's and Menlove Edward's
book "Samson" as perhaps the two best books written. The latter is
heavy stuff (very much like Alan Turing). Anyways, we'll say no more
and let you discover the above for yourself (as it should be in a wilderness).
Eric, in a bone-to-pick-tone: "Roper, what do you think of
climbing fiction?" ...For Eric, climbing fiction fails, though he could not
immediately articulate a reason. Everyone was eager to air his own
speculations, and a flood of non sequiturs erupted from wine drinkers as
they circled the fire to avoid the smoke that storm foreboding gusts were
dispensing erratically.
"Why has climbing produced no Saint-Expuery, no Conrad, or Melville?"
"Well, it's pointless to write a climb that's merely harder than
any real one." We chuckled, seeing an implication behind the obvious:
writers about adventure at sea or in the air have not been limited to
accounts of the longest and hardest, while alpinists have.
Climbing being useless, a climb has meaning -- and is worth repeating --
only when standards are raised, horizons expanded. Saint-Expuery's pilots
were not necessarily delivering important mail, but it was their job to
deliver it.
Our stampede toward profundity grew increasingly incoherent,
but later I realized that what we had been struggling to say was that
a fiction writer must play the sort of god that we do not want.
He could not get away with slicing a rope right at the middle mark,
but neither would he have any particular reason, while sketching his plot,
to jot down, "Survivors: Beck, Cook, Kelsey, Steck, Thrackery."
"Why doesn't anyone write like Chuck Pratt any more?
His 'South Face of Mount Watkins' is the best climbing writing ever."
Every one agreed, even Steve, who minutes earlier had bestowed this honor
"without a doubt" on Robin Smith's "The Bat and the Wicked."
"Watkins south face, 1967," Eric annouced: "the worse day of my life."
"Why doesn't Pratt write anymore?" someone wondered. It turned
out that Allen once asked him. Pratt had replied, "I don't want to write
about climbing; I don't want talk about it; I don't want to photograph it;
I don't want to think about it; all I want to do is *do* it."
--Joe Kelsey
About de lack of a Conrad, Melville, or a Saint Exupery
Look for FRISON ROCHE, maybe their literary work does not reach the
altitude of Conrad,
But he produced three great novells.
``Premier de Cordee''
``la grande crevasse"
" le retour a la montagne"
published by Arthaud Grenoble
http://www.frison-roche.com/index.htm
A. Expedition Books
%A Maurice Herzog
%T Annapurna
%D 1952 (originallly)
%X The account of the first ascent of an 8,000 meter peak. Interesting
accounts of equipment breaking down, Lionel Terray on horse back, etc.
See Bonnington: Annapurna South Face. This text has inspired many
climbers into the first, and is cited frequently as a hallmark in
climbing literature.
%A Christian Bonnington
%T Annapurna South Face
%D 1971
%X An account of the first ascent of a major Himalayan big wall (siege tactics)
[1970]. This book unfortunately overshadows the climb by Messner of the Rupal
Face of Nanga Parbat during the same year (16,000 feet high versus 12,000
for Annapurna), because the English book is more easily available.
This books offers interesting technological contrasts to Herzog's
first expedition to the same peak: Bic lighters to matches, tape recorders
to paper diaries, extensive jumaring to and fixed rope. Herzog should be
read before this book.
Also by C. B. (numerous others, he's trying to make a living)
%A Chris Bonnington
%T I Chose to Climb
%T Everest, The Hard Way
numerous other books
%A Thomas F. Hornbein
%T Everest the West Ridge
%I Sierra Club Books
%C San Francisco, CA
%D 1965 (original printing)
%X A stimulating account of the 1963 American (first) Everest expedition.
What's good about this book is that it comes across with a complete
expedition dynamic: not all things are peachy keen. "Don't go on
trips with sociologists and psychologists..." Includes the bivy at 28,000
feet.
%A Arthur Davidson
%T Minus 148
%D 1968
%X Gripping first winter ascent of McKinley (Denali).
Author has a new book on Exxon Valdez.
%X Account of the first winter ascent of Mt. McKinley (Denali) during the
winter of 1967. The title of the book derives of the lowest number typically
published in wind chill charts. During the descent and subsequent rescue
a C-130 flew next to the summit and was standing still at over 100 MPH.
Riveting account of expedition, snow cave, igloo living.
%A Howard Snyder
%T The Hall of the Mountain King
%X One account of the largest fatality disaster on Denali (summer 1967).
Should be read with a rebuttal piece by Wilcox (the expedition leader).
Brad Washburn sides with this author.
%X See also: Joe Wilcox, White Winds.
%A Joe Wilcox
%T White Winds
%X Leader of an ill-fated expedition where 7 of 12 people died.
Should be read with Snyder's account (Snyder's book came out first).
%X Dear Mr. Wilcox:
We have received your extraordinary letter regarding the plans
for your record-breaking efforts this year [1967] on Mt. McKinley.
I have answered hundreds of queries over a long period of time,
but have never before answered one quite like this. In fact, I am
amazed that the National Park Service would grant a permit for
such a weird undertaking.
...[Significant history removed]
-- not just sleeping their way into headlines!
%X For your information, according to our records, McKinley
has not yet been climbed blindfolded or backwards, nor has the
same party of nine yet fallen simultaneously into the same
crevasse. We hope that you may wish to rise to one of these
compelling challenges.
Very truly yours,
Bradford Washburn, Director
Museum of Science and Hayden Planetarium
%A Arlene Blum
%T Annapurna, a Woman's Place
%I Sierra Club Books?
%C San Francisco, CA
%D 1978
%X Story of the first women's expedition to climb Annapurna.
The incredible logistics and the "why do they do it" discourse.
%A Herman Buhl
%T Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage
%T Lonely Challenge (special English version)
%X The original: hold snow balls in his hand to toughen them.
Buhl was extremely poor: first climbing was done in socks, then ski boots
before first
B. Fiction
.1 Novel
%A Jeff Long
%T Angels of Light
%I Sierra Club Books
%X Modern climbing tale based on an actual event in Yosemite.
Long is perhaps the premier write of climbing fiction. The story
concerns the events surrounding the crash of a pot-filled plane
and the killing off of Yosemite climbers.
%A James Salter
%T Solo Faces
%I Harper & Row
%D 1988
.2 Noveletta
.3 articles
C. (Auto)Biographies
%A Lionel Terray
%T Conquistors of the Useless
%T Les conquerants de l'inutile
%I Editions Gallimard
%D 1961
%I Editions Guerin
%C Chamonix, FR
%D 1995
%I Mountaineers
%C Seattle
%D 2001
%X Possibly one of the best greatest autobiographies.
Editions Guerin is reproduced with a loving care unmatched in the US.
%X "A mes comrades de corde'e, morts en montagnes" - Terray
"To my friends killed climbing." --rough translation by Geof. Sutton,
US edition (a little inaccurate).
%A Heinrich Harrer
%T The White Spider (Die Weisse Spinne)
%D 1930's
%X History of the climbing on the Eiger nordwand.
C.a Anthologies
%A Tom Patey
%T One Man's Mountain
%X A collection of short stories, songs, etc. published posthumously by Tom's
wife. Includes such classics as The Art of Climbing Down Gracefully,
A Short Walk with Whillans, his guide to climbing
terminology (e.g. solo: one man falling alone, roped party: several men
falling together), and his well known songs. Possibly some of the best
contemptorary climbing humor.
%A David Roberts
%T Mtn. of My Fear
%X About the second ascent of Mt. Huntington in Alaska and the
first ascent of its West face.
%XI enjoyed the author's honesty and introspection in the "Mountain
of My Fear", the story of a light expedition up a rib on Mt. Deborah
in the late sixties. The story reads well and caused me to reflect
and compare to some of my own rambles. More than a mountain
adventure, it conveyed a loss of innocence without a loss of love
for the mountains.
%A David Roberts
%T Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative
%X About the unsuccessful attempt by Roberts and Don Jensen (Jensen pack
and the Jensen Bombshelter Tent) to climb Mt. Debroah in Alaska. Interesting
introspective reading.
%A David Roberts
%T Great Exploration Hoaxes
%A David Roberts
%T Moments of Doubt
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle, WA
%D 1986
%X Anthology of short non-fiction articles.
%X Roberts made part of his living (after leaving mathematics)
by outdoor instruction and as an English prof in the NE. During this
time he wrote for Outside Magazine. This volume is a collection of
Outside articles and other works. The title derives from a very
powerful article about the loss of two very close friends
(one in Boulder and the other in Alaska [Huntington]). The chapters
"Rafting by the BBC" and "Burnout in the Maze" [for any outdoor ed
types] were pleasant surprises. Unfortunately, some of Robert's most
important and controversial articles on "The Failure" of American
women's expeditions are included. Other subjects include people:
Messner, Roskelly, and others. A cute article on bouldering.
%A David Roberts
%T On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined
%I Simon & Schuster
%C NY
%D 2005
%X So Galen Rowell was a big snorer.
%A R. Messner
%T The Seventh Grade
%X An unfortunately poor translation predicting his flash ascent
of Hidden Peak with Peter Habeler in super-Alpine style (3 days).
Includes 10 hour Eiger Ascent (just happened during the filming
of Eiger Sanction), Les Doites NE face 8.5 hours, and Rupal flank
of Nanga Parbat. Has numerous other books on fast ascents
of Everest, K2, and more general interest.
The first man to climb all 8K meter peaks.
%T The Crystal Horizon
%T All Fourteen Eight Thousanders
Chessler would have you know that at this time Messner has authored 64
books of which only 16 are in English. This makes him the most prolific
climbing writer of all time.
%A G. Rebuffat: Any book (Starlight and Storm, Mt. Blanc, etc.)
Picture books:
Anything by Gaston Rebuffat (almost)
%A Edward Whymper
%T Scrambles among the Alps.
%X It's the best account XIX century montaineering,
when the Alps were still to be explored. It is amusing to
read about the techniques, but amazing to see the realizations
done with them. The reflexions on mountaineering are also worth.
The famous quote by Whymper "Climb if you want, be remember..."
is the last paragraph of this book.
Bonatti's new book on the Chamonix area
%A Walter Bonatti
%T To my mountains
%X The book deals with ascents until the Freney tragedy. Are
included the K2 bivy, Grand Capucin and Bonatti Pilar ascents
(the latter still one of the greatest feats ever accomplished).
%A Walter Bonatti
%T The great days
%X second includes climbs on the Eikpfeiler, Jorasses, and
Matterhorn, and is dominated by the noble feeling of farewell.
I find it even better than the first one. These two books have
been my constant source of inspiration since years, and I still
regard them as the finest ever written by a mountaineer. At first,
I was impressed by what he did. Then it was even more by why he did it,
and I think the books convey very high moral standards and express
perfectly the spiritual quest behind mountaineering.
%A Felice Benuzzi
%T No Picnic on Mt. Kenya
%X The real account of two Italian POWs during WWII who escaped after
fashioning climbing gear from kitchen utensils. They got up the
3rd summit. All the more interesting because it happened.
A basis for Richard Mitchell's PhD thesis.
%A ?
%T High in the Cold Thin Air
%X Hillary returned to winter in the Himalaya in 1961-62 (first time)
and his party did the first (illegal) ascent of Ama Dablam as well as
important physiology research.
I'm leaving out numerous other good account like the first K2 ascent,
the G IV ascent by Bonnatti, and Cho Oyu. I've just run out of time.
D. Guide Books
%A Allen Steck
%A Steve Roper
%T Fifty Classic Climbs
%I Sierra Club Books
%X Also known as Fifty Crowded Climbs. Thank god they didn't put
all my favorite climbs inside.
%X It was noted that this book is probably responsible for at
least six American deaths on the Wishbone Arete on Robson in
a 1990 article surveying Robson citing the combination of poor rock,
not great belays, weather, and generally exposed position. Other climbs
may have experienced similar fatality increases. Still other climbs
await second ascent like the Hummingbird Ridge (full).
Guidebooks have several problems. Rarely do writers have competition for
geographic areas, but notable are the works of
Fred Beckey.
Regional Books
%A F. Beckey
%T Challenge of the N. Cascades
%A F. Beckey -- Several
Avoid the 1974 edition (Gray) of the Climbers Guide to the High Sierra
(edited by Smateko).
%A P. Ament -- High Over Boulder [reading, better guides exist]
%A Dee Molenaar
%T Challenge of Rainier
%I The Mountaineers
%C Seattle, WA
%D 1987
%A Jill Neate
%T High Asia
%I Unwin Hyman
%C UK
%D 1989
%O ISBN 0-04-440480-8
L. Humor
%A Warren Harding
%T Downward Bound
%X Essential guide to BAT: Basically Absurd technology.
%A W. E. Bowman
%T The Ascent of Rumdoodle
%X The classic expedition spoof. Recently reprinted.
%A Whippersnaith
%T The Night Climbers of Cambridge
%D 1952
%X Older style humor.
Humorous building climbing like early Monty Python.
%X Copy received!
%A Joe Kelsey
%T The Climbing Cartoons of Sheridan Anderson
%A Peter Steele
%T Doctor on Everest
%I Hodder & Stoughton
%D 1972
%X It's an account of being the doctor on the 1971 Everest
expedition. It was an international expedition that attempted
both the West Ridge, and the South West Face, and unfortunately
ended in acrimony. Anyway, I think it's a good book, partly
because it's a lot more human than the "Hard men, hanging by a
hair of Nanga Parbat" of Chris Bonnington et al.
%A John West
%T Everest: The Testing Place
%X Medical expedition.
%O http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/phys/
%A Don Whillans did an autobiography which would probably be good, and
as well, Dougal Haston wrote a novel, "Calculated Risk" I think,
but I don't think it was too good (he had a bit part in the
"Eiger Sanction").
%A Joe Brown
%T The Hard Years
%X The definitive chronicle of the greatest age of British rock climbing.
%A Chris Jones
%T Climbing in North America
%I Univ. of CA Press.
%C Berkeley, CA
%D 1976
%X A good history. Has taken some criticism, but many areas are minor.
%A Andy Selters
%T Ways to the Sky: A Historical Guide to North American Mountaineering
%I AAC Press
%C Golden, CO
%D 2004
%X Part of a series to include bouldering, ski mountaineering, rock climbing,
ice climbing, & wall climbing, with an emphasis on peaks, free climbing,
and mountaineering.
%X A logical successor to Chris Jones' book combined with
Steck and Roper 50 Crowded climbs (avoiding overlap, having done climbs
from both).
Lacks reference to Ullman (maybe not a bad thing).
Contains numerous small errors. Worth owning but a little flawed to
be award the outdoor book award for '04.
Covers Mexico to the high Arctic.
%X Covers the reason why the PNW and the Mountaineers get made fun:
George Meany [really], the chair of the UW History dept. whose
military style is covered a little detail (worth reading as it related
to the Mazamas).
%X Even cites John Ruskin. A good if flawed book.
Various older works by James Ramsey Ullman.
%A Dudley Chelton
%A Bob Godfrey
%T Climb
%X Bob Godfrey committed suicide in 1990 after learning he had a
debilitating disease. He is survived by his wife and child.
%X Climbing in Colorado. Interesting (How did they photograph that
angle shots).
%A Ken Wilson
%T Hard Rock
%I Granada
%D pre 1978
%X the first in the series dictating the style of the subsequent books
about famous people's experiences on these climbs. Standard was hard
for the day so ranges from about HVS (5.9? to low E numbers 5.11 ?)
Climbs from all over British Isles.
%A Ken Wilson
%T Classic Rock
%I Granada
%D 1978
%M isbn 0 246 10938 6
%X The 2nd in the series. Over 50 classic easy climbs up to VS (5.7??)
standard from Scotland Wales and England. Articles written by the
famous about mostly their early climbing experiences, not much route
descriptions, but great reading. Very coffee table style with good
%A Ken Wilson
%A John Barry
%A Dave Alcock
%T Cold Climbs
%I Granada
%D 1985?
%X Does for ice routes what the whole series does for rock. All grade
(Scottish 2..6) with shortish pitches and full day routes. Same format and
style as the rest.
%A Ken Wilson
%A Richard Gilbert
%T The Big Walks
%I Granada
%D 198?
%X Describes long walks in Britian and Ireland. I don't know much
about this book but deals with mult-day treks across the length and bredth
of the islands
%A Ken Wilson
%A Richard Gilbert
%T Classic Walks
%I Granada
%D 198?
%X Classic walks varying from a few miles around Yorkshire to all day
treks and maybe even multi-day. Very readable.
%A Ken Wilson, ed.
%T Games Climbers Play
%X A collection of important articles named after the extremely important work
by Lito Tejades-Flores (Seven games: bouldering, crags, .* , alpine,
expedition). I would never be forgiven if I didn't mention this collection.
Several books by Galen Rowell
%T The Vertical World of Yosemite
Numerous books to support Galen Rowell's living:
%T In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods
%X not bad, but accused of Whitaker bashing
%T Yosemite
%T Mountain Light
etc.
%A Richard Mitchell
%Z OSU
%T The Mountain Experience:
Psychology and Sociology of Adventure
%I Univ. of Chicago Press
%C Chicago, IL
%D 1983
%A Steve Gardner
%T Why I Climb
%I
%D 1993
%X Interview survey of a couple dozen noted climbers.
The book has somewhat poor editorial values.
A surprising number of the climbers interviewed have since died:
Ortenburger, Johnson, etc. A few notables have not been interviewed.
The reader wonders what some of those climbers would have said.
Most of the climbers are from English speaking nations or are involved
with English speaking. Borrow from a library.
Caving:
_On Rope_
by Allen Padgett and Bruce Smith
available at the
National Speleological Society
Dept. 19
Cave Avenue
Huntsville, AL 35810
(205) 852-1300
or from
Speleobooks
PO Box 10
Schoharie, NY 12157
(518) 295-7978
Equipment may be ordered from (among a number of other places, including REI):
Bob & Bob
PO Box 441-N
Lewisburg, WV 24901
(304) 772-5049
_The Caves Beyond_, Lawrence and Brucker, Zephyrus Press (may be out of print)
The Floyd Collins Crystal Cave Expedition in the 1950's.
_The Longest Cave_, Brucker and Watson, Knopf, 1976
The exploration of Flint Ridge after the above expedition, and its connection
to Mammoth Cave in 1972.
_Carlsbad, Caves and a Camera_, Nymeyer, Zephyrus Press, 1978
Early (1930-1940) explorations and early cave photos by the author and his
friends. Very nice book--give you the flavor of what it must have been like
back then to go caving when the sport/hobby/science was in its infancy.
Well, here's a few reviews, just be careful with that axe, Eugene...
Pat O'Connell
NSS 13878RL
Lastly:
"Real Programmers don't play tennis, or any sport that requires you to
change clothes. Mountain climbing is OK, and real programmers always
wear their climbing boots to work in case a mountain should suddenly
spring up in the middle of a machine room."
from: "Real programmers don't write specs" in
%A George S. Almasi
%A Allan Gottlieb
%T Highly Parallel Computing
%I Benjamin/Cummings division of Addison Wesley Inc.
%D 1989
%K ISBN # 0-8053-0177-1, book, text, Ultracomputer, grecommended,
%$ $36.95
%X This is a kinda neat book. There are special net
antecdotes which makes this interesting.
What does this have to do with parallel computing? Everything. Get the
book to find out why.
<END CONSTRUCTION ZONE>
Sources: [try local stores, else:]
Michael Chessler Books, Denver, CO
(800) 654-8502
The Mountaineers, Seattle, WA
(800) 553-4453
Sierra Club Books/Random House
(212) 872-8076
Adventurous Traveler Bookstore http://www.gorp.com/atbook.htm
%A C.T. Dent
%T Mountaineering
%X with contributions from some of the
prominent climbers of the time (Conway, Freshfield,...);
"Mountaineering" by Dent is a delightful "how-to" book of
mountaineering written around 1890. It is interesting from
an historical perspective, but what sets it apart is the
author's sage sense of humor. The humor brought to me a sense
of the author's accumulated experience and wisdom; "here's
how to do it----and here's what really happens when you try."
%A J. Escarra
%A V. Sella
%T Images De L'Himalaya
%X "Images De L'Himalaya" is a photo album of Vitorio Sella's photos
from an early attempt/recon of K2 (1910?). The book itself is
not very good since its paper is poor. However, the photos
are great and on large, coffee table size, pages. What I really
like is Sella's photography (black and white, of course) and
this is the only book I've seen that has them in large images.
%A Rene Daumal
%T Mount Analogue
%X "Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean
Adventures in Mountain Climbing" is an unfinished story translated
from French. Daumal died(1944) before completing the work. The
translation loses some of the original's effects, but for those who
don't know french the english translation is still good. What's there
is short and odd, being an exercise in perspectives and a general
commentary on human values. The story is cut short right when the
ascent part commences. This is unfortunate, but, in a way, adds
another perspective to the story.
%A A. Heim
%A A. Gansser
%T The Throne Of the Gods
%X "The Throne Of the Gods: An Account Of The First Swiss Expedition
To the Himalaya" was originally published in german (I think) and
is a paragon of documentation for an exploratory expedition. This
account is both a reference work and an adventure, perhaps the last
(1939) of a genre.
Including "A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush", by Eric Newby (try to find the
version with pictures).
H.W. Tilman, _Snow on the Equator_, _The Ascent of Nanda Devi_
(The first covers many improbable adventures in colonial Africa, including
early ascents of Mt Kenya and the Ruwenzori.)
Tenzing Norqay, _Tiger of the Snows_ (autobiography of one of the great ones)
Try Glenn Randall's book Breaking Point (Chockstone Press) for a nice
description of a desperate climb on the south face of Mt. Hunter.
Randall, Peter Metcalf and Pete Athens ended up taking 13 days but
only planned on 6. Hmmm... sounded like they were mighty desperate
and hungry by the end of the 13th day.
_Rock Climbers in Action in Snowdonia_, John Cleare
Outstanding photographs of then-desperates in Snowdonia. These
pictures were taken very deliberately, usually from rappel.
The earliest example of "modern" climbing photography, such as
is practiced today by Brian Bailey, Uli Weissmeir, etc.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Geoffrey Winthrop Young's classic
_On High Hills_ (if I remember the title correctly). It has the
wonderful description of Franz Lachmatter ascending, apparently
by friction, a vertical patch that "if there were any rugosities
at all, they consisted merely of variations in the pressure of the
air" (quote from memory).
Sacred Summits by Peter Boardman
The Shining Mountain "
Thin Air by Greg Child
A Walk in the Sky by Nick Clinch
K2: Triumph and Tragedy by Jim Curran
Summit Fever by Greig Andrew
K2: The Savage Mountain by Charles Houston
Savage Arena by Joe Tasker
Lonely Victory by Peter Habeler
White Limbo by Lincoln Hall
Everest: The Kangshung Face by Steven Venables
Touching the Void by Joe Simpson
Breaking Point by Glenn Randall
Storm and Sorrow by Robert Craig
%A Rick Ridgeway
%T The Boldest Dream
%A Rick Ridgeway
%T The Last Step
%A Dick Bass
%A Frank Wells
%A with Rick Ridgeway
%T Seven Summits
%X Two men who recently turned 50 set out to realize a long-time dream to
climb the highest peak on each of the seven continents.
Interesting contrast between these two fit but "ordinary" guys and
some of the super-athletic mountain climbers they associate with
(and who are not always patient with their merely-mortal comrades).
%A Crowley, Aleister
%T The confessions of Aleister Crowley
%X Although the book is not principally about climbing, Crowley
describes climbs in England, Mexico, the Alps, and the Himalayas.
Sometimes hard to separate fact from hyperbole, but Crowley's
perspective on climbing was most interesting and in many ways far
ahead of his time. Particularly interesting in regard to the recent
"most infamous climber" discussion.
Sources:
ASM Metals Handbook, Desk Ed., H.E. Boyer , T. L. Gall Ed., American Society
for Metals, Metals Park Ohio, 1985.
Fatigue Life Predictions ....., Software Program, T. Altshuler, American
Society for Metals, Metals Park Ohio, 1986.
Techniques of Protection Anchorages a Partial Translation of Amenagment et
Equipement d'un Site ..., Daniel Taupin, J.P. Verdier, CO.SI.ROC., France,
2/6/92
What Every Engineer Should Know About Threaded Fasteners, Alexander Blake,
Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1986.
o Climber's Guide to McKinley
Used to be by Glenn Randall, I think it's a group effort now. A guide to beginner's
getting ready to climb the mountain.
o High Alaska by Jon Waterman
Kind of the guidebook to Denali, Foraker, and Hunter. Has detailed route information,
including Bradford Washburn pictures.
o Surviving Denali by Jon Waterman
Detailed account of all the mistakes that came before yours - kind of an ANAM
book for Denali. My favorite was the one lady that went psycotic on Michael
Covington and kept trying to jump off of Windy Corner (?). If you check for
information from Fantasy Ridge, they send you a sheet with full disclosure...
it's pretty good when you get to the reference to them having "one psycotic
incident." "-)
o Minus 148 by Art Davidson (?)
Story of the first winter ascent - scary.
o On Top of Denali - the author's name eludes me, might be Waterman as well,
but this was a good history of climbing on McKinley.
o Fred Beckey just put out a new book on Denali....can't think of the name for
sure, but it's basically a history of climbing on McKinley.
References on climbing/backpacking for the disabled:
A Book:
Sports and Recreation for the Disabled: A R
by Michael J. Paciorek
Benchmark Press, 1989
Article:
The One-Armed Climber
Climbing Magazine Oct/Nov:136
by Dick Dorworth, 1989
Subject: Re: Everest First Ascent
Since email bounced, I'm posting this. Here's a couple of books to look up.
The first one in particular is all about the controversy, such as it is.
The second is just a good book on the history of Everest climbing. Great
pictures, too.
AUTHOR(s): Holzel, Tom.
TITLE(s): Mystery of Mallory and Irvine
First on Everest : the mystery of Mallory and Irvine /
Tom Holzel and Audrey Salkeld.
1st American ed.
New York : H. Holt, c1986.
x, 322 p., [18] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Previously published as: The mystery of Mallory and Irvine.
1986.
-----------------------------
TITLE(s): Everest : the best writing and pictures from seventy years
of human endeavour / edited by Peter Gillman ; foreword by
Edmund Hillary ; picture research by Audrey Salkeld.
Boston : Little, Brown, c1993.
9311
208 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 32 cm.
%A Stewart Townend
%T Mathematics in Sport
%O ISBN 0-85312-717-4 and ISBN 0-85312-719-4
From Al...@moorside.demon.co.uk Fri Mar 10 01:50:08 1995
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 95 08:06:12 GMT
Message-ID: <7...@moorside.demon.co.uk>
From: Al...@moorside.demon.co.uk (Alan Little)
Subject: [l/m 3/2/95] References (7/28) r.cli FAQ
I'm astounded that your list of expedition books doesn't include
Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman's exporatory classics from between the wars.
The Nanda Devi expeditions, and "Blank on the Map" (first crossing of
the Snow Lake in the Karakoram, I think) are the most exciting and
inspirational pieces of mountain exploration literature I've ever
read.
Eric Shipton
The Six Mountain-Travel Books
Diadem/The Mountaineers 1985 reprinted 1990
ISBN 0-89886-075-X (US edition)
HW Tilman
The Seven Mountain-Travel Books
Diadem/The Mountaineers 1985
ISBN 0-89886-074-1 (US)
See the interview with H. Adams Carter in _Climbing_ 111
CLIMBING: Who were the best climbers of that time?
H A C: I would put Shipton and Tilman as perhaps the most remarkable
climbers of that time. They certainly pushed the limits
of expeditionary mountaineering.
In a way I hope you haven't already read their books, because if so
you should be in for a lot of enjoyment and inspiration when you do.
--
Alan Little
From d...@datcon.co.uk Wed Jun 7 07:29:56 1995
Subject: Climbing books
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 1995 15:28:30
I liked the list and generally agree. Here are a few more recommendations.
Joe Simpson's autobiography "Game of Ghosts". Excellent with some very funny
sections. He had an exceedingly cruel elder sister!
Cherie Bremer-Camp "Living on the Edge". A really really depressing book.
Joe Harrison "Climbers". Fiction but really captures an aspect of the North
England climbing scene.
Marie Coffrey's (Joe Tasker's girlfriend) book "Fragile Edge". A book to make
you realize what your other half has to go through...
Those are some off the top of my head. If you're interested in more details
email me and I will look up the publisher, etc details.
David Barlow
d...@datcon.co.uk
From d...@datcon.co.uk Fri Jun 9 06:00:58 1995
From: David Barlow <d...@datcon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Climbing books
Date: Fri, 09 Jun 95 13:59:00 BST
Here's more detailed information on the recommended books I sent you, plus
another one or two. I have included the book title, author, ISBN number and
publisher.
"This Game of Ghosts" by Joe Simpson.
ISBN 0-224-03515-0
Jonathan Cape.
Joe Simpson's autobiography from early childhood. He had an exceedingly
cruel sister... Very funny in places.
"Fragile Edge" by Maria Coffey.
ISBN 0-340-52543-6
Coronet Books.
Maria was Joe Tasker's girlfriend. A must for expedition climbers to make
you appreciate what your other half goes through.
"Climbers" by M. John Harrison.
ISBN 0-586-09065-7
Paladin.
Fiction. Captures some aspects of the North England climbing scene
brilliantly.
"Elusive Summits" by Victor Saunders.
ISBN 0-340-48557-4
Hodder & Stoughton.
Describes four Himalayan alpine-style ascents by the slippery one.
"Living on the Edge" by Cherie Bremer-Kamp.
ISBN 0-7153-90003-1
David & Charles.
An exceedingly depressing book about a winter ascent of Kangenjuncha
(however you spell it!). A quite stunning recount of the personalities
involved.
David Barlow
d...@datcon.co.uk
%A Ramsay Thomas
%T Building Your Own Indoor Climbing Wall
%I Chockstone Press
%O $5.95
%A Jim Bowers
%T Guide to Building Climbing Walls
%O $7.95