Interesting new climbing books?

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Adamame

climber
Santa Cruz
Topic Author's Original Post - Nov 6, 2011 - 12:57pm PT
I thought I would share a few recent reads that were especially good. Hopefully others might have something else new to share.

Early Days in the Range of Light: Encounters with Legendary Mountaineers by Daniel Arnold has become one of my favorite books on the Sierra Nevada. Arnold Picked fifteen iconic Sierra Nevada peaks and recalls the first ascent, context, and first ascensionist of each and he then climbs each of the peaks in the original style. It gave me a lot of respect for the early explorers of the Sierra and inspired a slew of future ascents of said mountains.

Pilgrims of the Vertical: Yosemite Rock Climbers and Nature at Risk
Joseph E. Taylor III, is quite eye opening and has bombarded me with hundreds of events that have sculpted climbing in Yosemite over hundreds of years. It is quite dense, like a term paper, but it is worth the read and gives me a basis for the way Yosemite and climbing is now.

Anyone else reading anything good? Jerry Moffat, Royal Robbins, Steve House, whats the word on their new books?

Bullwinkle

Boulder climber
Nov 6, 2011 - 01:20pm PT
Adam

Check out our New Book, The Valley Climbers, "Yosemite's Vertical Revolution" Stories Edited by John Long, Photo's Edited by Dean Fidelman.

It's due out in December by StoneMasterPress. . .it rocks, i might add. . .df
Adamame

climber
Santa Cruz
Topic Author's Reply - Nov 6, 2011 - 02:07pm PT
Nice Bullwinkle, Looking forward to checking that out.
sallyclimbs

Social climber
new zealand
Nov 6, 2011 - 03:29pm PT
'Windf rom a distant summit' by Pat Deavoll

Woman mountaineer who has done an expedition a year for 30 years
Below is a link to a reveiw
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150429242822975&set=a.10150357002252975.398725.685462974&type=1&theater
Jan

Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
Nov 6, 2011 - 09:56pm PT
This one won't be out until next June but it's a good one.

Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2's Deadliest Day
by Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan (Jun 11, 2012)

I edited the manuscript for cultural information and it's really well done - and accurate!

The main hero, Chhiring Dorjee, is from the Sherpa village of Rolwaling, which I have studied for 37 years now.

I will put up a separate thread about it when it hits the stores.
Mighty Hiker

climber
Vancouver, B.C.
Nov 7, 2011 - 12:52am PT
The new book by Fred Beckey sounds pretty good. The 100 best climbs from his secret black book, or something like that. Hopefully he won't have to kill us after we buy it.

Good to hear that the "Valley Climbers" book will be out soon - I'd been wondering.

There's a discussion of "Pilgrims of the Vertical", from last year, at http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/1267729/New-Book-on-Yosemite-Climbing-History
wildone

climber
Troy, MT
Nov 7, 2011 - 01:19am PT
Anyone read Johnny Dawes new book yet? I think it's called Full of Myself, or something.
Marlow

Sport climber
OSLO
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:52am PT
Freedom climbers:

“For many years, we in the climbing community have stood in awe of the accomplishments of Polish climbers. Relatively late into the Himalyan game due to political and monetary restrictions enforced onto them within their own country, the Poles sought the mountains as their escape. It was in fact the hardships they endured within Poland that hardened them physically and emotionally to seek out and endure the toughest climbs in the world. Freedom Climbers is a very enlightening and captivating look at the Polish climbing superstars, what drives them, their amazing accomplishments and their continuing role in pushing the limits in the mountain arena.” – Ed Viesturs, author of No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks and K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain

Highly recommended!
crunch

Social climber
CO
Nov 7, 2011 - 10:04am PT
Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald just won the Banff Book Festival award.

Just got back from Banff. She used to organize the Banff festivals (just retired a few years ago), got to meet and know the Polish mountaineers real well from their visits to the festivals. She realized that the generation of Polish climbers that emerged from mid-70s to mid-90s were an exceptionally successful and colorful crew; her book explores tells their stories.

Pilgrims? Excellent up to 1950s. Goes in an interesting and original direction with the more recent history, but the conclusions about the more recent era are not very well supported, methinks.
Camster (Rhymes with Hamster)

Social climber
CO
Nov 7, 2011 - 10:38am PT
Someone sent me a copy of Early Days in the Range of Light: Encounters with Legendary Mountaineers and I was blown away by the quality of the writing. I thought it'd be fairly boring, but was really impressed by the author's ability.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 7, 2011 - 11:29am PT
And let us not forget that our own Crunch received the Banff Book Festival award for the Best Mountaineering History Award for Desert Towers.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:00pm PT
Hey crunch, didja see my performance?

Did you keep your clothes on this time?
crunch

Social climber
CO
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:10pm PT
Hey crunch, didja see my performance?

No I didn't, dammit. They had someone else there instead, reading out your cartoons. My eyesight's not so good; it could have been Johnny Dawes (in heels), though actually I suspect it was Lady Gaga, channeling Krusty the Clown.

donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:30pm PT
I have a different take on Denz. He was with the Kiwi team trying Torre Egger when we climbed it in 76. The only one in their group of 13 that was hard to get along with. Couldn't boulder very well but I take it he improved his rock climbing.
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:36pm PT
I'll give you this- he was bold.
Allen Hill

Social climber
CO.
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:39pm PT
Freedom Climbers is excellent. Best mountaineering/climbing book in a long time in my opinion. And you can download for your IPad or kindle which must be a first for the genre as far as I know.
drunkenmaster

Social climber
santa rosa
Nov 7, 2011 - 09:51pm PT
John The Verm Shermans second edition of Better Bouldering

http://www.amazon.com/Better-Bouldering-2nd-How-Climb/dp/0762770317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320524758&sr=8-1
crunch

Social climber
CO
Nov 7, 2011 - 11:38pm PT
What? That wasn't Lady Gaga? That was you?

crunch

Social climber
CO
Nov 8, 2011 - 12:52am PT
Enjoyed Robert McFarlane's Wild Places.

http://www.amazon.com/Wild-Places-Penguin-Original/dp/B001RNI2F4/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Just starting his more recent Mountains of the Mind; excellent, so far (though not very far into it yet)

And a shout out to Tami Knight's Everest book, The Biggest Hump.

Hilarious. Not suitable for Texans
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Nov 8, 2011 - 12:58am PT
Leaving aside Tami's proclivity for naked trampoling at Banff festivals past, and getting back on topic, I can't say enough good things about Crusher's desert towers book.

If you haven't bought it yet, you're missing something really good.
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Nov 8, 2011 - 09:06am PT
Bill Denz worked for me back in the seventies, I guess around 1975.

He was very bright, silently intense as hell, and a tough little thing; he could work as hard as anybody. But like so many of us, was of course a surefooted thinker and had no problems maintaining his point of view and would. He was also an even better friend of Russ McLean. They did Tis-sa-ack together.

Bill could be disparaging towards other climbers (most of us are) and clearly was on a quiet mission toward the really extreme and whose plans were not completely divulged, as we would sit in the Catalyst having beers and chips on summer evenings in Santa Cruz, laughing and telling each other climbing stories. When Russ and I knew him he was trying to get down to Patagonia....We liked him and considered him a good friend but it was clear there was a white-hot core in there, regardless of his skill sets.
crunch

Social climber
CO
Nov 11, 2011 - 10:12am PT
Thanks donini. Yeah, my own book, seemingly well-liked by the Banff Book Festival folks:

http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/competitions/book/2011/#panel-6

And another shout out for Robert MacFarlane's Mountains of the Mind. This, so far (only up to page 100) is superb. Everything that Pilgrims of the Vertical wants to be.

A significant book, though peripheral to climbing, is Last Child in the Woods. Examines the importance (to children specifically, but this applies to adults, too) of unstructured play in wild nature. Something fast disappearing in our world of computers, video games, TV, organized sports. Kinda drags a bit toward the end (I don't have kids), but fascinating, really strikes a chord.
Brian in SLC

Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
Nov 11, 2011 - 12:00pm PT
Anyone tried Wade Davis' new book, Into the Silence?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8781928/Into-The-Silence-The-Great-War-Mallory-and-the-Conquest-of-Everest-by-Wade-Davis-review.html
cliffhanger

Trad climber
California
Sep 7, 2012 - 12:53pm PT
Echoes by Nick Bullock - Exclusive Excerpt
by Nick Bullock 28/Aug/2012

+Echoes front cover. Nick Bullock downclimbing the North Face of Quitaraju, Peru, after making the first ascent of the Central B, 226 kb

Nick Bullock was a prison officer working in a maximum-security jail with some of Britain's most notorious criminals. Trapped in a world of aggression and fear, he felt frustrated and alone. Then he discovered the mountains.

Making up for lost time, Bullock soon became one of Britain's best climbers, learning his trade in the mountains of Scotland and Wales, and travelling from Pakistan to Peru in his search for new routes and a new way of seeing the world – and ultimately an escape route from his life inside.

Told that no one ever leaves the service – the security, the stability, the 'job for life' – Bullock focused his existence on a single goal: to walk free, with no shackles, into a mountain life.

Bullock's debut book Echoes is a powerful and compelling exploration of freedom – and what it means to live life on your own terms.

Exclusive excerpt:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=4888
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