Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #964677 in Books
• Published on: 1978-01-01
• Binding: Hardcover
• 608 pages

Customer Reviews

A chocolate box of climbing literature
With 125 articles in 688 pages the advantage of this book is that you can read a complete story in one sitting, making it ideal to take to work and dip into at lunch time.

Apart from the exception of some of the pieces on mountain education (these can be a little dry and boring) all the articles express the rich variety of climbing. From pure rock climbing in England and Yosemite, through the Alps and Scottish Winter climbing, and taking in expeditions to the greater ranges. This means that the reader will probably have visited some of the venues or have climbed some of the routes and will be able to relate to the authors experiences.

First published in 1978 the authors are not the current activists, but at the time they were forcing new ground . They range from the likes of Menlove Edwards and Colin Kirkus through to Ian McNaught Davis and Reinhold Messner, giving an insight into on sighting new routes with basic equipment etc. The only downside of this is that some of the articles are a little dated in terms of technique and equipment used. However the article by Colin Kirkus - Beginnings has been inspiring people to start climbing from 1941 to the present date.

In the articles people are not afraid to mention failing or having epics on straightforward routes - the person who made the ski jump for the James Bond file 'The Spy Who Loved Me' gives a superb example of this on the north ridge of the Peigne.

All in all a good anthology that will be re-read several time over, it will answer the question - Are you an ape, or a ballerina?