The West Virginia University Mountaineer is not just a mascot: it is a symbol of West Virginia history and identity embraced throughout the state. In this deeply informed but accessible study, folklorist Rosemary Hathaway explores the figure's early history as a backwoods trickster, its deployment in emerging mass media, and finally its long and ......
I walk alone. That is not down on the city streets where help or a sympathetic ear is never very far away but solo up in the rough country where I have climbed over a thousand mountains. I have no claim to fame expertise or celebrity status. I’m just an ordinary guy who endeavours to climb out of the ruts we call existence to tailor a ......
Imbued with a sense of place, Pete Sinclair climbed mountains and rescued others trying the same. He thrived on the risky business of ascending sheer rock, of moving from one adrenaline-boosting moment to another. In this book he recounts his mountain-climbing and park ranger days from 1959 to 1970, a time some people call a golden era of climbing ......
The San Francisco Bay Area abounds with superb rock climbing, including hidden gems far from the crowds. From the Vaqueros honeycombed sandstone of Castle Rock State Park to the Franciscan blue schist of Dry Creek Sea Crag, hard serpentine at Mount Tamalpais to the sparkling granite settled at the edge of the Consumnes River, Rock Climbing the San ......
Perched impossibly on a ridge overlooking a 10,000-foot drop into Tibet, Sano Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa wait. Heel to toe, connected at the waist by a pair of carabineers that's connected to nothing else, they stare down the North Face of Mount Everest, a red and white nylon tandem paragliding wing fluttering behind them. They know that ......
Traditional, or simply, trad climbing, is a do-it-yourself adventure requiring the climbing team to negotiate the climb and to carry, hand-place and remove most if not all components of the roped safety system. In The Trad Climber’s Bible, two of the most revered and respected trad climbers in the world, John Long and Peter ......
Discovering New Mexico's Mountains of the Four Directions
North of Santa Fe, the New Mexico landscape is framed by four high mountains. Although they are sacred to the Tewa Pueblo Indians, the four peaks are in different bureaucratic and cultural zones, which means that each peak attracts visitors but few non-Indian travellers visit more than one of the mountains. Tom Harmer's chronicle of climbing all ......
In David Black's Canyoneering: A Guide to Techniques for Wet and Dry Canyons, readers learn the hazards and risks of canyoneering, the skills required to gain mastery of canyoneering style and technique, and simple, effective ways to negotiate hazardous terrain. This completed updated, thorough, and to-the-point guide will provide easily ......
Layton Kor is pre-eminent in American mountaineering. He is considered the best rock climber of his generation, and his list of first ascents of technically difficult rock climbs, both free and aid, is perhaps unmatched by any American climber. In this book Kor tells the story in his own words of these groundbreaking and suspenseful climbs. ......
