Stone Mountains, Best Climbs and Skiing Tales

Stone Mountains, Best Climbs and Skiing Tales

by Brendan Leonard April 5, 2011 April 2011

“Stone Mountains,” by Jim Thornburg “Stone Mountains” is 10 pounds of coffee table awesomeness. Photographer Jim Thornburg masterfully captures it all in this 320-page behemoth — in his photos, the rock is the star just as much as the climber. There are plenty of photos of climbers on moderate routes, which makes the book inspirational [...]

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Take A Seat

Take A Seat

by MG Admin February 1, 2011 Books

“Take A Seat,” by Dominic Gill In June 2006, Dominic Gill pedaled south from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on a tandem bicycle loaded with video equipment and everything he needed to survive, but an empty seat on the back of the bike. He planned to bicycle the longest land route in the world, to the southernmost [...]

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Breaking Into the Backcountry

Breaking Into the Backcountry

by MG Admin February 1, 2011 Books

“Breaking Into the Backcountry,” by Steve Edwards In 2001, Steve Edwards, a 26-year-old Purdue University professor who had “never been much of an outdoorsman,” won a PEN/Northwest writing residency, earning him a seven-month stint as the caretaker of a backcountry homestead on Oregon’s Rogue River. He was a flatlander, a virgin fly-fisherman, 70 miles from [...]

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Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America

Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America

by MG Admin January 12, 2011 Books

Say you get five books in your library. I pick Hemingway’s “Moveable Feast,” “The Great Rock (and roll) Discography,” by Martin C. Strong, “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” (counts as one, because that’s how Tolkien wrote it), Darwin’s “On The Origin of Species” and now this: “Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America.” In [...]

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In Search of Powder: A Story of America’s Disappearing Ski Bum

In Search of Powder: A Story of America’s Disappearing Ski Bum

by MG Admin January 12, 2011 Books

In the 2002 book, “Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry Is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment,” author Hal Clifford wrote (I’m paraphrasing here) that ski towns used to be cool because they attracted fringe elements like ski bums, hippies and artists, but then rich people found out about them, and of [...]

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Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock

Desert Towers: Fat Cat Summits and Kitty Litter Rock

by MG Admin December 9, 2010 Books

I know it’s ski season, not climbing season, but this is my favorite book to come across my desk ever since I started doing this column. And climbers need something to read in the off-season. Boulder climbing legend and desert tower connoisseur Steve “Crusher” Bartlett has put together a masterpiece: The history of tower climbing [...]

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Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 50th Anniversary Edition

Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, 50th Anniversary Edition

by Brendan Leonard October 8, 2010 Books

Most of us who have gone look- ing for enlightenment in the big hills, armed with crampons or ropes or ice axes or other implements — but without paying for professional mountain guides — have a worn copy of one of the first seven editions of “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills” somewhere on our [...]

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Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

Ranger Confidential: Living, Working and Dying in the National Parks by Andrea Lankford

by Brendan Leonard October 8, 2010 Books

If you’ve spent any amount of time in our beloved national parks, you’ve probably seen some pretty bizarre stuff. A friend of mine who guides in the Grand Canyon once saw a woman actually pick up and throw a squirrel over a cliff at one of the South Rim viewpoints after it scampered up to [...]

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Wilderness Survival Handbook: Primitive Skills for Short-Term Survival and Long Term Comfort

Wilderness Survival Handbook: Primitive Skills for Short-Term Survival and Long Term Comfort

by Brendan Leonard September 20, 2010 Books

Michael Pewtherer’s “Wilderness Survival Handbook” is broken into two parts: Part I is “Seven-Day Survival,” covering all the skills you’ll need to stay alive for a week in the woods, and Part II is “Beyond Survival,” covering everything you’ll need to drop off the radar indefinitely. Essentially, if you buy this book, you should rip [...]

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One Mountain, Thousand Summits

One Mountain, Thousand Summits

by Brendan Leonard September 20, 2010 Books

In last month’s MG, I reviewed Graham Bowley’s book, “No Way Down: Life and Death on K2,” about the 2008 K2 disaster in which 11 climbers died. I talked about how impressive Bowley’s reporting on the event was, especially because he wasn’t on K2, and wasn’t even a climber. Well, climber and author Freddie Wilkinson [...]

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