Books: “Recompense: Streams, Summits and Reflections,” by Bryan Irwin

Brian Irwin is a physician who likes to spend his spare time climbing, skiing, fishing and shooting photos. When he sent me his self-published essay collection, “Recompense: Streams, Summits and Reflections,” I, of course … yawned. Then I looked to the cover page and saw where some of his essays had been published: Alpinist, Rock and Ice, Freeskier, Couloir and the legendary Mountain Gazette. Ahem, yes, Dr. Irwin, let me take a look at this. Irwin is not Joe Simpson or David Roberts, but his experiences are closer to their adventures than they are to the average weekend warrior’s. You know, like: “The pair hardly speak. Not because of the wind. Because they’re looking for a couple that are probably dead.” Or, “Six of us from two separate rescue teams teetered high on the face, leaning into the wind for balance. We’d been paged out six hours earlier, at 9:00 p.m., after hikers had reported the distant screams of Lincoln’s girlfriend as she cried for help after their accident.” To buy a copy, head to Xlibris.com and do a book search for “recompense.”

Books: “How the West Was Warmed,” edited by Beth Conover

A book like this one takes on a few jobs: To get you to sit up and listen, to give you hope, and to call you to action, all while not boring the crap out of you. “How the West Was Warmed” does it all, including essays about climate change from more than 40 journalists, scientists, business people and policy makers. The first essay in the book is from MG contributor Auden Schendler, the sustainability director for the Aspen Skiing Company. Schendler wonders if it’s possible to talk about climate change without talking about, gulp, God. And, as Schendler says, “Solving climate change is going to be a bitch.” Author Laura Pritchett and her kids spend a day Dumpsterdiving for recyclable metals, h a r v e s t ing more than 1,000 pounds, which she calculates saves the earth 21,000 pounds of CO2 and 66 million BTUs. Todd Hartman examines the evangelical Christian movement (whose epicenter is arguably Colorado Springs) and its efforts to save the planet, a shift from some of its prior emphases. Jason Salzman wonders why The Denver Post never really made the link between climate change/global warming and pine beetle deforestation. Of course, the book also contains some drier, denser stuff that could cause you to fall asleep reading in bed, like “Red, Blue and Green — The Western Political Realignment,” but that’s minimal. Howthewestwaswarmed.com