A Peek At Best In Mountain Literature

The world’s big mountains aren’t in the local news so much now that John Roskelley is tied down to a real job as a Spokane County commissioner.

When Roskelley was unemployed and in his prime as America’s premier mountaineer, Eastern Washington had a window into the intricacies of international climbing. His conquests made good copy and piqued interest in mountain literature.

Nowadays, there has to be a great tragedy for news of the world’s highest peaks to trickle into this region.

So don’t wait for the news.

Go directly to the annual Banff Mountain Book Festival for a spotlight on the year’s best literature about mountains.

In November, an international panel released its winners from more than 90 books submitted from six countries. A few of these books are well publicized even in Spokane, including “Into Thin Air,” the tome of tragedy on Everest by Jon Krakauer.

But most of the titles would not get publicity outside the climbing world if the festival hadn’t flushed them out.

Consider “Mount Blanc,” by Italian climber and author Sefano Ardito, the grand prize winner at this year’s festival. Even the highest peak in Europe has difficulty being noticed in American bookstores.

This is one of the few large-format books on mountaineering that really is worth $48. It helps that great artists were capturing the drama of climbing this peak since the 1700s, long before Rainier and McKinley were seen as anything more than thrones for mountain spirits.

This book lays out two centuries of mountaineering in the next best manner to live footage. The words are to the point, and the photos and illustrations are superb.

But while this is the splashiest of the books entered in the festival this year, the list of finalists is the place to go for budgeting your mountaineering book budget.

For example:

Former Denali National Park ranger Jonathan Waterman departed from his haunts on Mount McKinley to retrace the route of the Duke of Abruzzi on his historic expedition a century ago on Alaska’s Mount St. Elias. No John Wayne movie matches the courage of the original Duke, who scaled a peak that turns away 70 percent and entombs 5 percent of the modern climbers who attempt it.

The resulting book, “A Most Hostile Mountain,” is dedicated “To Mom and Dad, who worried.”

The first good counter copy to Krakauer’s version of the 1996 Everest tragedy is “Dark Shadows Falling,” by Joe Simpson, author of “Touching the Void.”

“To Timbuktu,” by Mark Jenkins, runs contrary to the current plethora of Everest hype, which has suggested that heading into the unknown reeks of avarice, fame and foolishness. Jenkins reminds us there is nothing unusual or pathological about seeking adventure.

Just in case you’re ready to leave the armchair and head for the mountains yourself, the first stop should be a bookstore to get “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills,” edited Don Graydon and Kurt Hanson.

This is the standard text for mountaineering schools throughout the country. The book has been expanded and updated in the recently released sixth edition.

Beginning mountaineers who don’t have this book should simply go directly to one of the tragedy books to see where their fate might lie.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos (1 color)

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: BANFF FESTIVAL FAVORITES Finalists from almost 100 books entered in the 1997 Banff Mountain Book Festival are as follows. Winners were judged by a international panel of authors.

Winners “Monte Bianco,” By Stefano Ardiot, English translation (“Mount Blanc”) by The Mountaineers Books. Grand prize winner. “Into Thin Air,” Jon Krakauer, Villard Books, Random House. Winner, mountain literature category. “Advanced Rock Climbing,” John Long and Craig Luebbe, Chockstone Press. Winner, mountain exposition category. “Tibetan Voices,” by Brian Harris, Pomegranate Art Books. Winner, mountain image category. “I May Be Sometime,” Francis Spufford, Faber & Faber. Winner, adventure travel category. Other finalists “Escape Routes,” David Roberts, The Mountaineers Books. “Dark Shadows Falling,” Joe Simpson, Jonathan Cape, Random House. “The Death Zone,” Matt Dickson, Hutchinson, Random House. “The Climb,” Anatoli Boukreev and Westin DeWalt, St. Martin’s Press. “The Measure of a Mountain,” Bruce Barcott, Sasquatch Books. “A Most Hostile Mountain,” Jon Waterman, Henry Holt. “Risking Adventure,” Jim Haberl, Raincoast Books. “Canadian Rockies,” Graeme Pole, Altitude Publishing. “Backpackers Handbook,” Chris Townsend, Ragged Mountain Press (second edition). “Ghost Rock,” Joe Josephson, Chris Perry and Andy Genereux, Rocky Mountain Books. “Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills,” Don Graydon and Kurt Hanson editors, The Mountaineers Books (sixth edition). “Hiking Oregon’s Geology,” Ellen Bishop and John Allen, The Mountaineers Books. “Walking in Norway,” Connie Roose, Cicerone Press. “Wild Snow,” Lou Dawson, American Alpine Club. “Pass the Butterworms,” Tim Cahill, Villard Books. “Crossing Paths,” Craig Childs, Sasquatch Books. “To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger,” Mark Jenkins, William Morrow. “Cook & Peary,” Robert Bryce, Stackpole Books. “Wild Rivers, Wild Lands,” Ken Madsen, Lost Moose Publishing.