NCW Libraries

"Now in her mid-thirties, Loewen has become a wife, a mother, and a leader of Seattle Mountain Rescue (SMR), a volunteer-based search-and-rescue operation. She no longer struggles with the respect of co-workers--she has it in spades--nor crippling self-doubt--overcome after hundreds of rescues. But she does still ponder the question of why she continues to head into the backcountry, confronting danger, risk, and, often, death. SMR is involved in everything...

When a climber gets caught in a blizzard, she encounters a stranded stranger and must to get them both down the mountain before nightfall.

A lavish visual survey of more than 80 of the world's greatest mountaineers--who they were, where they went, and how their expeditions shaped the course of human history--"Mountaineers" will explore the history of expeditions, from the Alps and other European peaks to Everest and other peaks in Himalayas, and the Andes. 360 pp.

In Continental Divide, Maurice Isserman tells the history of American mountaineering through four centuries of landmark climbs and first ascents. Mountains were originally seen as obstacles to civilization; over time they came to be viewed as places of redemption and renewal. The White Mountains stirred the transcendentalists; the Rockies and Sierras pulled explorers westward toward Manifest Destiny; Yosemite inspired the early environmental conservationists....

Whether it's a technical ascent of the great west wall of Elephants Perch or a scramble to the summit of 12,662-foot Mount Borah, here's your key to high adventure in Idaho. Tom Lopez has updated and expanded his encyclopedic guide to more than 800 summits. All the features that made the first edition so popular are here -- detailed route descriptions, difficulty ratings, summit heights, access information to hundreds of roads and trails, extensive...

"The story of a climbing adventure gone wrong in a remote Alaskan mountain range, the impossible rescue attempt that followed, and the fraught cost of survival"-- "In 2018, two couples set out on an expedition to Alaska's Hidden Mountains, one of the last wild ranges in North America. A rarity in modern climbing, the peaks were nearly unexplored and untouched, a place where few people had ever visited and granite spires still awaited first ascents....

"While you wouldn't expect climbing an 8000-meter peak in winter to be a popular activity, there have been 178 expeditions (as of 2019) to the Himalaya and Karakoram during the cruelest season to do just that. Polish alpinist, Voytek Kurtyka, termed the practice the "art of suffering." The stories here range from the French climber Elisabeth Revol's solo winter attempt of Makalu, to American Cory Richards and his dramatic effort on Gasherbrum II with...

Describes how individuals and teams attempted to scale peaks from Mount Erebus, Antarctica to Yosemite Valley, California, and discusses the freezing temperatures, cliffs, and dangerous conditions the climbers faced.