THE AGE OF MOUNTAINEERING

This derives, the author says, from his early story, High Conquest, and brings the story of mountaineering through the decade and more of high achievement since. The scaling of Everest so soon after the conquest of Annapurna brought mountaineering to full maturity, and created a new army of armchair participants. This record of the rich background which made today's achievements possible is here presented by one whose greatest contribution lies in his skill to impart what mountain climbing means to the reading fraternity. he goes back to 1776 and Saussure, the first and one of the greatest, who challenged and ultimately conquered Mt. Blanc. Today, with the Alps scaled, the stress is not on What? but on How? And Ullman -- in successive stories of achievement and high endeavor, gives too the progress of techniques, equipment, scientific approach. The earlier chapters set the tone; later ones take one event after another; there is scarcely a dull area in the book, which combines the ""how-to"" with biography, anecdote and sheer adventure. Today the Scandinavian and Caucasus alone in Europe contain some heights that might still be ""first"". The Andes and the Rockies in the Americas, Greenland and the Arctic and Antarctic, Japan and the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand, all offer farflung challenge, now that this 100 year old sport has achieved world scale, and the men who climb are a fraternity who seek high adventure.