Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House and Scott Johnston #
Training for the New Alpinism, Steve House and Scott Johnston. Although described/subtitled as “A Manual for the Climber as Athlete”, this book is equal parts textbook on exercise physiology and coffee table book on climbing, with an emphasis on the alpine variety. Because of that, while I may not be the target demographic (still no plans to go to very high altitude, nor to leave my full-time job), I still thoroughly enjoyed and got a lot out of this book. Quite a few inserts—mostly stories from the mountains—from a who’s-who of climbing provided both great history lessons, inspiration, and reflection. I found myself repeatedly taking pictures of paragraphs in the book (and the occasional epigraph here and there) to save for later. There’s also an ethos about why we climb (that eternal question) that I did find rang true to me: for self-improvement (see Chouinard quote re: Everest on this, recently echoed by Callard in the New Yorker, “Against Travel”). A-