AAC Book Club: Winter Book Club Dates in Golden.

We are always looking for new books to read and new members so bring great ideas, great discussions and a friend to the December meeting. The meeting will be December 14, 2010 around 6:30 p.m .  See you then.

Future Front Range Book club books are going to be:

December 14: Fatal Mountaineer by Robert Roper.

This is the biography of Willi Unsoeld.

This mountaineering book is very well-written in a unique style that belongs to Robert Roper. It was unique from other mountaineering books in the way he intermixed climbing scenes with Willi Unsoeld?s philosophies on life. He contrasts the sport climber versus the true mountaineers who find spiritual strength in high places. He shows the contrast between team climbers and soloists. It goes beyond…

January 11: Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.

One of the great classics of mountaineering literature.

Touching the Void is a phenomenal true story about Joe Simpson and Simon Yates. The two young men decide to try to climb the heart stopping West-face of Sirula Grande. Though it was extremely cold, and a very difficult few days to reach the mountain’s summit, they succeeded. Only a short while later did the unthinkable happen, Joe had fallen and broken his leg. Even though Simon was sure that Joe would…

(You can watch the movie if you want… )

For February 8: We were thinking about reading Fifty Classic Climbs by Steve Roper and Alan Steck.

Detailed narratives profile fifty challenging climbs in premier mountaineering areas, describing the physical features and surroundings of the Alaskan ranges, the Rockies, the Bugaboos, the Washington Cascade, and the Sierra Nevada.

However copies of that book are hard to find (outside of the library).

So if you are interested in something like that, we could do Fifty Favorite Climbs by Mark Kroese.

This was printed in 2001 and can be found easily and cheaply.

* Source : – The Blog of The American Alpine Club Library

* Related Links : – Books.

* Previous story :

– AAC Book Club meeting: Freddie Wilkinson Slideshow and Booksigning – September 13th.

– AAC Book Club: Book Club Coming Attractions.

– AAC Book Club: Book Sale and Other February News.

– AAC Book Club meeting: February 9 – Forever on the Mountain, James Tabor.

– AAC Book Club : Winter Book Club Picks – Start Your Reading.

– AAC Book Club meeting: December 8th – Annapurna.

– American Alpine Club Events – Celebrate Eldo: AAC and ACE Book Release Party.

– AAC Book Club meeting: Everest – Alone At The Summit.

* Polish Himalayas – Become a Fan

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

AAC Book Club meeting: Freddie Wilkinson Slideshow and Booksigning – September 13th.

An insider’s account of one of the deadliest and most controversial tragedies in mountaineering history-the 2008 K2 disaster.

When eleven men perished on the slopes of K2 in August 2008, it was one of the deadliest single events in Himalayan climbing and made headlines around the world. Yet non of the surviving western climbers could explain precisely what happened. Their memories were self-admittedly fogged by exhaustion, hypoxia, and hallucinations. The truth of what happened lies with four Sherpa guides who were largely ignored by the mainstream media in the aftermath of the tragedy, who lost two of their own during the incident, and whose heroic efforts saved the lives of at least four climbers.

Based on his numerous trips to Nepal and in-depth interviews he conducted with these unacknowledged heroes, the other survivors, and the families of the lost climbers, alpinist and veteran climbing writer Freddie Wilkinson presents the true story of what actually occurred on the “savage” mountain. This work combines a criticism of the mainstream press’s less-than-complete coverage of the tragedy and an insightful portrait of the lives of 21st-century Sherpas into an intelligent, white-knuckled adventure narrative.”

Join Freddie Wilkinson September 13th 6:00pm in Foss Audtiorium, American Mountaineering Center, Golden, for a slideshow and discussion on his book One Mountain Thousand Summits.

Read more about Freddie at Mountain Hardwear, Climbing, and The Huffington Post.

Books will be for sale $20, and a percentage of sales will benefit the AAC Library.

Books for this fall in Golden are:

• September 14: Book Club meets at 6:30 to discuss Mountain Madness, by Robert Birkby. This is the autobiography of Scott Fisher
• October 12: Discussion of One Mountain, Thousand Summits (hopefully everyone will get a chance to meet Freddie in September)
• November 9: Brotherhood of the Rope Bernadette McDonald Biography of Charles Houston (see K2, The Savage Mountain)

* Source : – The Blog of The American Alpine Club Library

* Related Links : – Books.

* Previous story :

– AAC Book Club: Book Club Coming Attractions.

– AAC Book Club: Book Sale and Other February News.

– AAC Book Club meeting: February 9 – Forever on the Mountain, James Tabor.

– AAC Book Club : Winter Book Club Picks – Start Your Reading.

– AAC Book Club meeting: December 8th – Annapurna.

– American Alpine Club Events – Celebrate Eldo: AAC and ACE Book Release Party.

– AAC Book Club meeting: Everest – Alone At The Summit.

* Polish Himalayas – Become a Fan

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

AAC Book Club: Book Club Coming Attractions.

As some of you might have heard, the AAC’s book club has plans for global domination. In response to your requests for more local activities, we are hoping to launch book clubs in each AAC Section that wants one, possibly by winter!

All we need is you. Each book club needs a leader who is willing to find a place and time to meet, help the group pick the book they want to discuss, and then show up to help keep the conversation on track. Encouraging beer and special guests would be an added bonus.

The Library will help you by providing a suggested reading list, making sure we’ve got copies of those books available for checkout, and, when possible, working to get discounts, special guests or other interesting related events.

We’ll also post your meeting times, book selections, photos and write-ups on the Library Blog, High Places, and on our Facebook and Twitter accounts, and we hope you will all post there too.

Contact Beth Heller to see how you can help get it going! library[@]americanalpineclub[dot]org

We already have a book club going in Golden, so those of you on the Front Range, come on in on the 2nd Tuesday of each month.

Books for this fall in Golden are:

• September 13:  Freddie Wilkinson will do a slideshow and booksigning for One Mountain, Thousand Summits at 6pm
• September 14:  Book Club meets at 6:30 to discuss Mountain Madness, by Robert Birkby. This is the autobiography of Scott Fisher
• October 12:       Discussion of One Mountain, Thousand Summits (hopefully everyone will get a chance to meet Freddie in September)
• November 9:     Brotherhood of the Rope    Bernadette McDonald   Biography of Charles Houston (see K2, The Savage Mountain)

* Source : – The Blog of The American Alpine Club Library

* Related Links : – Books.

* Previous story :

– AAC Book Club: Book Sale and Other February News.

– AAC Book Club meeting: February 9 – Forever on the Mountain, James Tabor.

– AAC Book Club : Winter Book Club Picks – Start Your Reading.

– AAC Book Club meeting: December 8th – Annapurna.

– American Alpine Club Events – Celebrate Eldo: AAC and ACE Book Release Party.

– AAC Book Club meeting: Everest – Alone At The Summit.

* Polish Himalayas – Become a Fan

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

AAC Book Club: Book Sale and Other February News.

Annual Book Sale! February 20th, 2-6pm, Inverness Hotel – Denver, CO.

In conjunction with the 2010 Annual Dinner.  Go HERE to register for the dinner.  Jim Collins is the Keynote Speaker.  There will also be a presentation, Wild in the Sierra, by Literary Award Winner Doug Robinson.

All are welcome (Annual Benefit & Awards Dinner Guest List)

Stop by to see what we’ve got! We’ll have about 200-300 collectible books for sale, ranging from $20-$500. All proceeds benefit the library and the Armando Menocal Guidebook Collection. Read more about our ongoing book sales here.

Royal Robbins Booksigning!

We are pleased to have Royal Robbins as our guest at our Annual Book Sale!

Robbins, one of climbing’s great figures, has a new book called To Be Brave, which we will have for sale for $19.95.

Robbins’ climbing resume is staggering: First ascents on Yosemite’s Half Dome, El Capitan, as well as the Aiguille du Dru in Europe. Robbins is also the author of two seminal works on climbing, Basic Rockcraft and Advanced Rockcraft.

Here is the Wall Street Journal’s review.

So, stop by to say hello. Royal will be available to make yours a signed copy!

* Royal Robbins website.

AAC Book Club

The AAC Book Club is celebrating its one-year anniversary! And what a year it’s been. We’ve had Tom Hornbein, Stephen Venables, Mark Obmascik, and other authors join us for book discussions.

For March, we’ll be featuring Beyond the Mountain, by Steve House.

House is currently one of the world’s best alpinists. He and Vince Anderson forged a new direct line on Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face in 2006.

The book was the 2009 Boardman-Tasker winner.

You can find out what’s coming up if you click here!

* Source : – The Blog of The American Alpine Club Library

* Related Links : – Books.

– AAC Book Club meeting: February 9 – Forever on the Mountain, James Tabor.

– AAC Book Club : Winter Book Club Picks – Start Your Reading.

– AAC Book Club meeting: December 8th – Annapurna.

– American Alpine Club Events – Celebrate Eldo: AAC and ACE Book Release Party.

– AAC Book Club meeting: Everest – Alone At The Summit.

* Previous story :

– Lei Wang – Asian American woman to beat record in climbing Seven Summits.

– More Thoughts on Mallory, Irvine and the Camera.

– An Urgent Request from EverestER.

– Alan Arnette Explains The Champion Everest Supersuit.

– Himalaya Spring 2010 expeditions.

– 2010 climbing season kick-off: Everest and Himalaya list of expeditions!

– Everest Clean-Up Above 8000m.

– How Much Does it Cost to Climb the Seven Summits?

– Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Teaser Video.

– Dhaulagiri 1960-2010: 50 years anniversary special.

– Summit Day on Mt Everest – amazing video.

– Interview with Dave Hahn.

– The Deadly Side of Everest.

– The Conquest of Everest – 1953 style : amazing video.

– Everest 2010 season – Expeditions with any British Teams or Britons.

– Everest 2010: An Interview with Phil Crampton of Altitude Junkies.

– ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

– Alan Arnette’s Everest 2010 Coverage Begins, Double Traverse Announced!

– Everest Spring 2010 preview: Kaltenbrunner & Dujmovits.

– How Much Does It Cost To Climb Mt. Everest?

* Polish Himalayas – Become a Fan

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga

AAC Book Club meeting: February 9 – Forever on the Mountain, James Tabor.

Forever on the Mountain: The truth behind one of mountaineering’s most controversial and mysterious disasters.

Book club member, travel writer and Mountaineering Museum gift shop manager Martha Perantoni sends in the following description:

“Tabor’s exhaustive look at the doomed 1967 expedition to scale Alaska’s Mt. McKinley is an often gripping detailed account of the infamous climb that remains controversial.  Only five of the 12-man team survived the ascent to the 20,320-foot summit, making it one of the deadliest mountaineering disasters in North America.”

Book  Club meets from 6-7:30pm in the American Mountaineering Center, 10th and Washington, Golden, Colorado.  Stop by the library to find out which room, and check out our sale books!

Join the book club discussion group here!

Also, here’s what Book Club facilitator Jim Moss has to say about the upcoming books:

February 9: Forever on the Mountain by James M. Tabor an exhilarating story about a Denali climb in the 60’s resulting in a seven fatalities.  The book won the Banff Book Festival and 2007 NOBA award for History/Biography.  Two other books were written about the expedition early, one by both of the expedition leaders.  Joe Wilcox, one of the leaders of the expedition wrote his account in 1981 WHITE WINDS: AMERICA’S MOST TRAGIC MOUNTAINEERING EXPEDITION. The other expedition leader Howard Snyder wrote his account of what happened in 1973 THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING. All three books are written so differently that it is hard to tell the stories are from the same disaster.

March 9: Beyond the Mountain by Steve House. See Patagonia’s page too.
This is getting great reviews and Steve might join us by phone – it’s in the works!

April 13: K2, the Savage Mountain by Charlie Houston and Bob Bates. This is one of the all time great mountaineering stories. This is a must read for anyone in the mountaineering community.

Also for those of you who missed Mark Obmascik Halfway to Heaven it was another great night. Besides beer and mixed nuts!!! Mark gave a great presentation, when we finally let him. The book club of course jumped all over this great story of climbing, growing, meeting new people and raising a family. We also got to meet one of the real life people that Mark wrote about in his book. If you have not read Halfway to Heaven it is a great story and it is very well written.   I also love his previous book the Big Year, a story about three birders attempting to set a record in seeing the most birds in one year. Hard to believe that a book about birding could be exiting, but it is.!  Thanks Mark! (Mark was so impressed (?) with us that he joined the book club!)

* Source : – The Blog of The American Alpine Club Library

* Related Links :  – Books.

–  AAC Book Club : Winter Book Club Picks – Start Your Reading.

–  AAC Book Club meeting: December 8th – Annapurna.

–  American Alpine Club Events – Celebrate Eldo: AAC and ACE Book Release Party.

–  AAC Book Club meeting: Everest – Alone At The Summit.

* Previous story :

– How Much Does it Cost to Climb the Seven Summits?

– Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour Teaser Video.

– Dhaulagiri 1960-2010: 50 years anniversary special.

– Summit Day on Mt Everest – amazing video.

– Interview with Dave Hahn.

– The Deadly Side of Everest.

– The Conquest of Everest – 1953 style : amazing video.

– Everest 2010 season – Expeditions with any British Teams or Britons.

– Everest 2010: An Interview with Phil Crampton of Altitude Junkies.

– ExplorersWeb Year 2009 in Review: Farewell to friends.

– Alan Arnette’s Everest 2010 Coverage Begins, Double Traverse Announced!

– Everest Spring 2010 preview: Kaltenbrunner & Dujmovits.

– How Much Does It Cost To Climb Mt. Everest?

*  Polish Himalayas – Become a Fan

** zapraszam na relacje z wypraw polskich himalaistów.

zapraszam do subskrypcji mego bloga