History of the Great Mountaineering Adventures

Rating:
Summary: Great pictures, great history
Review: This gorgeous picture book presents an excellent history of world mountaineering. I'm really particular about the mountain picture books I buy. All too many of them have fuzzy or poorly printed photos. Not this one. The photographs, both color and black and white, are printed on high quality, glossy paper with a very fine line screen, probably well above 200 lpi. Many of the photographs are absolutely outrageous. Check out the chapter on the Patagonian Andes. That chapter alone is worth the price of the book for extensive coverage of perhaps the most jaw-dropping mountain landscape in the world. Besides the modern color photographs, there are many historical black and white photographs of equal quality and sharpness, plus many early engravings of mountain scenes by 18th century explorers. The text itself is well-written with a satisfying level of detail that makes you want to keep reading, page after page. Most mountain picture books I wind up buying I just skip the words and relish the pictures. But you'd be missing a lot not to actually READ this one. Even if you don't, however, the pictures alone are more than worth the price of this book. Given the high quality of the reproductions and the quality of the compositions chosen, this book is a bargain.