Yosemite

Rating:
Summary: Stunning Photos-Great History
Review: Alex Huber and Heinz Zak have produced an astonishingly beautiful history of Yosemite Climbing. This is a wonderful advance on George Meyers classic book, Yosemite Climber. Meyers put Yosemite Valley climbing before the world and drew the world's climbers to its walls. Huber and Zak, writing from a generation later reveal the advances that have occured from the combined attetion of internationals and locals alike. Clearly, there is no place in the climbing world like Yosemite Valley and this book clearly shows how and why this is so. Well written, clear, with no translation problems, the text provides a wonderful history of valley climbing. Contributions by other important climbers across Yosemite's history insure the narrative is balanced, accurate, and interesting. The photographs are unprecedented and inspiring. A delightful book that I have picked up time and again and recomend without reservation.

Rating:
Summary: Desperate for Fame
Review: Maybe it was the way this book was translated, but Alex Huber comes across as a close-minded, self-worshiping fascist! I am a 20 year Yosemite local and can recognize his thinly veiled attempt to revise history and cast himself as the hero. If I didn't know the truth, I would assume that Huber discovered Yosemite, was the first to think about free-climbing on the big walls and was planning to have his face carved on El Capitan! A low point in the history of climbing books!!

Rating:
Summary: Stunning
Review: Through the lens of Hans Zak, through the finesse and strength of Alex Huber, through the eyes of legendary climbers such as John Long and Lynn Hill, this absolutely stunning book of photography and historical narrative is a must have for anyone interested in Yosemite's awe-inspiring walls and the adventurers who climb them.

Rating:
Summary: World Class Climbers, World Class Photographer
Review: Yosemite is probably the most visited of the major national parks. The park has two parts, the valley floor and the fifty or so mile road through the high country.

Most people (I've read 95%) never leave the valley. The valley is indeed beautiful - wild animals, water falls, and more. But the high country is really special. <BR><BR>Half dome for instance is a giant smooth rounded pebble that from one side looks like something that you'd find in a creek bed, except that it's giant size. But then it's cut in two, with the cut away half simply gone. The result is one of the most spectacular mountains in the world.

Here in this book, is Yosemite. It's pictured from a rock climbers standpoint. And from that standpoint it shows places that I don't want to even think about going. But the views you get. You simply can't imagine. The photographer is a world class climber in his own right. Then he combines this with a camera that he obviously knows how to use.

There are a lot of things here (nearly every picture in fact) that I'm not going to see in real life. I'm glad that this book exists.