Newsgroups: rec.backcountry From: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya) Subject: [l/m 1/29/93] References Distilled Wisdom (28/28) XYZ Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Date: Thu, 28 Jan 93 12:20:16 GMT Message-ID: <1993Jan28.122016.15019@nas.nasa.gov> Lines: 939 Panel 28 REFERENCES References to whitewater are now in rec.boats.paddle Climbing references will shortly be moved to rec.climbing This is not intended as a comprehensive list. What do you want? Hand holding in the wilderness? Part of the adventure is in the the self-discovery. This is just a start. Try a library. For instance, climbing and backpacking is the 796.5[012] section (Dewey) or the G 505-510 and GV 190-200 in the Library of Congress section (how do I know that? I've spent a lot of time there). You can find other topics in similar areas. Are you familiar with Books-in-Print? Just look. You can't learn all wisdom from a book, but think of a book as containing the "syntax" of wisdom. In the past, none of these books existed, so their contents get better thru time. BOOKS, Dave Roberts published a fine review of beginning mountaineering books in the 1971 Ascent. While those books were obviously dated, the qualities of the review (all bad) were good. Roberts characterized "Nine Deadly Sins:" Sin of anachronism Sin of atavism Sin of provincialism Sin of over-specificity Sin of technique for it's own sake Sin of equipment freaking Sin of dullness Sin of moral didacticism Sin of ignorance Considering these when getting ANY book. How-to-get started Backpacking: %A Colin Fletcher %T The Complete Walker %X Get the most current version available (III or IV). %X This book unlike most books tries to convey the feeling. Also try (for enjoyment): %A Colin Fletcher %T The Thousand Mile Summer %X Realize that trip was done in 1958 before the outdoor fad. Not a how-to book. %A Colin Fletcher %T The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher %D 1988 %X It is suggested that one read Robert Persig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" first. %X Subtle. %A H. Manning %T Backpacking One Step at a Time %I [Not Mountaineers] %C ??? %K children section, %X Get current (Green?) edition. %X Enjoyable cartoons by Bob Cram. %X More enjoyable Bob Cram cartoons. %A John Hart %T Walking Softly in the Wilderness %I Sierra Club Books %C San Francisco, CA %X Can't out-Fletcher Fletcher, but comes close %X First useful reference on minimum impact ideas %A Bruce Hampton %A David Cole %T Soft Paths - How to enjoy the wilderness without harming it %I Stackpole Books %C Harrisburg, PA 800-READ-NOW %D 1988 Food and Cooking %A Yvonne Prater %A Ruth Dyar Mendenhall %T Gorp, Glop and Glue Stew: Favorite Foods from 165 outdoor experts %I The Mountaineers %C Seattle, WA %X Highly recommended by Backpacker %E Sukey Richards %E Donna Orr %E Claudia Lindholm, eds. %T NOLS Cookery %I NOLS Publications %C Lander, WY %D 1988 %X Excellent discussion of nutrition, bulk foods, and rationing %A Stephen Herrero %T Bear Attacks - Their Causes and Avoidance %I Lyons & Burford %C NY %D 1985 %X The Table of Contents: 1) Grizzly Bear Attacks 2) Sudden Encounters with Grizzlies 3) Provoked Attacks 4) The Dangers of Garbage and Habituation 5) Other Attacks 6) Aggression without Injury 7) The Tolerant Black Bear 8) The Predaceous Black Bear 9) Avoiding Encounters 10) Characteristics of Bears 11) The Evolution of Bears 12) Bear Foods and Location 13) Signs of Bear Activity 14) Learning and Instinct 15) Aggression and Submission 16) Bears and People in Rural and Remote Areas 17) Bear Management Climbing Rock This section moved to rec.climbing FAQ. %A James Wilkerson, M.D. Ed. %T Medicine for Mountaineering, 4rd ed. %I The Mountaineers %C Seattle %D 1992 %X TAKE A FIRST AID CLASS. %A James A. Wilkerson, MD Ed. %A Cameron C. Bangs, MD %A John S. Hayward, PhD %T Hypothermia, Frostbite and Other Cold Injuries %I The Mountaineers %C Seattle %D 1986 %A Peter Steele %T Far From Help! Backcountry Medical Care %I Cloudcap %C Box 27344, Seattle, 1991 %X similar to "Medical handbook for mountaineers" published by Constable in UK. Orienteering %A Bjorn Kellstrom %T Be Expert in Map and Compass %I Charles Scribner's Sons %C New York, NY %D 1976 %X Oldy but goody; best intro to Silva system %X Available from any Boy Scout merchan. dist. %A W. S. Kals %T Land Navigation Handbook %I Sierra Club Books %C San Francisco, CA %D 1983 %X Learn how to use that altimeter, understand declination %X Excellent for hints and unconventional thinking Any winter travel -- any person who ignores this critical subject deserves to become loam. %A Ron Perla %A Martinelli %T Avalanche Handbook %I USDA %X This is as detailed as it gets. %X Inexpensive. %A Ed LaChapelle %T ABC of Avalanche Safety, 2nd ed.[?] %I The Mountaineers %C Seattle, WA %D 1985, 1978, 1961 %X $5.95 %A Tony Daffern %T Avalanche Safety for Skiers and Climbers %I Rocky Mountain Books %C Calgary %I Cloudcap Press %C Seattle, WA %I Diadem Books %C London %D 1983 %X It seems to have reasonable references (Perla, LaChapelle, conference reports, etc.). It covers route finding, mountain weather, snow structure and metamorphasis (with some neat snow crystal pictures from Perla), avalanche types, hazard evaluation, rescue, and first aid. The avalanche chapters in general books such as "Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills" was not complete enough). Some notoriously BAD books as well: Books to avoid: Books by Bridge, Casewit, Ullman, Bastille, Kingsley. Avoid wasting your time, but they offer opportunities to critique. Anything authored by Curtis Casewit. James Ramsey Ullman (was said, "He's in the penality box") Ullman clearly wrote the the best known, most popular works pre-1970. Ullman was invited on the '63 Everest expedition as a token gesture to raise funds from a publishing company: The Age of Mountaineering, Americans on Everest, The White Tower (bad), Straight Up (John Harlin, II) Avoid the Icecraft book by Norman Kingsley. Some works by Jeremy Bernstein. His writing is fair. Dave Roberts also reviewed the basic form of all climbing autobiographies. They largely all read the same. To quote Roberts in the 1974 Ascent: Alas, no mountain climber has yet written a good autobiography. ... Climbing autobiographies are written, usually by men (and an occasional woman) who are still in the thick of it, ... In short, too close to their subject to see it well. Another basic flaw stems from the form which every autobiographer seems to chose whether out of habit, imitation, or simple laziness. Namely, a chronological recipe of major climbs and expeditions. V.S. Pritchett, the Engish writer who waited until his late 60's to to begin his own autobiography, warned in a lecture once that "chronology is the death of a vast amount of autobiography." The writer, he argued, ought to view what he is doing as "conducting a search," not "traipsing down chronology." ... So impersonal, in fact, are most climbing autobiographies, that one could well paste together from them a kind of Standard Life, and thus do away with the need for writing any further ones: Start with the Anemic Childhood... Proceed with Early Poverty and Crazy Stunts. ...Interrupted by -- First Encounter with Death... Fame. (At last.) And with it, the first strange tones of public modesty. Fused with the discovery of an inner invincibility. ... Somewhere about here, life intrudes in the form of Marriage -- to a hitherto-unmentioned, henceforth hazy female. ... On to other things. There are, alas, too few new worlds to conquer, and fame and marriage have taken their toll. The climber does well to undergo, at this point, a Deeper Experience in the mountains.... And at last, a Summing Up? So cynical? So bad? Roberts takes six pages and makes a very strong case. His arguments touch every major climbing book to that point, and these generalize to all subsequent books. He regards Patey's and Menlove Edward's book "Samson" as perhaps the two best books written. The latter is heavy stuff (very much like Alan Turing). Anyways, we'll say no more and let you discover the above for yourself (as it should be in a wilderness). %A Heinrich Harrer %T Seven Years in Tibet %A David Roberts %T Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative %X About the unsuccessful attempt by Roberts and Don Jensen (Jensen pack and the Jensen Bombshelter Tent) to climb Mt. Debroah in Alaska. Interesting introspective reading. %A David Roberts %T Great Expedition Hoaxes %A David Roberts %T Moments of Doubt %I The Mountaineers %C Seattle, WA %D 1986 %X Anthology of short non-fiction articles. %X Roberts made part of his living (after leaving mathematics) by outdoor instruction and as an English prof in the NE. During this time he wrote for Outside Magazine. This volume is a collection of Outside articles and other works. The title derives from a very powerful article about the loss of two very close friends (one in Boulder and the other in Alaska [Huntington]). The chapters "Rafting by the BBC" and "Burnout in the Maze" [for any outdoor ed types] were pleasant surprises. Unfortunately, some of Robert's most important and controversial articles on "The Failure" of American women's expeditions are included. Other subjects include people: Messner, Roskelly, and others. A cute article on bouldering. %A Kenneth Brower %T The Starship and the Canoe %I Harper and Row %D 1978 Robin xxx: The [Voyage of the] Dove %A Felice Benuzzi %T No Picnic on Mt. Kenya %X The real account of two Italian POWs during WWII who escaped after fashioning climbing gear from kitchen utensils. They got up the 3rd summit. All the more interesting because it happened. %A Patrick McManus %T They Shoot canoes, don't they? %T the grasshopper trap %T A fine and pleasant misery %T watchagot stew" - with recipes, cowritten by his sister %T kid camping from Aye! to Z" %X 5 of about eight books. All stories (except those in the last two books) are short pieces which appeared in Field+Stream or Outdoor Life's "The Last Laugh" column. %X campfire reading %A GJF Dutton %T The Ridiculous Mountains %A Jack Kerouac %T Dharma Bums %X Though it isn't educational. %A Peter Steele %T Doctor on Everest %I Hodder & Stoughton %D 1972 %X It's an account of being the doctor on the 1971 Everest expedition. It was an international expedition that attempted both the West Ridge, and the South West Face, and unfortunately ended in acrimony. Anyway, I think it's a good book, partly because it's a lot more human than the "Hard men, hanging by a hair of Nanga Parbat" of Chris Bonnington et al. Popular with many readers and requiring a perverse sense of reality are the writings of the late Edward Abbey best known for %A Edward Abbey %T Desert Solitaire %D 1968 %A Edward Abbey %T The Monkey Wrench Gang %D 1975 %X one of the first eco-rebellion novels and a slew of short collections and novels. Abbey defies simple characterization, he would want it that way. "Civilization is the kid with the Molotov cocktail, culture is the LA cop or Soviet Tank which guns him down." --St. Ed, DS as Rod Nash knows as my personal favorite. Abbey, Edward "Down the River", "Journey Home" "The Brave Cowboy" "Hayduke Lives" (and other 'Hayduke' novels) "Black Sun" Free Speech: The Cowboy and His Cow Univ. of Mont. 1985 Commencement address in One Live at A Time Please Less well known is Farley Mowat. Numerous texts. %A Farley Mowat -_The Top of the World trilogy (I think that's the title) Vol I, _Tundra_ (the exploration of the NW Territories) Vol II, _Ordeal by Ice_(search for the NW Passage) Vol III, _The Polar Passion_ (race for the North Pole) These are collections of original sources (extracts from expedition logs, etc.) with commentary by Mowat. The most complete history I've personally read. %A Farley Mowat %T The People of the Deer %X A heart_breaking account of the modern fate of the inland tribes of the Northwest Territories. %A Farley Mowat %T The Siberians %X anyone reading it also read any articles about Siberia and Lake Baikal which have appeared in _National Geographic_ in the last two years. It seems ole Farley had a huge blind spot when it came to questioning the amount of effective dissent and input local peoples (particularly those living in "autonomous" Soviet republics) had in making decisions affecting their homes and homelands. Pity, though. And I rather doubt that whoever acheives defacto stewardship over those lands next will do better, but it's pretty sad to see what is happening and imagine that we'll never know what we've missed. Photography most any book by Ansel Adams There are other authors. Look and shoot. Trial and error. HISTORY and THINKING: %A Roderick Nash %T Wilderness and the American Mind, 3rd. ed. %I Yale U. Press %E Roderick Nash, ed. %T American Environmentalism: Readings in Conservation History, 3rd %I McGraw-Hill %D 1990 %X Interested in deep ecology, overpopulation, the sportsman's role, more? %X Nash includes selections that sometimes present alternative views to his %X ~1750 until present %A Roderick Nash %T The Rights of Nature %I U. Wisc. Press %C Madison, WI %D 1988 %A Joseph Sax %Z UC Berkeley, Law School %T Mountain without Handrails %D 1980 %X Excellent reflections on wilderness and national parks. %A Aldo Leopold %T The Sand County Almanac Leopold, Aldo: "For Earth's Sake; The Life and times of David Brower" "Round River" .. includes long stretches from Leopold's journals of wilderness canoe trips into the Quetico, and to the delta of the Colorado before the BLM destroyed it to make Lake Mead.... also the original volume containing Leopold's seminal essays on the "land ethic"; %A David Ehenfeld %T The Arrogance of Humanism %I Oxford U. Press %C Oxford %D 1978 %A Laura Waterman %A Guy Waterman %T Forest And Crag %I AMC Books %C Boston, MA %X Subtitle: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains Scrupulously researched (100+ pages of references), Fascinating and enormously entertaining Any of John Muir's books %A H. D. Thoreau %T Walden %A Lao Tsu %T Tao Te Ching %A Terry and Renny Russell %T On the Loose %I Sierra Club / Ballentine Books %D 1965 %X May be out-of-print, check used bookstores %X Excellent photos of pre-dam Glen Canyon, powerful prose and quotations %A Chris Jones %T Climbing in North America %I Univ. of CA Press. %C Berkeley, CA %D 1976 %X A good history. Has taken some criticism, but many areas are minor. %A Richard Mitchell %Z OSU %T The Mountain Experience: Psychology and Sociology of Adventure %I Univ. of Chicago Press %C Chicago, IL %D 1983 %A Kathleen Meyer %T How to Shit in the Woods %I Ten Speed Press %O ISBN:0-89815-319-0 Caving: _On Rope_ by Allen Padgett and Bruce Smith available at the National Speleological Society Dept. 19 Cave Avenue Huntsville, AL 35810 (205) 852-1300 or from Speleobooks PO Box 10 Schoharie, NY 12157 (518) 295-7978 Equipment may be ordered from (among a number of other places, including REI): Bob & Bob PO Box 441-N Lewisburg, WV 24901 (304) 772-5049 _The Caves Beyond_, Lawrence and Brucker, Zephyrus Press (may be out of print) The Floyd Collins Crystal Cave Expedition in the 1950's. Brucker, Roger and Watson, Richard _The Longest Cave_, Brucker and Watson, Knopf, 1976 The exploration of Flint Ridge after the above expedition, and its connection to Mammoth Cave in 1972. _Carlsbad, Caves and a Camera_, Nymeyer, Zephyrus Press, 1978 Early (1930-1940) explorations and early cave photos by the author and his friends. Very nice book--give you the flavor of what it must have been like back then to go caving when the sport/hobby/science was in its infancy. Well, here's a few reviews, just be careful with that axe, Eugene... Pat O'Connell NSS 13878RL %A Joe Back %T Horses, Hitches & Rocky Trails %A John McPhee %T Coming to the Country %T The Control of Nature %T Basin and Range %T Encounters with the Archdruid %T The Pine Barrens %T Survival of Bark Canoe %T Rising Up From the Plains %X geology of Absarokas,YellostoneNP Peter Freuchen - _The Book of the Eskimo_ Freuchen was a trading post factor in the Hudsons Bay area around the turn of the century. He 'went native', marrying an Inuit, and describes their culture intimately. The account is by turns delightful and horrifying. You don't want to be an Eskimo. Joe McGuiness (sp?) - _Going to Extremes_ Two very different looks at modern Alaska by two very different writers. Each excellent in its' own way. Adolph Murie - _The Wolves of Mt. McKinley_ A deep look at the natural environment of the Great Land, and a wonderful adventure story, disguised as a scientific report. Murie also has a couple of other books worth reading, and his wife wrote one called _Two in the Far North_ about raising a family in the arctic wilderness. And here are a few about the Antarctic: Cherry-Gerard - _The Worst Journey in the World_ They decided to travel on foot through the Antarctic winter to visit an Emperor penguin colony.. Alfred Lansing - _Endurance_ Don't miss this one. An expedition under Shacklton attempted to cross the Ice from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea via the South Pole. Their ship was caught in the ice and crushed, stranding them in the Earth's most hostile environment, thousands of miles from any possible help. There has probably never been a greater survival story. Douglas Mawson - _The Home of the Blizzard_ The official account of the Mawson expedition. This was, I believe, the first Australian Antarctic Expedition. At one point Mawson was dog-sledding two hundred miles from base when a crevasse swallowed the sled with all the food and one of his two companions. The sequel was as dramatic as the Scott disaster, and should have been as famous; but the two happened at the same time, so this one sort of dropped out of history... (an Australian author. Alzheimer's again..) - _Mawson's Will_ A modern retelling of the Mawson story. Probably easier to find than the former. Also draws on private diaries, etc., and is not obligated to maintain a Victorian Stiff Upper Lip, so it is better reading. Chuck Smythe John Maxtone-Graham, _Safe_Return_Doubtful_ A history of Arctic/Antarctic exploration (Title taken from supposed newspaper ad taken out in an English paper by Shackleton recruiting for an Antarctic expedition.) Pierre Berton, _The_Arctic_Grail_ A history of exploration of the Northwest Passage Pierre Berton, _The_Klondike_Fever_ Story of the 1898 Alaskan/Yukon gold rush Axcell, Claudia et al _Simple_Foods_for_the_Pack_ (The Sierra Club Guide to Delicious Natural Foods for the Trail) Sierra Club Books ISBN 0-87156-757-1 %A Peter Freuchen %T My Life in Greenland Mark Holbrook %A Rachel Carson %T Silent Spring %D 1962? %X THE great book. %A Loren Eisley %T The Unexpected Universe %T The Immense Journey %T The Invisible Pyramid %X All have shining moments of insight and the writing is beautifully lyrical. %A ??? %T Words for the Wild %I Sierra Club Books Try other books, carriable on topics such as geology, field biology, etc. %A Steven K. Roberts %T Computing Across America %O wordy@cup.portal.com %T Cross-Country Skiing by Gillette, and Dostal %T Mountain Skiing by Bein [Dated] various books by Tejada-Flores Prater's book Snowshoeing, 3rd ed. Fly Fishing: %A Leo Wolfinger, III (Sheridan Anderson) %T The Curtis Creek Manifesto Lastly: "Real Programmers don't play tennis, or any sport that requires you to change clothes. Mountain climbing is OK, and real programmers always wear their climbing boots to work in case a mountain should suddenly spring up in the middle of a machine room." from: "Real programmers don't write specs" in %A George S. Almasi %A Allan Gottlieb %T Highly Parallel Computing %I Benjamin/Cummings division of Addison Wesley Inc. %D 1989 %K ISBN # 0-8053-0177-1, book, text, Ultracomputer, grecommended, %$ $36.95 %X This is a kinda neat book. There are special net antecdotes which makes this interesting. What does this have to do with parallel computing? Everything. Get the book to find out why. Sources: [try local stores, else:] Michael Chessler Books, Denver, CO (800) 654-8502 The Mountaineers, Seattle, WA (800) 553-4453 Sierra Club Books/Random House (212) 872-8076 TABLE OF CONTENTS of this chain: 28/ References (written) <* THIS PANEL *> 1/ DISCLAIMER 2/ Ethics 3/ Learning I 4/ learning II (lists, "Ten Essentials," Chouinard comments) 5/ Summary of past topics 6/ Non-wisdom: fire-arms topic circular discussion 7/ Phone / address lists 8/ Fletcher's Law of Inverse Appreciation and advice 9/ Water Filter wisdom 10/ Words from Rachel Carson 11/ Snake bite 12/ Netiquette 13/ Questions on conditions and travel 14/ Dedication to Aldo Leopold 15/ Leopold's lot. 16/ Morbid Backcountry 17/ Information about bears 18/ Poison ivy, frequently ask, under question 19/ Lyme disease, frequently ask, under question 20/ "Telling questions" backcountry Turing test (under construction) 21/ AMS 22/ Words from Foreman and Hayduke 23/ A bit of song (like camp songs) 24/ What is natural? 25/ A romantic notion of high-tech employment 26/ Other news groups of related interest, networking 27/ Films/cinema references (5.59/LAI-3.2) id AA06954; Mon, 16 Nov 92 09:24:31 CST Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 09:21:34 -0600 From: John McCollum Message-Id: <199211161521.AA22924@buggs.Mtc.Ti.Com> To: eugene@wilbur.nas.nasa.gov Subject: backcountry reading Status: R Eugene, after seeing the discussion on backcountry reading on rec.backcountry, I decided to send you my list accumulated from the newsgroup over the last few years. Thought you might be interested for your FAQ panel 28. It is a little long so edit at will. Rgds, John McCollum Texas Instruments Internet: jmcc@ticipa.mtc.ti.com PO Box 655012 M/S 3635 TI MSG: JMCC Dallas, TX 75265 Voice: (214) 917-2201 FAX: (214) 917-2939 ================================================================================ Bass, Rick "Days of Heaven" ("The Best American Short Stories 1992") This story allegorically raises an essential dilemma of the modern wilderness lover: How do I help protect a wilderness without simultaneously reducing my access to it? dovey@renoir.llnl.gov (Donald Dovey) Berton, Pierre "The Artic Grail" (Northwest Passage exploration) "The Klondike Fever" (1898 Alaskan/Yukon gold rush) "The Whitewater Sourcebook" , Menasha River press Brook, Paul "The House of LIfe" , life and writing of Rachel Carson Brown, Tom "Field Guide to Wilderness Survival", "Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking" "Guide to Wild Edible and Medicinal Plants" "The Tracker", "The Search" "The Vision" "The Quest" Brucker, Roger "Trapped" (caving,cave) Caras, Roger "Monarch of Deadman Bay; the life and death of a Kodiak bear " The Custer wolf Animals in their places: tales from the natural world Creatures of the night Dangerous to man: the definitive story of wildlife's reputed danger Last chance on earth; a requiem for wildlife Mara Simba : the African lion North American mammals; fur-bearing animals fo the United States Source of the thunder; the biography of a California condor The venomous animals The Forest (Read "The Monarch of Deadmans Cove" for an increadible account of a ledgendary great Kodiak Bear who ranged in the Deadmans Cove area for 16-18 years . You won't want to put it down.. ) Cole, David "Soft Paths" Pub; Stackpole Books Dahl, Roald (sic) "The Best of Roald Dahl" If you need some good campfire stories, I would warmly recommend 'The best of Roald Dahl', a collection of his best stories, all very suitable for a campfire. From: wlieftin@cs.vu.nl (Liefting Wouter) Denman, Earl; "Alone to Everest" DuFresne, Jim "Tramping in New Zealand" Pub;Lonely Planet Publications Frost, Robert; "The Gift Outright" "Once by the Pacific" Gatty, Harold "Nature is Your Guide" (or How to Find Your Way on Land and Sea) Gontran de Poncins "Kabloona" (life with the Inuit's in the 1930's) Hemingway, Earnest "the Last Good Country" "Big Two-Hearted River" Hillerman, Tony "A Thief of Time" "The Dark Wind" Hutchinson, Derek "Sea Kayaking" pub. Globe Pequot Press, 1985 Kane, Joe "Running the Amazon" Latimer, Carole "Wilderness Cuisine" food, cooking, menus, .. Maclean, Norman "A River Runs Through It" Manes, Christopher "Green Rage" (Earth First!, environmental civil disobediance) Mason, Bill movies now on video: Song of the Paddle, Path of the Paddle, McHugh, Gretchen "The Hungry Hiker's Guide to Good Food (?)" food,cooking, menus Moore, J.R. "Nahani Trailhead" ....about a couple who built and lived in a cabin in NWT (NorthWest Territory) very close to YT (Yukon Terr). Porter, Gene Stratton "The Girl of the Linberlost" "The Harvester" Randall, Glenn "Cold Comfort" ron@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Ron Miller) I re-read it every Fall in preparation for winter adventures. Russel, Charlie cowboy stories, campfire reading Sax, Joseph "Mountains without handrails" Scholly?, Dan "Guardians of Yellowstone" Morrow Publishing Yellowstone Chief Ranger. It deals largely with the fires that engulfed Yellowstone over the past few years, but he also tells stories about bear attacks, monkeywrenching, tourons (although he doesn't use the word), and the backcountry rangers. Service, Robert; "The Cremation of Sam McGee" "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" Sevareid, Eric "Canoeing With the Cree" Simpson, Joe: "Touching the Void" Stahlquist, Jim "Colorado Whitewater" Steger, Will "North to the Pole" "Crossing Antartica" Sumner, Louise "Sew and Repair Your Outdoor Gear", The Mountaineers,1988. This 144 page softcover book is packed with information specific to designing, constructing, and maintaining hiking equipment and clothing. Swift, Robert "Treking in Nepal" ,Sierra Club, health/welfare in Nepal Twain, Mark; "Roughing It" Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, Ranulph "Living Dangerously" a British adventurer with the extraordinary name An interesting book, including accounts of parachuting onto a glacier, ascending the Nile by hovercraft, several polar expeditions, a N/S traverse of British Columbia by water, and the circumnavigation of the Earth, pole to pole. He seems to have managed to live in the 20th century the kind of life one might imagine for a European explorer of the 19th. Unsworth, Walt; "Everest: A Mountain History" Vaughan, Norman D "With Byrd at the Bottom of the World" Waterman, Guy & laura "Forest and Crag" (C&H in Northeast), "Wilderness Ethics" Wheat, Doug "The Floaters guide to Colorado" Wirth, Bob "Open Boat Canoeing" Wise, Ken C. "Cruise of the Blue Flujin" Wilderness Adventure Books, 1987 Woods, Robert "Pleasure Backkpacking" ..equipment review; From: cheu@venus.its.uci.edu (Kelvin Cheu) ??? "Simple Foods for the Pack" ??? "Ordeal by Hunger" history of Donner Pass expedition ?? "Men against the Mountains" history of Jed Smith's expeditions ?? "Mountaineering, the Freedom of the Hills" ?? "The Complete Wilderness Paddler" Books on K2 that are reasonable entertainment: K2 - The Savage Mtn, Houston, 53 American Expedition. The Throne Room of the Gods, Galen Rowell - American 75 Expedition. K2 - The Last Step, Rick Ridgeway, John Roskelly - American 78 Expedition. K2, Reinhold Messner - 79 Expedition. K2, Shapiro Climbing Club - Japanesse 84 North Ridge Expedition. K2 - Triumph and Tragedy, Jim Curran - Chronicle of 1986, wherein 27 climbers made the summit, and 13 climbers died. A first-hand account of a climbing season on K2 I'm sure no one would like to see repeated. Not to be too pessimistic, the current issue of the "new" Summit has reprinted Giono's inspiring story "The Man Who Planted Trees". I had always thought this was a true story, but the introduction refers to it as a "short story" and the author as a novelist, so I wonder. Anybody know if Eleazar Bouffier was real? His business plan was funded by God, not by venture capitalists, or multinational wood/pulp companies. I recommend reading "The Milagro Beanfield War". Besides being an excellent book it provides a different perspective on the grazing rights issue. It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you wonder what hell right the US government had in appropriating the land in the first place. :-) Surprising good movie, IMHO, directed by Robert Redford. Says Maltin (Movie and Video Guide, 1992): Spirited, fanciful tale of a rugged individualist (dirt-poor, hard luck ...) who decides to stand up to the big, brash developers who plan to milk his (and his neighbors') New Mexico land for all it's worth. Distilled from John Nichols' sprawling novel by Nichols and David Ward, this film takes a whimsical tone that's positively infectious...aided by a top ensemble cast, beautiful scenery, and Dave Grusin's lyrical, Oscar-winning score. COLORADO RIVER / LAKE POWELL TIDBITS * From: "The Colorado River Through Grand Canyon: Natural History and Human Change", Steven Carothers and Bryan Brown, University of Arizona Press, 1991, QH105.A65C38, ISBN 0-8165-1232-9; and other sources. >A few years back I read a really tasty book, called >"Beyond Spaceship Earth" (edited by Hargrove, 1988?, Sirra Club Books). >It's a collection of papers concerning man's future envolvement >with space. All sort of nifty ethical questions. >Some "down to earth", progressing to the far out. >Like control of space junk. Nucks in space. >Control of artificial satalites. =================================================== John McCollum Texas Instruments Internet: jmcc@ticipa.mtc.ti.com PO Box 655012 M/S 3635 TI MSG: JMCC Dallas, TX 75265 Voice: (214) 917-2201 FAX: (214) 917-2939 %A Norbert Casteret _The Years Under the Earth_, _The Darkness Under the Earth_, others. %X Classic accounts of early French caving.