I’ve talked to several serious mountaineers over the years and one thing that they had in common was that the level of enthusiasm for the next climb seemed to be as high as for the last climb.
A second link was a philosophical feeling about effort. The challenging journey is truly the backbone of the climb.
The essays in “Warnings Against Myself: Meditations on a Life in Climbing” (University of Washington Press) by David Stevenson brings readers into the climbing world — the physical (some of it set in Washington state) and the emotional and psychological. The book addresses the balancing of working, family and climbing, and the simple question, “Why?”
Here are a few other good reads on the outdoors world:
“One Wild Bird at a Time: Portraits of Individual Lives” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). Bernd Heinrich, also author of the award-winning “Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death,” involves himself in the question of “Why?
Yes, there are dozens of books on bird behavior but generally they focus on group behavior. In the scientist and 60-year birder’s 19th book (every chapter earns an A+), he drills down to an individual’s actions, the ones that don’t appear in the descriptions of a flock.
“Waterfowl of North America, Europe &Asia: An Identification Guide” (Princeton). Sebastien Reeber gets down to the seeds and stems of bird identification, the variations of plumage, voice and molt, hybridization and geographic variation, aided by pages of photographs of most birds. For instance, seven pages in the snow goose section include 16 photographs and reinforces the concept that the devil is in the details.
“Forest Understory: Creative Inquiry in an Old-Growth Forest” (University Washington Press). This collaboration shows why scientists need writers, including poets. The scientist can see and say the facts; the writer can say what they perceive.
A scientist can offer how to identify a violet or a trillium. Robert Michael Pyle writes, “The way evergreen violets erupt hot yellow from the green magma of moss, and trilliums pink out, paste their petals.” They need each other; we need them both.
“Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection” (Black Dog &Leventhal). If you’re into bones, particular skulls, check out Simon Winchester’s words and Nick Mann’s photographs.
Dudley’s hobby morphed into a zealous pursuit that led to status as an expert, eventually trading skulls over the Internet, confident that he was meeting all legal requirements.
In 2008, the law came to his door. They arrested him and confiscated his skulls because several were illegal to possess, including a howler monkey, a penguin and a tiger. An electronic ankle monitor, a guilty plea, suspended jail time and a fine later, Dudley returned to his collection, now numbering about 2,000.
“A World in One Cubic Foot: Portraits of Biodiversity” (University of Chicago Press). David Littschwager took his stainless steel cage around the world to saltwater bays and deciduous forests, Central Park and coral reefs to photograph everything he saw in that cubic foot.
The photograph selection includes a remarkable Burio tree seed, common bush tanager and rockcap fern, ants and termites and slugs, clearfin lionfish, crayfish and spinyleg dragonfly, hermit thrush and gray squirrel.
The sections are by location (six), each including two facing pages of hundreds of small photographs, followed by two facing pages of outlines with numbers, followed by a page listing, by number and name, the subjects.
Enjoy.
Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
