It was intelligent, exciting, gross, at times nauseating and frightening, and I nearly quit reading it. But I am glad I toughed it out because the conclusion was climbing-history informed and damn witty. Eric Sparling, a writer from Nova Scotia, wrote Peak published by Podium in 2022, didn’t set out to write a horror book … Continue reading Peak, a Witty Horror Novel, by Eric Sparling
The Banff Mountain Literature Competition named Jonathan Howland’s novel Native Air its winner in the poetry and fiction category. Ordinarily I would be celebrating too, but for today, I just don’t care as much. Allow me to explain. The chatter about Jonathan Howland’s Native Air picked up when it was nominated by the Boardman Tasker … Continue reading Native Air by Jonathan Howland Reviewed
How many new climbing books are coming out this year? Maybe more than 20, but these four books caught my attention. Why? Because they are not advice on climbing a higher grade or improving your skills, like assessing avalanche risk; I mean, you could search the Internet for that. These are narratives, book narratives. Climber … Continue reading Four New Climbing Books — Narratives — for 2022
The Suburban Mountaineer 