1995. 264 pp, 60+ photos and ills. An encyclopedia of everything about climbing. Includes biographies, techniques, competition, aid and solo climbing, mountain ranges, high points, expeditions, equipment, more. Large-format paperback.
According to the publisher, this is the first single-volume reference of North American and international mountaineering and rock climbing. Not a handbook or how-to manual but essentially an encyclopedia, this comprehensive book offers more than 1000 alphabetically arranged entries featuring biographies, notable destinations, definitions, equipment, and recommended readings. The text is augmented by photographs, line drawings, maps, tables, and two appendixes on mountain and glacier formations and standard symbols and abbreviations. An accomplished climber and the author of numerous articles on the subject, Child has produced an authoritative work.
An encyclopedia containing handbook information, Climbing seeks to provide information on 'people, techniques, equipment, terminology, mountain ranges, and peaks' relating to the sport of rock climbing and mountaineering. It contains 1,000 entries plus 80 illustrations, both line drawings and black-and-white photographs. Entries span 150 words to more than 1,000 and contain cross-references. Geographic and biographical entries provide the country in which the person or place is located and cite guidebooks or other titles for further reading. A short bibliography follows the appendixes at the end of the book.
Examples of entries include Snow and Ice Climbing Techniques, which provides a description of techniques with terminology; Kenya, New England, and many other countries and states, with a description of the best climbing; and biographies of such people as Tom Patey, a Scot who was killed when his rappelling device became detached, and Reinhold Messner, a Tyrolean mountaineer who became the first person to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks. One of the longer articles, Rating Systems, discusses the various systems that rate the comparative difficulties of climbs.
There are three appendixes: one illustrates terms used to describe mountains and glaciers; one is a key to standard climbing symbols and abbreviations; and the third displays in tabular format international rock-climbing rating systems, by country. An index is helpful for finding terms and grouping smaller geographic places under the country in which they are located.
