2003, 1st edition. 96 pp, 90+ color photos. Ron Kauk may be the best American free climber of the last thirty years, doing severe climbs mostly in Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada. This compilation of photos by Galen Rowell, Greg Epperson and others, with brief text by Ron Kauk, highlights his remarkable love affair with steep rock.
Featured in such magazines as Outside, Rock and Ice, and Climbing, Ron Kauk has been free-climbing mountains since the 1970s, primarily in Yosemite. In this book of dramatic color photographs and thoughtful vignettes, Kauk recounts his climbing experiences and what the 'school of granite' has taught him about himself and about the natural world. He shares his spiritual belief that humanity needs to live in harmony with the earth for its own well-being, and that we bear a responsibility for the planet's stewardship.
Peppered throughout Kauk's observations are practical life lessons gleaned from 25 years' dangling from sheer rock walls and granite overhangs around the world—always practice next to the ground, have an eye for the line, and learn how to read the cracks. Hardcover, new with dust jacket.
