2007, 1st edition. 140 pages, 27 photos. Vancouver Island and the adjacent Coast Mountains are a mountain playground and a wilderness environment that only recently has reached the wider appreciation by outdoor enthusiasts. Its deep forests and remote alpine regions provide challenges for climbers and opportunities for conservation. New paperback, SIGNED by Gil Parker.
Coast Mountain Men describes fourteen explorers and mountaineers who have contributed to mountain knowledge, history and culture in the widest sense, all with a connection to the alpine ranges of the West Coast of Canada.
Access to the hills has changed markedly over the seven decades during which our adventurers have plunged into these wild mountain ranges. The traditions of climbing have been affected by that access, by the formation of active mountain clubs and by the development of techniques and equipment. These biographies demonstrate how each climber has reacted to these changes; their experience is instructive.
More than any factor, the reality of wilderness impacts mountaineers. Nature in the raw does more than provide the terrain for a climber's sport; it allows each who would enter a sounding board against which to play the song of his life.
