1990, 1st edition. 144 pp. Used paperback. Fine.
If Plato was right when he said that storytellers rule the world, then this wonderful anthology of essays by some of the world's greatest women climbers ought to put the feminine gender immediately in charge of everything. There is a great power in these women, from their passion for mountaineering to their deep love of life born out of risking it in contests with towers of stone and ice. However, the strength of these essayists waxes thick around their considerable abilities as writers. Lovers of literature have long understood the majesty of the female pen, but when inspired by the glory of climbing, it can make reader's experience transcendent, religious, exotic.
What do you know about climbing is what you seeing on Sylvester Stallone and/or Tom Cruse movies, you are about to gender bender all your ideas of it is to be a climber. There are 32 short essays on this second edition of 'Rock and Roses' and all the heroes are of the she kind. These women live and participate in a widely-perceived men's world. They are not a second class athletes. They are of first class, and two of them have been named the "Best Climber in the World"—no gender qualifier— Beverly Johnson, and Lynn Hill.
Contributors include Rosie Andrews, Beth Bennet, Arlene Blum, Julie Brugger, Rosemary Cohen, Susan Edwards, Catherine Freer, Sue Giller, Linda Givler, Sibylle C. Hectel, Lynn Hill, Cherie Bremer-Kamp, Madda Nos King, Lilace A. Mellin, Ruth Dyar Mendenhall, Dorcas S. Miller, Sally Moser, Alison Osius, Wendy Roberts, Moira Vigger, Laura Waterman, Annie Whitehouse, Elizabeth D. Woolsey, Sally Sigmond and Gabriela Zim
Kathmandu pummels the senses, challenging one to simply cope,after the immediate saturation that follows arrival. And yet the temples seep into consciousness, the beauty of this city strikes a cord within us, the dragon image echoes the adventurous spirit that brought us and moves us toward our objective: the unclimbed North Face of Cholatse. (21,130 ft.) - Cholatse North Face by Catherine Freer.
