Seattle, 2000, 1st edition. 217 pp. Hardcover with dust jacket. Fine.
Childs has spent his life as a mountain guide, and presents a well written, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, collection of articles on his many experiences in the peaks.
A meditative, humorous, and ultimately inspiring collection of stories about life amid the mountains.
"Just about everything worthwhile I have gotten out of this world has somehow been connected to mountains." So observes Geof Childs in the introduction to Stone Palaces, a collection of stories inspired by life lived outside the rules. Eschewing an office career and material wealth in favor of a home in the mountains and worldwide adventure, Childs writes insightfully about the contradictions of climbing-its "brilliant triviality and sublime uselessness," its beauty and its hardships.