B o o k R e v i e w sThe Mountain World, 1960/61, edited for the Swiss Foundation for

Alpine Research by Hans Richard Müller and Marcel Kurz ; English version by Malcolm Barnes. Zürich: Schweizerische Stiftung fur Alpine Forschungen; New York: Rand McNally, 1961. 262 pages, 11 sketches and sketch maps, 63 pages illustrations including double-spreads, and 1 enclosed topographic map of Mount McKinley, Alaska. Price $6.95.

As usual, the latest issue of The Mountain World offers amazingly complete coverage of the world’s major mountain operations over the past two-year period. The record of successes on the "8,000-ers" is brought up to date with a belated report of the Americans on Gasherbrum I in 1958, and the fine Swiss effort on Dhaulagiri in 1960. The interest of the Swiss report of their efforts on Dhaulagiri is greatly increased by the inclusion of an Austrian account of their own near-miss the previous year. The first use of air support in the Himalaya by the successful Dhaulagiri party raises some interesting questions as to the need for lengthy acclimatization exercises in the Himalaya. Most of their party was flown directly from an altitude of 900 m. to an acclimatization camp at 5200 m. where all but one member adjusted satisfactorily within four days.

Other Himalayan accounts include the striking success of a strong Italian party on the very difficult Gasherbrum IV and the depressing defeat by the weather of the Germans on Diran in the northwest Karakoram. Final success on peaks which had previously withstood multiple assaults was gained by a British-Pakistani party on Rakaposhi and the Austrians on Haramosh. The leader of the Austrian party was Heinrich Roiss who perished the following year in a crevasse accident on Dhaulagiri. The tragedy of the British-German Batura disaster is movingly reported by one of the two remaining survivors, while W ilfred Noyce rounds out the Himalayan section with the account of the ascent of Trivor— "The Un­known Mountain.” Noyce concludes his article with some thought- provoking words concerning the tension between the "two worlds in mountains"— the call of the high peak itself and the rewards and fascina­tions peculiar to unencumbered travel in the surrounding country. Many a contemporary Himalayan devotee has likewise bewailed the facts of modern expedition life (and finance), which stand between him and a more fruitful contact with the fascinating country through which he passes with such insulative singleness of purpose.

Visits to other ranges are represented by Dolf Reist writing on extensive climbs in the Ruwenzori and a delightful account by Ruedi Schatz of the 1959 Swiss Alpine Club expedition to the Cordillera Vilcabamba. Schatz and his highly competent comrades carried out no less than nineteen successful ascents during their visit to the Andes, including several first ascents and new routes such as an amazing tour on the north face of Huandoy in the Cordillera Blanca. In fact their only repulse was at the hands of the formidable Cayesh. The history of Pobeda Peak (7439 m .) in the Tien Shan which was finally climbed in 1956 is narrated by the Soviet climbers, Abalakov and Kizel, giving us an unusual glimpse of mountaineering activity in the U.S.S.R.

Miscellaneous articles which greatly broaden the interest of this issue include a long paper giving an excellent portrait of the Antarctic during the IGY with a supplement on mountains and early Antarctic mountaineers, a short botanical report on the coming of spring to the highlands of Baffin- land, a well-argued review of some new data by M. Wyss-Dunant that purports to demonstrate that the Yeti is surely a quadruped, and an absorbing commentary on the life, character, and literary qualities of Geoffrey Winthrop Young by his good friend, Sir Arnold Lunn. Writing with great sensitivity and appreciation, Sir Arnold still eliminates all "flowers of uncritical panegyric” for his account of Young. Indeed he occasionally so dissects with his own icy rationalism that Young’s mystic efforts to bring the mountains alive are cruelly aborted. Surely Young’s comparison of the different rhythms of life exhibited by the mountain and the mountaineer and of the possibility of an harmonious relationship between these rhythms probes this mysterious affinity between man and mountain much more deeply than any account beginning with the auto­matic assumption that "mountains are dead." Aside from this one lapse, however, Sir Arnold has brought us a portrait of Young which is striking both for its honesty and its sympathy.

The illustrations of this volume are entirely up to the standards set by previous issues of The Mountain World. In particular, Bradford Wash­burn’s spread of aerials taken in Alaska and in the Alps are unsurpassed for technical excellence. His adoption of Sella’s maxim— "use a big nega­tive to photograph big things"— is amply vindicated by this superb Alpine collection.

Finally, as if all the foregoing were not enough to off-set the slightly higher price, there is included in an end pocket as a supplement to this issue a separate copy of the Mount McKinley map now happily completed through the joint efforts of Bradford Washburn and the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research. Fifteen years of enthusiastic field work plus the

painstaking craftsmanship of the Swiss Federal Institute of Topography have combined to make this large-scale map of McKinley an absolute model by which to grade cartographic excellence.

W i l l i a m F. U n s o e l d