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SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Jan 4, 2014 - 06:35pm PT

PM'd you.

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jan 5, 2014 - 07:07pm PT

Good prices, don't miss out

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jan 11, 2014 - 07:43am PT

Book list updated, there are still some gems available!

Tan Slacks

climber

Joshua Tree

Jan 11, 2014 - 10:23am PT

PM Sent

SteveW

Trad climber

The state of confusion

Jan 11, 2014 - 11:23am PT

Jump on these, boys! His books are MINT!!!!

JOEY.F

Gym climber

It's not rocket surgery

Jan 12, 2014 - 03:11am PT

pm sent for one I always wanted yes!

mouse from merced

Trad climber

The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.

Jan 12, 2014 - 12:02pm PT

dIt may be a $1oo.oo misprint on that price for the Samivel. But not likely.

It's as old as I and in better shape, though.

I've lived this long without it, I'm gunna say "No, thanks, Harry. I still haven't finishe some of the last boxful."

Nice stash of books.

Wonder what JoeyF. got...

Sous l'oeil des choucas...ou les plaisirs de l'Alpinisme

Sous l'oeil des choucas … ou les plaisirs de l' Alpinisme. Eighty plates bv Samivel, with foreword by Guido Rey. 4 to. Paris : Delagrave, 1933. Price Fr. 25.

The pleasures of Alpinism depicted by Samivel, with a foreword by Guido Rey, makes a book that should not be read in hospital after an abdominal operation, unless the patient’s incision has been properly reenforced by pitons and crafty girdings of the rope. For side-splitting it is, and may this serve as due warning.

Two zones of elevation are recognized—the inferior, or that of the telescope; and the superior, that of the jack-daw—in each of which epochal events transpire; possibly, one should say, perspire.

From the lower zone no specimen of humanity is barred, for even a pathetic little old gentleman with an umbrella may gaze upon the Matterhorn. Picnic parties risk their lives for edelweiss, and aerial passengers of the téléférique thumb their noses at the burdened climber on so-called terra-firma below.

But, in the zone of the jack-daw, the cragsman is supreme. Free he is to ponder on the doubtful delights of moraines, and to contemplate in crowded huts the paradox of pressure increasing with elevation. The climbing technique exhibited is as fantastic as was ever condemned by the solons of an Alpine Club, but hazards appear which even gymnasts of the death-defying school have scarcely considered. Who, for instance, has previously recorded being caught on a glacier whose advance was equal to climber’s progress, trapping one on an icy treadmill ?

True, there are experiences which smack of reality and rouse poignant memories. There is the vertiginous peak on which those hairbreath pals, Samovar and Baculot, lose their way because a page of their guidebook is missing; and the slender spire with a sardine-tin poised upon the topmost block as they take the last step of a supposed first-ascent. It keeps one jittering.

Following all this, more intimate portraits present typical specimens of Alpine fauna—the “North-Face Alpinist,” with impressive, nay, monumental (they are proportionately the size of Grant’s tomb) climbing-irons; the “Alpinist Nearly-Exhausted,” who, for twenty years, has threatened to spend next season at the seashore ; the “Alpinist La-La-Itou,” who almost displaces the gravity centres of adjacent aiguilles by the resounding echoes; and, last but not least, that lightning type, never seen —known only by widely spaced tracks in the snow—the “Chronometrie Alpinist,” who receives no impressions save through his time-piece.

Finally, we are given a survey of Alpinism through the ages : from the glacial period to Noah and Ararat, with excerpts from mythology and the medieval, down to the romantic days when “sublime horrors” set the note. But Samivel crosses present time, with television offering a celebrated virtuoso interpreting the first movement of the fissure-in-Z, and explores realms of the future, with a single note of sadness : when all that is left of Alpinism is a row of lonely, deserted needles, with here and there a broken iron or a can protruding from the desolation.

A dangerous book for a dollar, my boys !

J. M. T.

This was just sittin' in the AAC file, don't know who JMT is.

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jan 13, 2014 - 06:03pm PT

Updated the list today.

Finally someone picked up the book by Joseph LeConte (can't beleive it lasted this long...).

There are still many other great titles available.

What I don't sell soon will be donated to the AAC library.

The AAC library has a special place in my heart. Back in 1978 I was looking forward to moving from Boston back to California. But I needed some more information about the Sierra Nevada to plan my first Sierra Summer climbing trip. Mt. Washington, Whitehorse Ledge, Canon Cliff, etc., just weren't cutting it for me.

So I skipped school and walked out to the highway with a torn box lid in my hand. On the box lid were 3 large letters: "N.Y.C." I was 17 years old and I hitched hiked to the Big Apple to go to the AAC library.

I spent a long day in the AAC library, pouring through books by Clarence King and Joseph LeConte and Norman Clyde. I planned a glorious 3-month trip through the High Sierra.

And it was a glorious summer, the summer of 1978. Yosemite Valley, Tuolomne Meadows, the Dike Route, Lembert Dome (!), Matterhorn Peak, Middle Palisade, Clyde Minaret, Bishop, Lone Pine................

Vitaliy M.

Mountain climber

San Francisco

Jan 13, 2014 - 06:13pm PT

Do you still have those American Alpine Journals?

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jan 13, 2014 - 07:19pm PT

AAJ sale is pending, no payment yet, if the sale falls through then you'll be the first to know,

JOEY.F

Gym climber

It's not rocket surgery

Jan 13, 2014 - 09:33pm PT

I spent a long day in the AAC library, pouring through books by Clarence King and Joseph LeConte and Norman Clyde. I planned a glorious 3-month trip through the High Sierra.

And it was a glorious summer, the summer of 1978. Yosemite Valley, Tuolomne Meadows, the Dike Route, Lembert Dome (!), Matterhorn Peak, Middle Palisade, Clyde Minaret, Bishop, Lone Pine................

You are way ahead of me, I used to spend hours at the local library reading many of the same books,around the same time, however never did the big tour, maybe someday.

pneame

Trad climber

Tampa, FL

Jan 14, 2014 - 09:28am PT

I'd echo the thoughts on the Samivel - I used to love perusing Samivel sketches in Chamonix's bookstores back in the 70s. It's just a bit rich on the price for me (although entirely fair - a real collectors item)

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Jan 14, 2014 - 11:22am PT

Why do you insult potential customers' intelligence by rounding your dollars off to $0.95? Stuff costs what it costs, these are clearly non-essential purchases, and folks are probably smart enough to decide for themselves whether your price is worth it to them without resort to this cheap retailer's trick.

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

sawatch choss

Jan 14, 2014 - 11:34am PT

I know I sound like a jerk , but jeez...

Sierra Ledge Rat

Mountain climber

Old and Broken Down in Appalachia

Jan 20, 2015 - 06:26am PT

Updated today, January 2, 2015

myers1210

Trad climber

Tempe, AZ

Jan 20, 2015 - 06:24pm PT

Hi, I would like to purchase these books. What is the total including shipping and what is your paypal address? Thank you

Yosemite embattled wilderness 2.95
Greatest adventure 1.95
Climbing big walls 8.95
Kingdom of adventure 5.30
Cascades 1.00
Stauning alps 4.75
Rock climbing Peak District 2.95
Wasatch granite 2.80
Accidents in NA 2012 - 2.00
AAJ 2014- 5.00
Ascent 1984- 5.95
Ascent 1989- 5.95