Technicals: about 140 pages, about 60 of them about maintenance (tuning) of skis, 20 pages on boot fit and maintenance, 15 pages on bindings, and about 5 on poles and goggles. Impression: the section on ski tuning and repair is very good, extensively illustrated and well explained. The tools and materials required for each operation are explained in great detail, and it seems to me (to the best of my limited knowledge of ski maintenance) that they did not change much since the book was published. The section on bindings is very generic and out-of-date. It gives some ideas what tools are used to install or move bindings, but the level of presentation is not even close to the level of discussion of ski tuning. Since bindings were so different 15 years ago, there is nothing about adjusting binding settings in this book that can be used. The section on boots is even more useless. Thus, if you are looking for a book on how to maintain and repair the bottom of your skis, you have found one; if you are looking for a manual how to deal with bindings or boots, keep on looking.

this book shows and tells much on the exciting sport of mountaineering. without sugarcoating it one bit,,,it takes you from the basics up into a review of what is involved with a full "expedition",,,an excellent starter book for the potential enthusiast.

The pictures and their detailed captions are great! I found out many details of the area that I had not known before. Great to see pictures of houses in which I babysat. I wish though that the book had covered more of Closter during the 60's, 70's, and 80's (when I grew up there). It will be a wonderful tool for showing my daughter where my husband and I grew up.

This is a book for the knowledgeable gardener who loves to make the link between flowers native to exotic places and the home garden, and for the plantsman who will take immense trouble to grow specific plants.

In my experience it is an unique book because it combines the adventure and awe of the plant hunter in the Himalaya with practical advice about how to grow the plants that were discovered. The colour photographs of the Himalaya are impressive and help the reader to understand the natural environment of the plants described later.

The book has seven chapters. The first helps the reader understand the ecological divisions of the Himalaya and the different plant habitats. The second chapter takes a brief look at some of the plant hunters who ventured into the area and brought back new species to challenge our gardening skills. The next three chapters detail how to develop gardens to grow plants from the three main climate zones - temperate, subalpine and alpine. The final chapters cover propagation and pests and diseases. There is a list of sources for seeds and plants in both Europe and North America, a glossary, bibliography and index of plant names.

This book really added to my knowledge of plants. I'd never given much thought to the huge variety of plants from the Himalaya. If asked, I'd say primulas, rhododendrons and the blue poppy, Meconopsis. I had never realized how many species of Meconopsis there are. For a start you can find deep blue ones (M. x sheldonii), yellow ones (M. integrifolia)....
The primula species are even more numerous and some of the orchids take your breath away. The flower photography in this book is exceptional.

This is not a book for everyone, but it will be a joy to the serious plantsman. The author writes clearly and knowledgeably and his depth of experience and love for his topic come across to the reader.

I found this book, with many fine pictures and clear instructions to be very useful, at least for an intermediate skier who wants to improve. I particularly liked the recognition that there is more than one "right way" to ski. I question whether a complete novice could learn without instruction using this book, but the beginners section would probably be a good guide for instructors on useful beginners exercises.

I thought that this was a terrific book! Most of the maps are clear and concise but not all. I would like to see a little better quality throughout. I would imangine there is a reason that not all the maps are clear. I was disappointed that the book is a 1997 version. There have been lots of improvements thoughtout the hills and I would love to see them. I would definately buy this book again. Just let me know when the most current version is available. Vail is missing here?

After writing volumes "A" through "O" of the Alpine series, Mary Daheim is stretching the story lines a bit thinly. In this entry Emma is still depressed over the death of her lover in the previous book. A local judge receives threatening letters which she asks Emma to investigate, while one of the judge's distant relatives is killed. Emma feels that the two cases are related and she begins the investigation with the help of her friend Vida and Sheriff Milo. This series may make it all the way to "Z", but it will be a stretch.

As I have stated before, I do like this Mary Daheim series much better than the Bed and Breakfast series. The characters in this one are much more believable and the situations much more real-to-life. This episode revolves around a local judge getting a poison pen letter threatening her with exposure of a dark secret, about which she hasn't a clue. Ms. Daheim interweaves the current mystery with snippets from the past involving ancestors of the current Alpine residents, particularly those about which the story includes. She does a credible job with tying it all together and there were several aspects of this particular story I liked: Ed Bronsky, a character I do not care about, appears only in one scene; the story involves mostly Emma, Vida, and Milo; Emma is getting over the death of Tom. I would recommend this series to any mystery lover.

It is always a pleasure to return to Alpine..I hope the next installment comes out soon. I only wish that Ms. Daheim's Bed and Breakfast series was as well written!

My criticism of this guide applies to all of the so-called "classic" hikes series. It is difficult for me to write, because Harvey Manning was once one of the best guidebook writers on the planet, and Ira Spring's photos are awesome.
But that was then, and this is now. The books are poorly edited, inaccurately updated, sloppy attempts to sell a few more great color pictures and once-good-but-now-preachy Manning writing.
Anyone who has been on any one of the trails of this guide should be able to find at least one significant innacuracy in the description, largely because I'll bet the authors haven't hiked on some ot the trails since they wrote the first edition, almost a half-century ago.
Sadly, some of the photos in this book are in error, too - such as the photo of the "marsh marigold" on page 234, which is actually a Western anemone; or the photo of the "avalanche lily" on page 198, actually a glacier lily. Worse still is the picture on page 35, which shows campers tending a fire in an area where fires have been banned for the past 20 years.
In sum, the classic series does little to enhance the fine reputations of these two guidebook authors.

Authors Spring and Manning would have done much better serving their readers with more about hikes in Washington and less with their ad nauseum opinions on the Forest Service.

So far I have only done four hikes in this book, but I intend to try them all! The colorful pictures are a nice incentive to hike that long distance. From a one and a half mile hike to a 500 mile hike, this book will accomodate any level hiker and any time limits they may have. This book gives directions as well as how many miles the hike is and the elevation you will be gaining. It provides estimated time allotments and phone nubers to call to reserve camp sites and see if trails are open. Best of all there are hikes from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascades. This book is must have for hikers in the great state of Washington!

Neat pictures, but kind of a muddled presentation. This is not really a general history of skiing, but a biography of Alf Engen who was a local hero in Salt Lake City, Utah and ran the Ski School at Alta for years and years. There's too much about ski jumping and not enough about other kinds of skiing. The author, Alf's son Alan, seems like a spokesman for the ski industry more than a historian.

This book will appeal to people that know and love Alta, Utah or are interested in the history of skiing in the Western US. It primarily chronicles the life of Alf Engen, and therefore, chronicles the history of Alta and and an important part of skiing in the west. Engen was the inventor of modern powder skiing and richly deserves the honor of this book.

This is a coffee-table book for climber wannabe's who might want to pretend they're going to climb some of the great ridges of the Himalaya. Most of the photos are pretty good, but the maps are sloppily drawn, and the writing style is about as bone dry as you can get--it's hard to make routes on the overwhelming ridges and cols of the high Himalayas look and sound dull, but by God, the authors really managed to do it. Then again, the authors haven't had much success on these climbs themselves--[...]--clinical studies of passionate endeavors untainted by personal expertise. I am dumbfounded that a couple of reviewers claimed to love this book, but then again, some people also claim to love year-old fruit cake.

Yet another coffee-table book on climbing the Himalayas, this time with a purported "Alpine-Style" aesthetic binding it all together. Unfortunately, many of the photos tend to be a bit amaturish, the writing uninteresting, which is saying alot given the fascinating subject matter the authors had to deal with. The gung-ho climbing aesthetic is also questionable, given the authors' own backgrounds. Plenty of other excellent coffee-table books have been written about climbing the pristine parts of the high Himalaya, in terms of photo quality and relevance, this one doesn't really compete.

Unfortunately, recent reviewers have focused more on the achievments of the authors themselves than what has been written in the book.

It is a great book with loads of info on many different great routes done in the only proper style, i.e. alpine style. There are many references to the original articles, if you ever plan to have some expeditions to the area described in the book, as well as more general references to books of the first ascents of the mountains described and it that respect very resourceful.

Also, I think it is one of the virtues that the book is not written in an overpassionate, and boosting manner as most autobiographic books, but rather describes in a very admiring way the great achievments of extreme alpinism in the Himalaya.

If you want to know more about the greatest achievments in Alpine climbing in recent years this book does give you a great overview of some of the most facinating (and craziest) climbs.

I agree that some of the maps are not very good and that there could have been more depth in the description of the climbs, but the references should help someone wanting some more info.