Games climbers play, a collection of mountain writing

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THE GAMES CLIMBER PLAY, A COLLECTION OF MOUNTAINEERING WRITING

THE GAMES CLIMBER PLAY, A COLLECTION OF MOUNTAINEERING WRITING
edited by Ken Wilson with Cartoons by Sheridan Anderson, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1978.

What are the games that climbers play? This hefty and captivating anthology answers the question with 100 articles and stories collected from American and British mountaineering journals covering the several decades that laid the foundation for the modern climbing experience.

The rich diversity of mountaineering writing is exemplified – its humor, its drama, its pathos and above all its enthusiasm. The titles of the essays: Coonyard Mouths Off (Yvon Chouinard), A Review of Downward Bound (Royal Robins), Murder of the Impossible (Reinhold Messner), Pumping Sandstone (John Long), The Final Day on the Eiger Direct (Dougal Haston) give us a feel for the contents.

The cover piece, Games Climbers Play by Lito Tejeda-Flores, sets the underlying serious contribution of the book: that climbing venues have evolved different rules by which the “game is played”. Rules (or ethics) for bouldering differ from sport climbing, from big wall climbing, from alpine climbing, from expedition climbing. An extreme example: the use of a metal ladder is permissible for Everest expeditions but not for bouldering.

The cartoons by Sheridan Anderson exemplify the other premise of this collection: that some tend to over-analyze the games. Climbing and mountaineering are exciting international sports, and a lot of fun for participants and observers alike.
On Belay! --Bob Speik