Alpine Journal 2007

The mountaineering yearbook, including feature articles, expedition reports, book reviews, obituaries, arts, history and science.
Richly illustrated, the Alpine Journal is the world’s principal mountaineering yearbook and essential reading for all who love the mountains, particularly those who climb and explore in the Greater Ranges and the Alps.

This 2007 edition marks the 150th anniversary of the world famous club.

One hundred and fifty years ago, the Alpine Club was born. It was the first mountaineering club in the world and as this 112th volume of the Alpine Journal amply demonstrates, it is still going strong.

AC members have been climbing across the globe - Simon Yates and Andy Parkin in Tierra del Fuego, Phil Wickens leading an AC expedition in the Pamirs, Malcolm Bass rounding off the club’s extended courtship of Haizi Shan in Sichuan, Paul Knott, making the first ascent of South Walsh, highest unclimbed peak in North America. All these stories are told, plus among others, Ian Parnell’s eight-day ascent of Kedar Dome’s east face, and a year in the life of vagabond climber Nick Bullock.

The AC’s 150th anniversary is also an occasion for some critical reflection. Doug Scott and Ed Douglas weigh in on ethics and money, Peter Gillman looks at scandals that have soured climbing, and award-winning author Robert Macfarlane considers our ambivalent response to ‘the wild’.

Ken Wilson, controversialist sans pareil, provides a talking point with a table of the stand-out climbs on the highest peaks and as a glorious reminder of 150 years of British mountaineering’s finest moments, we feature the words and images of Gordon Stainforth’s acclaimed ‘The Crux’ exhibition.

A record of notable climbs, region-by-region, over the past year + Reviews + Paintings and cartoons by Andy Parkin + 150 photographs, nearly all in colour, and maps.

Author's Biography
Stephen Goodwin is a freelance journalist. He writes regularly for The Independent, the newspaper he helped launch in 1986 and for which he was staff correspondent, mainly covering politics, for 13 years. He has won awards for features on Everest, ski-mountaineering in Turkey and porter welfare. Tel: 01768 881077.