Mountain Book Programs – Michigan Ice Fest

Come celebrate mountain literature where Michigan Ice Fest brings together writers/athletes and of course, our book loving participants! Our programming will take place Saturday Feb 11 at the Michigan Ice Fest Guides located at 112 Elm Munising. Come grab a snack and a cup of coffee and meet our featured authors!

Tim Banfield How to Climb Ice

Ice climbing continues to grow more popular every year. Advances in equipment and technique have helped make the sport accessible to a wide variety of outdoor enthusiasts. How to Ice Climb! is the most complete and up-to-date reference available on the sport. Sean Isaac and Tim Banfield provide essential information for beginners and valuable tips for experts. Starting with an overview of the history of ice climbing, the authors move on to cover equipment selection, approach strategies, avalanche safety, hazard management, movement skills, anchor systems, overhanging ice, mixed climbing, and more. All facets of ice climbing are thoroughly examined and explained. Full color photos complement the text to make How to Ice Climb! the most complete resource available.

Conrad Anker- The Call of Everest

Gripping and sumptuous, this is the definitive book on the history, mystique, and science of Mount Everest, including how climate change is impacting the world’s tallest mountain. In 1963, the American Mount Everest Expedition made mountaineering history. It was the first American venture to successfully scale the legendary peak and the first successful climb up the hazardous West Ridge (a climb so difficult no one has yet repeated it). In 2012, adventurer Conrad Anker led a National Geographic/The North Face team up the mountain to enact a legacy climb. Environmental changes and overcrowding led to challenges and disappointments, but yet the mountain maintains its allure. Now, steely-eyed Anker leads a team of writers in a book designed to celebrate the world’s most famous mountain, to look back over the years of climbing triumphs and tragedies, and to spotlight what has changed–and what remains eternal–on Mount Everest. Telltale signs of Everest’s current state, never-before-published photography, and cutting-edge science expose the world’s tallest peak–its ancient meaning, its ever-present challenges, and its future in a world of disappearing ice.

James Mills- The Adventure Gap

“An important new book about a crucial challenge facing the conservation movement” — Spencer Black, vice president, Sierra Club -Chronicles the first all-African American summit attempt on Denali, the highest point in North America -Part adventure story, part history, and part argument for the importance of inspiring future generations to value nature The nation’s wild places–from national and state parks to national forests, preserves, and wilderness areas–belong to all Americans. But not all of us use these resources equally. Minority populations are much less likely to seek recreation, adventure, and solace in our wilderness spaces. It’s a difference that African American author James Mills addresses in his new book, The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors. Bridging the so-called “adventure gap” requires role models who can inspire the uninitiated to experience and enjoy wild places. Once new visitors are there, a love affair often follows. This is important because as our country grows increasingly multicultural, our natural legacy will need the devotion of people of all races and ethnicities to steward its care. In 2013, the first all-African American team of climbers, sponsored by the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), challenged themselves on North America’s highest point, the dangerous and forbidding Denali, in Alaska. Mills uses Expedition Denali and its team members’ adventures as a jumping-off point to explore how minority populations view their place in wild environments and to share the stories of those who have already achieved significant accomplishments in outdoor adventures–from Mathew Henson, a Black explorer who stood with Peary at the North Pole, to Kai Lightner, a teenage sport climber currently winning national competitions. The goal of the expedition, and now the book, is to inspire minority communities to look outdoors for experiences that will enrich their lives, and to encourage them toward greater environmental stewardship.

Barry Blanchard- The Calling

With heart-pounding descriptions of avalanches and treacherous ascents, Barry Blanchard chronicles his transformation from a poor Native American/white kid from the wrong side of the tracks to one of the most respected alpinists in the world. At 13 he learned to rappel when he joined the 1292 Lord Strathcone’s Horse Army Cadets. Soon kicked out for insubordination, he was already hooked on climbing and saw alpinism as a way to make his single mother proud and end his family’s cycle of poverty. He describes early climbs attempted with nothing to guide him but written trail descriptions and the cajones of youth. He slowly acquired the skills, equipment and partners necessary to tackle more and more difficult climbs, farther and farther afield: throughout the Canadian Rockies, into Alaska and the French Alps and on to Everest, Peru, and the challenging mountains in Pakistan. From each he learned lessons that only nature and extreme endeavor can teach. This is the story of the culture of climbing in the days of punk rock, spurred on by the rhythm of adrenaline and the arrogance of youth. It is also a portrait of the power of the mountains