A comprehensive portrait -- in text and glorious color photos -- of the topography and climbing history of the highest peaks in the Alps. Includes technical advice for popular routes.

A stunning photography book of the Alps at different times of day, seasons, and amid climate change Spectacular mountain photography showing the beauty, as well as the fragility, of the highest mountains in Central Europe With informative and inspiring texts by mountain experts and aficionados

A remarkable compendium of the most doable climbing routes up the highest peaks in Washington. Author Peggy Goldman has written this book for climbers of all abilities, but especially those "average mountaineers" wishing to increase their skills and expand their horizons in the Washington Cascades' challenging terrain. 35 trips are described, covering 61 distinct peaks, encompassing alpine and glacier climbs ranging from class 3 to class 5.

The story of the author's quest to climb the 4000m mountains of the Alps with informative chapters on the practicalities and distinctive features of alpine climbing. There are detailed descriptions of climbing and travelling amongst the Alps and stunning photography with action shots of climbing.

Though the Alps may appear to be a peaceful place, the famed mountains once provided the backdrop for a political, environmental, and cultural battle as Germany and Austria struggled to modernize. Tait Keller examines the mountains' threefold role in transforming the two countries, as people sought respite in the mountains, transformed and shaped them according to their needs, and over time began to view them as national symbols and icons of individualism. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Alps were regarded as a place of solace from industrial development and the stresses of urban life. Soon, however, mountaineers, or the so-called apostles of the Alps, began carving the crags to suit their whims, altering the natural landscape with trails and lodges, and seeking to modernize and nationalize the high frontier. Disagreements over the meaning of modernization opened the mountains to competing agendas and hostile ambitions. Keller examines the ways in which these opposing approaches corresponded to the political battles, social conflicts, culture wars, and environmental crusades that shaped modern Germany and Austria, placing the Alpine borderlands at the heart of the German question of nationhood.