Mountaineers Books
Happy Valentine’s week, book lovers! Are you looking for The One? The page-turner that you feel was written just for you? Look no further. Whether it’s cycling, hiking, photography, poetry, or humor that makes your pulse race, we’ve lined up some books that have ‘soulmate’ written all over them.
For the Cycling Lover
Enjoy long bike rides? Saddle up with The Road to San Donato: Fathers, Sons, and Cycling across Italy.
The Road to San Donato is an adventurous and nostalgic bicycling memoir of an American father and son tracing their Italian heritage. Riding rental bikes and carrying a bare minimum of supplies, Rob Cocuzzo and his sixty-four-year-old father, Stephen, embark on a 425-mile ride from Florence to San Donato Val di Comino, an ancient village in the mountains outside of Rome from which the Cocuzzo family emigrated a hundred years earlier.
For the Hiking Lover
Want to take a romantic stroll? Make sure you partner up with Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home.
Thirst is an inspiring personal journey about how one woman hikes grueling long-distance trails at record-breaking speeds – and discovers her own sense of worth in the process. In Thirst, Heather (trail name “Anish”) explores her motivations in returning to the PCT. She had already hiked the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails and was feeling it was time to settle down. She retired from long-distance hiking, married, and started a career. But her urge for wilderness was too strong, and she realized that nothing could replace the comfort she found while hiking. Her marriage crumbled. She quit her job. And she walked back into the mountains.
For the Photography Lover
Looking for the picture-perfect book? Set your gaze on Stories Behind the Images: Lessons from a Life in Adventure Photography.
From his early days working out of his dorm room and shooting on film to becoming a Nikon ambassador and official photographer of the historic Dawn Wall ascent, Corey Rich has been capturing iconic shots of adventure superstars for two decades. Now Corey tells how he got some of his favorite images of climbers, adventurers, skiers, performance artists, and more.
For the Poetry Lover
Does well-written verse set your heart aflutter? Cozy up with Turn Around Time: A Walking Poem for the Pacific Northwest.
Most outdoor enthusiasts understand the phrase “turn around time” as that point in an adventure when you must cease heading out in order to have enough time to safely return to camp or home—regardless of whether you have reached your destination. For award-winning novelist David Guterson, it is also a metaphor for where we find ourselves in the middle of our lives. Turn Around Time is a narrative poem that explores this idea through a lyrical journey along a trail.
For the Comedy Lover
Is a sense of humor a must? Direct your smile at Bears Don’t Care About Your Problems: More Funny Shit in the Woods from Semi-Rad.com by Brendan Leonard.
If you’ve ever considered the absurdity of sleeping on the ground in a place where bears live, pooping in a bag on a glacier, or trying to teach someone you love a sport that scares them to the point of loudly threatening to kill you in front of strangers, Bears Don’t Care About Your Problems will make you laugh.
Psst! Don’t miss your chance to meet Brendan Leonard in person at our Seattle Program Center on March 12.
Can’t stop swiping left? Check out eligible book bachelors 6-10 here.
