IWLS- Suggested reading List

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Suggested Reading General Mountaineering
	Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills By The Mountaineers Use this book to supplement professional instruction. Read it before you begin lessons and you will understand your instruction better. Correctly use climbing tool such as the iceaxe and crampons. Use good judgment while performing difficult procedures. Develop leadership qualities. Forecast weather changes. Understand the mountain and its environment. Climb snow and ice with greater agility.
	Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Andy Selters On the mechanics of glaciers, safer travel, rescue. A useful textbook for instructors and for those yet to take the first training course on the mountain.
	High Angle Rescue Techniques: Text and Pocket Guide Package (High Angle Rescue Techniques) Tom Vines
	Medicine for Mountaineering: & Other Wilderness Activities by James A. Wilkerson Fifth edition. For all trekkers, climbers, sailors and skiers - or anyone else who ventures more than 24 hours beyond medical attention.
	Snow Sense : a Guide To Evaluating Snow Avalanche Hazard (4TH 94 Edition) by Jill A. / Fesler, Douglas S. Fredston Learn how to avoid avalanche accidents. Nearly all accidents can be avoided, the clues are there. The key is to learn to read natures's signs.
	The Avalanche Handbook by David Mcclung Classic and comprehensive reference on avalanches, their formation, and their effects.
Alaska
	Alaska by James A. Michener Master storyteller James Michener reveals Alaska in all its awesome, sweeping majesty. From the near-forgotten past, to the highly technological present, from self-defense to self-determination, here are the men and women who tried to tame the land, seize its bounty, and lay claim to the elusive spirit that holds native and visitor spellbound. A stirring portrait of a human community living on the edge of the world, ALASKA claims a bold heritage of survival against all odds.
	Coming Into the Country by John McPhee Coming into the Country is an unforgettable account of Alaska and Alaskans. It is a rich tapestry of vivid characters, observed landscapes, and descriptive narrative, in three principal segments that deal, respectively, with a total wilderness, with urban Alaska, and with life in the remoteness of the bush.
	The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower The story of a father and son who search for life's meaning in very different ways. "In the tradition of Carl Sagan and John McPhee, a bracing cerebral voyage past intergalactic hoopla and backwoods retreats
Chilkoot Trail
	The Klondike Trail by Jennifer Voss Follow the path of the stampeders along the legendary 580 mile gold rush route over Chilkoot Pass to the Klondike goldfields.
	Chilkoot Pass (revised edition) by Archie Satterfield The Chilkoot Pass is indeed the most famous trail in the North, and Archie Satterfield has written a unique book that is ideal for both hikers and armchair travelers. This revised edition with current trail updates is history, adventure, and an excellent guide to the Klondike Gold Rush National Park all in one. The Chilkoot Trail has been called the "meanest 32 miles in history" and the history detailed in this book will corroborate that as well as why, conversely, hikers, travelers, and students today call it the "most beautiful 32 miles in Alaska and British Columbia." Archie Satterfield, an experienced hiker and outdoorsperson, has written more than twenty books. He's made several trips over the Chilkoot and down the Yukon River.
	The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush by Pierre Berton In 1897 a grimy steamer docked in Seattle and set into epic motion the incredible succession of events that Pierre Berton's exhilarating, now classic The Klondike Fever chronicles in all its splendid and astonishing folly. For the steamer Portland bore two tons of pure Klondike gold. And immediately, in all-its fabulous madness, the stampede north to Alaska began.
	Best of Robert Service by Robert Service Robert Service was born in England in 1874. After spending his childhood in Scotland he came to Canada and there commenced the life of wandering and adventure which has given birth to songs, ryhmes, ballads and poems that have spread over the whole world.
Ecuador and Peru
	Touching the Void by Joe Simpson Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.
>	Lonely Planet Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands (Lonely Planet Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands) by Rob Rachowiecki Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands are covered in this travel guide, designed for all budgets. It features a special section on Galapagos wildlife; adventure travel goodies, from scaling mountains to jungle treks; and up-to-date briefing on responsible tourism, conservation issues and eco-tourism.
	The Ancient Kingdoms of Peru by Nigel Davies A general history for the student and general reader of the cultures and civilizations of pre-Hispanic Peru from pre-history to the Conquest which incorporates the discoveries of recent archaeological and textual investigations.
Aconcagua
	ACONCAGUA: A Climbing Guide R.J. Secor A basic guide to some of the routes on South America's highest peak.
	In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin In The Songlines, Bruce Chatwin famously argued that human beings are hardwired to roam. In Chatwin's view, our discontent and persistent social conflict stem from the fact that we have disregarded our nomadic nature and settled down. Chatwin refused to make the same mistake. In his mid-thirties he abandoned his promising career as a traveling correspondent and set out on a six month pilgrimage through the Patagonia region of southern Argentina and Chile. Chatwin's account of this trip through "the uttermost part of the earth" received the Hawthornden Prize and the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In Patagonia also established the career of one of the most provocative and enigmatic writers of the second half of the 20th century, a man Salman Rushdie claimed "had the most erudite and possibly the most brilliant mind I ever came across." In Patagonia is now acknowledged one of the most influential travel accounts of the 20th century.
	Death in the Andes by Mario Vargas Llosa Evocatively intermingling past and present, the corporeal and the spiritual, "Death in the Andes" offers a fascinating panoramic view of contemporary Peru, telling the story of the disappearance of three men from a remote Andean village and the soldiers called in to investigate.
	Lonely Planet Argentina Uruguay 4TH Edition by Sandra Bao This completely revised travel handbook contains special sections on Argentine beef, the mystique of the tango, the cafe culture of Buenos Aires, and how to navigate the wilderness of Patagonia. Photos. 147 maps.
Kilimanjaro
	Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya: A Climbing and Trekking Guide by Cameron Burns Pre-trip planning, finding and hiring outfitters, and thorough information on dozens of trails are included in this comprehensive guide to the 30 top climbing and trekking routes on Mount Kilimanjaro and her sister peak, Mount Kenya. 8 pp. color insert. 30 photos. Maps.
	The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories by Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway typically explored such trademark subjects as boxing, hunting, and war, as well as how men confront the fear of death and the emptiness of life. In the title story of The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, a hard-drinking, ruthless adventurer comes face-to-face with the one antagonist he cannot conquer -- his own ignoble and imminent death.
	The Shadow of Kilimanjaro by Rick Ridgeway In one of the most acclaimed travel and adventure books of the past year, Rick Ridgeway chronicles his trek from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to the Indian Ocean, through Kenya's famed Tsavo Park. His tale is, according to The Boston Globe, "a gripping account of how it feels to be charged by an incensed elephant and kept awake at night by the roaring of stalking lions." But it is more than an adventure story. The Los Angeles Times noted that "the pace of walking gives Ridgeway time to contemplate his great theme and the great men and women who have struggled with the conundrum of whether man can live at peace with the beasts." Ridgeway examines the effects of colonial expansion on the indigenous people, the landscape, and the animals, and contemplates the future for all of them.
	The White Nile by Alan Moorehead Relive all the thrills and adventure of Alan Moorehead's classic bestseller "The White Nile" -- the daring exploration of the Nile River in the second half of the nineteenth century, which was at that time the most mysterious and impenetrable region on earth. Capturing in breathtaking prose the larger-than-life personalities of such notable figures as Stanley, Livingstone, Burton and many others, "The White Nile" remains a seminal work in tales of discovery and escapade, filled with incredible historical detail and compelling stories of heroism and drama.
Arabian Sands	Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger Fifty years ago Wilfred Thesiger journeyed among the nomadic camel-breeding peoples of Southern Arabia. He fell in love with the desert and the Bedouin. First published in 1954, this book is a vivid account of his experiences, rich in details of everyday life among the nomads and the physical environment they had inhabited for millennia.
Denali
	In the Shadow of Denali: Life and Death on Alaska's Mt. McKinley by Jonathan Waterman Rising more than twenty thousand feet into the Alaskan sky is Denali, the tallest mountain in North America. In his exhilarating and stunning narratives, Jonathan Waterman paints a startlingly intimate portrait of the white leviathan and brings to vivid life men and women whose fates have entwined on its sheer icy peak. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 264 pages, b&w photos)
	Mount McKinley: The Conquest of Denali by Bradford Washburn North America's highest peak, Alaska's Mount McKinley -- also known as Denah -- rises majestically to a height of 20,320 feet. This book recounts the eventful history of the mountain, which since 1902 has been the site of some of mountaineering's supreme achievements. Coupled with these tales of adventure from two expert climbers are the stunning photographs of Bradford Washburn, who has conquered McKinley three times.
Nepal and India
	Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-Meter Peak : (26,493 Feet) by Maurice Herzog In 1950, no mountain higher than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed. Maurice Herzog and other members of the French Alpine Club had resolved to try. Their goal was a 26,493-foot Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, which draw on the experience of prior reconnaissance, the routes up Annapurna had never been analyzed before. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using sketchy, crude maps, pick out a single, untried route, and go for the summit.
	Snow Leopard (Penguin Nature Classics) by Peter Matthiessen When Peter Matthiessen set out with the field biologist George Schaller from Pokhara, in northwest Nepal, their hope was to reach the Crystal Mountain — a foot journey of 250 miles or more across the Himalaya — in the Land of Dolpo, on the Tibetan plateau. Since they wished to observe the late-autumn rut of the bharal, or Himalayan blue sheep, they undertook their trek as winter snows were sweeping into the high passes, and five weeks were required to reach their destination.
	Video Night in Kathmandu: And Other Reports from the Not-So-Far East by Pico Iyer Mohawk hair-cuts in Bali, yuppies in Hong Kong and Rambo rip-offs in the movie houses of Bombay are just a few of the jarring images that Iyer brings back from the Far East.
	Lonely Planet Nepal 6TH Edition Facts about Nepal -- Facts for the visitor -- Getting there & away -- Getting around -- Kathmandu-- Around the Kathmandu Valley -- Kathmandu to Pokhara -- Pokhara -- The Terai & Mahabharat Range -- Trekking -- Mountain Biking -- Rafting & Kayaking.
	Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that "suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down." He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more--including Krakauer's--in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer's epic account of the May 1996 disaster.

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