Soul of the Heights: 50 Years Going to the Mountains (Falcon Guides)

Amazon Significant Seven, December 2007: As an original "climbing bum" during the legendary (and supremely competitive) early days of the sport in the 1950s, Ed Cooper made a name for himself through his pioneering routes up volcanoes, crags, and cyclopean rock faces ranging from Alaska to Yosemite to the Rocky Mountains and beyond. Soul of the Heights: 50 Years Going to the Mountains--gorgeously illustrated throughout with his own accomplished photographs of North America's most spectacular peaks--collects Cooper's recollections of harrowing first ascents, as well as firsthand accounts from other climbing luminaries of the "golden age" of mountaineering. It is a must-have for any climber, backpacker, or armchair mountaineer. --Jon Foro