Full Description
Essays from the Edge gathers fifty years of selected writing by Dennis Gray, one of British climbing's most influential voices. These twenty-one essays, spanning one of British mountaineering's most exciting periods, provide a compelling narrative of a life studying the art of climbing and of living it first-hand on the cliffs and mountains of the world in the company of some of the sport's most colourful characters of the last century.
Vivid portraits anchor the collection: the legendary Joe Brown and Don Whillans, members of the Rock and Ice Club; American pioneers Royal Robbins, Jeff Lowe and Warren Harding; and unsung originals such as the Barley brothers, Robin and Tony. A wide-ranging 1973 interview with climber Allan Austin gives a fascinating insight into the Yorkshire scene of the early 1970s. Dennis's commentary expands to cover other issues, such as the 1932 Kinder Mass Trespass, climbing's debut in the Olympics and the development of modern rock climbing in Belgium.
Broad in scope yet precise in observation, Essays from the Edge celebrates the values and spirit of British climbing.
Contents
Foreword
Editor's Preface
PEOPLE
Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904)
The Round of Existence & Marco Pallis
The Cold Mountain Poet: Gary Snyder
The Baron: Joe Brown
The Villain: Don Whillans
Big in the UK: Royal Robbins, Jeff Lowe & Warren Harding
An Interview with Allan Austin
The Barley Brothers
Whisper the Wind: John Syrett & Roger Baxter-Jones
PLACES
Mountain Painters & Shan Shui
Falak Sar: the Road to Heaven
In the Land of the Morning Calm
Belgium: a Cockpit in the Development of Modern Rock Climbing
OPINIONS
Trespass
Let There Be Light
Olympic Dreams
REVIEWS
Unknown Pleasures by Andy Kirkpatrick
Mastermind by Jerry Moffatt
Crazy Sorrow: the life and death of Alan Mullin
Hard Rock: Great British Rock Climbs from VS to E4
A'Chreag Dhearg: Climbing Stories of the Angus Glens
Acknowledgements
