Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essentials Guide [Paperback]

Fred Beckey (Author), Alex Van Steen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

This guidebook, written for experienced mountain climbers, offers detailed information on nearly fifty routes to the summit of Washington state's Mount Rainier, a training ground for Everest climbers and one of the most popular mountaineering destinations in North America. Also included are numerous route photos, maps, permit information, safety considerations, geologic and human history, etc., plus 75 photos showing climbers progressing toward the summit.

The authors are the legendary Fred Beckey, who has more first ascents than perhaps any other climber in North America, and Alex Van Steen, a guide on Mount Rainier.

Editorial Reviews

Review

One thing that sets this book apart from most guides is the generous use of photographs (70) showing climbers on routes described in the book. Some are eye-catching: climbers walking through sun-capped snow pinnacles, or threading the maze of crevasses on the Nisqually Icefall. -- Sharon Wootton, The Olympian, Olympia, WA, May 14, 1999

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Alpenbooks; 1 edition (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966979508
• ISBN-13: 978-0966979503
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,899,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not too exciting, September 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essentials Guide (Paperback)

The book had little juicy content of what it is like to climb Rainier. If you've already climbed it and are looking for more challenging routes, that this is your book. If you are a first time climber, this book will probably fall short of your expectations.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, February 22, 2000

By 

Jeff (Valdez, Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essentials Guide (Paperback)

At first glance, a Rainier climbing guide by the legendary Fred Beckey and a veteran RMI guide sounds like a can't miss. How disappointed I was. The book looks thrown together. The route descriptions are good, but referencing the routes on the photos is difficult at best. Many of the photos are clearly the same ones found in Beckey's CAG. There's nice photos of Alex and Fred's friends climbing the routes, but I'd like to see more comprehensive views and overlays of the routes than of people climbing or camping. The introductory information is hurried. It reads somewhat like a promo packet for a guide service trying to get you psyched about climbing the mountain without telling you too much. It ends up being aimed either at completely competent climbers (and presuming that they already know plenty about Rainier), or at total novices who are intent on hiring the guide service. It fails to speak to the market of novice to intermediate-experience climbers looking to climb Rainier independent of a guide or looking to move beyond the standard routes. This "Essential Guide" is missing a lot of essential information. I found it to be frustratingly disorganized.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Come on now Fred, you can do better., February 23, 2000

By 

SeanHalling (Seattle, Wa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing Mount Rainier: The Essentials Guide (Paperback)

If you want a big name draw, and lots of old pictures meant to impress rather than inform, than this is your book. This book seemed like it was rushed and not at all put together as well as others I have seen. Although Beckey is undoubtably a climbing guru around these parts, I have never associated his name with Rainier. As for the other author, I am sure he is quite qualified at writing a guide for the one route he "sheepherds" clients up in the summer, but heck I could regurgitate route descriptions from other books also. After reading this book I was left wondering whether or not somebody's savings account was rapidly dwindling and needed immediate damage control. This book will get you by, but when lives are on the line I want the best, and this folks ain't it.