If you follow the statistics, most mountaineering accidents are caused by two things: the first is ignorance, lacking enough knowledge to properly judge conditions or use equipment. The second is huburis, or taking on a climb that is above ones level.

The solution to huburis lies within us, while the solution to ignorance lies in study, practice, and this book.

Although it doesn't make up for practice and experience, there are scores of chapters covering virtualy everything from ice climbing to meteorology to wilderness navigation. Some may be disappointed that it doesn't cover many advanced techniques, however, successfull climbers are well-rounded, multi-talented ones.

So don't buy this book to just learn about one field that it talks about (such as rock-climbing or navigation) because there are far more detailed books on each individual subject, but instead buy this book to be a safe mountaineer, who needs sufficient knowledge on all the subjects.

In the end, the broad range of skills involved are what make mountaineering both fun and fatal, both challenging and rewarding. It's the broad range of skill covered in this book that make it such a rewarding book, well matched to the breadth and balance of mountaineering itself.


if you own no other climbing book, own this one   February 1, 2005
P. Morelli (San Francisco, CA)
17 out of 21 found this review helpful

This book has managed to condense all the fundamentals of (outdoor) climbing - from rock to ice- and to present them in an easily understandable and concise format. I found it invaluable as a beginner and have continued using it as a reference book. If you take climbing seriously, you will probably buy some other books on more specialized techniques down the line, but this book is where you should start. Nothing essential is missing. The book is also very good at pointing out all the ways you could possibly make mistakes, so you don't make them.

FYI, this book does not go so much into training for climbing as it does the skills and knowledge you will need to climb. (For rock climbing, the best book on *training* I've found is "Performance Rock Climbing".) It also does not go too much into first aid, but the publisher of this book also puts out a book on wilderness medicine if you are interested...


Calling this book "essential" is an understatement.   October 28, 2001
Michael Knoll (Seattle, WA USA)
15 out of 19 found this review helpful

Here in Seattle -- where mountaineering is almost a religion -- Freedom of the Hills is to climbing skills what Fred Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide is to climbing routes: the bible. It's the fundamental textbook for the Seattle Mountaineers' climbing curriculum, reputed to be the most thorough and rigorous in the Pacific Northwest and perhaps in the country. Virtually every sentence in Freedom of the Hills has a piece of information that has helped me in the mountains. I've re-read portions so many times that my 1979 copy is more tattered than your grandmother's New Testament. Since I first read Freedom of the Hills I've climbed dozens of peaks in Washington's Cascades and Olympics -- on steep snow, ice, technical rock, and glaciers, you name it. I've been through the Ptarmigan Traverse, up eight peaks in the Pickets, and atop Rainier three times. To put it bluntly, if I'd attempted these climbs without the knowledge and skills in this book, by now I would certainly be dead. So, before you go up there: Take a class. Read this book. Stay alive. . . . Okay, I gotta go. I'm buying four more copies of this book right now to send to friends in Colorado.


The essential mountaineering book   June 11, 2002
K. H. Kikstra (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

As summer season is approaching in the northern hemisphere; many mountaineers are getting ready to climb again.
Whether you are just starting out with hillwalking or you sharpen your icetools weekly, this is the one book that rightly is known as 'the bible of mountaineering'.

You will never know too much about the versatility of mountaineering and I recommend this book for every climber, hiker or armchair mountaineer.
Over 500 pages filled with clear drawings of techniques and knowledge.

Everything from building a snowcave to using a 'Texan prusik' and rockclimbing technique is covered.
Mountaineering is not just one of these disciplines, it's always a mixture of everything and therefore it is good to have knowledge on all aspects before you head out into the wild, whether it's Denali or that big boulder in the park.

This is the only book around truly covering 'Mountaineering'; it's a classic and if all great mountaineers own a copy and still read it, why shouldn't you?